Research Review Report on Effect of Moisture Content on Shear Strength of Soil

EasyChair Preprint 9598

Abstract

Water in soil acts both as a lubricant and as a binding agent among the soil particulate, thereby affecting the structural stability & strength of soil. Literature studies in this report show the necessity of taking moisture conditions into account, when processing stability analysis, in order to achieve reliable and safe construction. Shear strength of soils is highly affected by moisture conditions, especially if the soil contains clay materials. It is understood that cohesion mobilizes at the beginning of stress conditions and reaches maximum values around the plastic limit. Cohesion decreases at water content heading towards the liquid limit (w_L)and increases towards shrinkage limit (w_s). Cohesion usually does not increase with increasing stress, except for clayey soils, where increase in stress causes increase in molecular binds. Friction increases with increase in normal load. Reduction of water content in clayey soils results in higher friction angle. Present study upgrade the knowledge of relationship between moisture conditions and parameters of shear strength of soil. Test conditions and shear parameters should be chosen to represent the field conditions as closely as possible. The choice between the effective analysis using the effective stress parameters c’ & ∅’ and total stress analysis using the apparent parameters c & ∅ depends upon the condition whether the pore pressure can be estimated. In case, pore water pressure cannot be accurately measured, the total stress analysis is more convenient. However, it gives little indication of the real FOS. There may be uncertainty, whether the analysis would give error on the side of safety or on the unsafe side. If pore pressure can be estimated, the effective analysis should be done, as it is more rational. It is based on well established, relationship between the shear strength and effective stress on the failure plane at failure.

Keyphrases: cohesion, effective stress, moisture content, shear strength, soil

@booklet{EasyChair:9598,
  author    = {Maurya Suresh Seopal and Palani A Kumar},
  title     = {Research Review Report on Effect of Moisture Content on Shear Strength of Soil},
  howpublished = {EasyChair Preprint 9598},
  year      = {EasyChair, 2023}}