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Eat 212 - Stress Distribution

This document discusses stress distribution in soils. It begins by explaining that stress distribution is an important topic for engineers to understand as it relates to the forces and stresses experienced by foundation soils. It then provides details on key aspects of stress distribution, including: - What stress distribution refers to and why it is important - Factors that influence stress distribution, such as load geometry, foundation geometry, soil type, and calculation methods - Common methods for determining stress distribution, which involve computing vertical stresses and their variation with depth. The document focuses on vertical stress distribution and how stresses generally increase with depth before decreasing below a certain point as the influence of the load diminishes at greater depths. It provides an example of

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MAHYUN AB WAHAB
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36 views32 pages

Eat 212 - Stress Distribution

This document discusses stress distribution in soils. It begins by explaining that stress distribution is an important topic for engineers to understand as it relates to the forces and stresses experienced by foundation soils. It then provides details on key aspects of stress distribution, including: - What stress distribution refers to and why it is important - Factors that influence stress distribution, such as load geometry, foundation geometry, soil type, and calculation methods - Common methods for determining stress distribution, which involve computing vertical stresses and their variation with depth. The document focuses on vertical stress distribution and how stresses generally increase with depth before decreasing below a certain point as the influence of the load diminishes at greater depths. It provides an example of

Uploaded by

MAHYUN AB WAHAB
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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EAT 212 : Soil

Mechanics
MAHYUN AB WAHAB
SCHOOL OF ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING
UNIVERSITI MALAYSIA PERLIS
Today’s quote
Course Content
Stress Distribution
Identify effective stress, solving
effective stress problem, response
of effective stress to a charge in
total stress, partially saturated
soils and the influence of seepage
on effective stress.
Stress Distribution
• This topic of stress distribution in soils is a
very important topic, as an engineer you
can easily understand that every engineer
has to ultimately deal with forces,
mechanics, stresses, strains and
deformation.
• This is true of soils as well, not only of man
made materials like concrete or steel.
• Therefore stress distribution in soils is a
topic which needs to be understood very
well in order to design a safe structure
Stress Distribution in soils
• What is stress distribution?
• Why is it important?
• Where is it important?
• What are the factors which govern the
distribution of stresses?
• In soils what are the methods which are
available for determination of the stress
distribution?
What is stress distribution?
• Imagine a structure – any structure
• All these have foundations
• All these have weights of their own, these
weights serve as loads and these loads act
on the foundations
• When these loads act on the foundations,
the foundations in turn transmit these
loads to the soil below because these
foundations are resting on soils
• When the loads from the foundations are
transmitted to the soil below, the soil
experience stresses.
• These stresses have to be well within the
capacity of the soil to withstand the stresses
without causing distress to the foundation.
• And therefore it is very important to know how
these stresses are distributed in the soils due to
the loads which are transmitted by the
foundations from the structures.
A typical structure –
foundation – soil
Weight of
structure

Foundation

Soil
What is stress distribution?
• When a structure is erected on a soil it
transmits its weight as a load to the
foundation
• The foundation in turn imposes the loads
on to the soil; these loads induce stresses
inside the soil.
• The distribution of these stresses is what
referred to as stress distribution.
Why is stress distribution
important?
• As I just mentioned stress distribution is
important because the structure has to be
safe
• The structure is safe only when the load
transmitted by it to the foundation is
withstood by the foundation.
• The foundation can withstand only if the soil
does not give way
• The stability of the foundation and
the safety of the structure depend on
the stress distribution
Where is this important?
• It is important for all structures.
• But in today’s context, it is especially
important because we are
constructing larger and large
structures.
What are the factors
which affect the stress distribution

The nature of the load

The geometry of the foundation

The nature of the soil

The theory/ method used to compute it


Nature of the load
• Each structure has its own geometry,
each structure has its own material, its
own shape and therefore it imposes a
different load.
• Each structure imposes a different type
of load. Therefore the nature of these
structures, the nature of the load that it
causes and the nature of variation of the
load within the structure, these are all
important factors related to the
structures
Geometry of the foundation
• A foundation can have a shape which
need not remain constant for all
structures
• Every structure has its own peculiarities
or specific features and therefore the
foundation that is used for a structure
will depend upon the nature of the
structure itself.
• The nature of the foundation can vary in
terms of shape, in terms of size, in terms
of the depth at which it is founded
• The transmission of stresses will take
place closer to the surface in the
shallower foundations and deep
within the soil in the case of the tall
structures or structures which have
deep foundations.
Nature of the soil
• The nature of the soil means whether
the soil is clayey, silty, sandy or gravel
• The nature of the soil which of course
includes rock also place a very
important role on how the stress is
going to be distributed inside it.
The theory/ method used to
compute it
• Depends upon the mathematical
aspect relating to the theory or the
method that is used for computing
the stress distribution
• Depend upon the ease with which we
can make the computations
Load transfer
What are the factors
which affect the stress distribution
The nature of the load

The geometry of the foundation

The nature of the soil

The theory/ method used to compute it


What are the methods which are
available for the determination of
the stresses?
• Ideally if you see this, it would be good to
determine the stresses directly in the field.
Is it possible???
• We need to have a method to compute the
stresses in advance and not to construct
the building and then measure the stresses
• And so in-situ measurement is a difficult
task and also that is not what we need in
the initial stages of planning and designing
the structure.
• Soil is a discontinuous medium
• It is a particulate material
• It can be present in different conditions
depending upon the presents of moisture
• It may be dry, wet, saturated or submerged
• And the method that we use for computing
the stresses should take account of the
nature of the soil, particularly with respect
to the presence of moisture in it.
• In practice we are primarily
concerned only with the vertical
stresses imposed and their variation
with depth inside the soil
• Though, occasionally foundations are
subjected to horizontal or lateral
loads
lateral load

• Wind
• Earthquake

vertical
stresses
In practice
• We are primarily concerned with the
vertical stresses imposed and their
variation with the depth inside the
soil
• Though, occasionally foundations are
subjected to horizontal or lateral
loads
In this lecture
• We shall concern ourselves ONLY with
vertical stress
• Their distribution under different
loading conditions; and
• How to compute them
Variation of the vertical stress with
depth

Where;
Sigma (σ) = stress
z = direction in which the stress is acting
and its variation with depth
• This horizontal axis depicts the vertical
stress in kilo Newton per meter square
units (kN/m²)
• The vertical axis represents the depth inside
the soil in meters and the graph shown that
is the curve which is shown here shows the
variation of the vertical stress denoted as
sigma z (σz)
• This curve is showing a general increase in
the stress with depth up to some point and
then a decrease
• Suppose a load is applied on a soil, the
stress is arising due to that, obviously
have to decay with depth at some point
• The load cannot go on indefinitely
increasing with depth of the soil.
• It has to therefore after some time go on
decreasing, as the influence of the load
goes on decreasing with depth, the
stresses also have to decrease.
• From the figure before, beyond 8
meters the stresses show a gradual
degrees and almost even a steady
value is reached beyond a depth of
about 20 meters.
• This is a very important point and
the method that we use for
computing the stresses should be
able to predict this accurately.
Variation as the vertical stress
Consider for example
• A distributed load over an area with width B
is equal to 2 m.
• And let us say a load of 100 kilo Newton
per meter square is applied in the vertical
direction on the surface of the soil
• The x denotes the x-coordinate and this
denotes the vertical coordinate which is
depicted as z
• This is a center of the load and therefore
directly below the center of the load we
experience maximum stresses.
THANK YOU! 

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