INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY FOR SOIL MECHANICS AND GEOTECHNICAL ENGINEERING SIMSG f] ISSMGE $s This paper was downloaded from the Online Library of the International Society for Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering (ISSMGE). The library is available here: hetps:/}www.issmge.org/publications/online-tibrary This is an open-access database that archives thousands of papers published under the Auspices of the ISSMGE and maintained by the Innovation and Development Committee of ISSMGE.Plastic Equilibrium in Soil 5/14 Contribution au probléme de la pression du sol by{B. O. Pramaons, Civ. Eng., The Swedish State Power Board, Stockholm. Sweden ‘Summary ‘The author considers the problem of finding solutions describing the plane plastic equilibrium in soils when the unit weight is different Irom zero. The investigation leads to a partial differential ‘equation in polar coordinates. R and o which can be reduced to an ordinary type of the second order and degree. To solve this Tast equation, however, is dificult and only one solution has been obtained. It describes Rankine's state of stress in an ideal “non-cohesive soil with horizontal. or inclined. surface. Generally i can be said that In Sil with an ange of sear strength the stresses must increase in ditect proportion to the radius vector R in ofder to obtain a continuous stress distribution SaUisfying the equilibrium condition and Coulomb's failure ‘The author gives some approximate solutions which appear to show that Prandil's solution is too conservative. T! appears that the stresses in the radial shear zones increase more rapidly ith increasing angles of shear strength ® than Prandt’s solution dicates 1, Introduction Tn a mass which follows the law of Coulomb at failure, the plane plastic equilibrium was first investigated by Prandtl under the assumption that the unit weight ~y of the mass ‘was equal to zero, He obtained his solution by means of a stress function (F) in polar coordinates (R, ¢) of the form F = R)- 19). ‘The solution when y + 0 is known only for an ideal cohesive mass and the stress function has the form F = u(R) + (9). Its possible to show that also in the general ‘case the stress function F has the shape F = u(R): x69). Naturally the functions u(R) and v(g) are not the same for the different cases related above. 2, Plastic equilibrium described with differential equations ‘The plane equilibrium of a mass with the unit weight is determined by the following two equations ‘Sommaire Cette communication trite du probleme de trouver des solutions décrivant Tequilibre plastique d'un sol quand. sa densite rest pas nulle. L'investigation conduit a une equation aux derives partilles en coordonnees polaires R et o qui peut etre reduite Aun type ordinaire des seconds ordre et degré. Il ext pourtant Gifcile de résoudre cette dernitre équation et jusgu'a. présent fon n'a trouve quune solution, Elle décrit Ja distribution de pression de Rankine dans un sol ideal non-cohérent avec surface horizontale ou inclinge En général on peut dice que dans un sol ayant un angle de cisaillement, les pressions doivent augmenter lineaitement avec RR pour obtenir une distribution de pression continue satisfaisant les'conditions d'equilibre et la condition de rupture de Coulomb. ‘Quelques solutions approximatives sont presentées et elles semblemt indiquer que celle de Prandtl est trop pessimiste. En particulier i semble que les pressions dans les zones radiales Ge cisaillement augmentent plus rapidement avec Tangle de Cisaillement ® que T'indigue la solution de Prandtl ‘These equations are satisfied if ope arta em ge tart oe ae a Q) eatery @ oF nyt Peed Where F is an arbitrary function of x and y, a, 6, A, B and D are any constants For a mass with the angle of shear strength @ and the cohesion c the failure condition can be written, in accordance with Coulomb's theory : Don, % a * dp Ye where : dy 7 be c ‘When changing to polar coordinates R and g the following expressions are obiained tr oF . ora Ea tGs bry tat eas (boy Resing + BA (4a) 459ar oF a ge ap Ory Bo Aas, _ BFeosde , OF 2sinde _ age Re hae RF - ays Resing + R-A (aby or UF Roos 2p | VF sindg | 9F_ 2e08 2p aF sin29 ant" ?? — SReg a | og amon +2 = by" Roose +2D (ey ‘The expressions (4) are put into equation (3). If (b~a) is chosen equal to 2 (1~b) and this quantity is called p this equation becomes. [sera or eee eee ete [core Sew SPR BRP RAN eH AA os2¢-208n29] + [F- See 2 oF OF 1 OF rie - pt Reese ~ (B ~ Asin 29 ~ 2De08 29] [ie we 1 oF 2c 4B BPR = mr Raing as BZ] RoR x i With the substtation AtB, BOA > r=6-R] ae + PA cog Zain2e| +12 ang © where G is another function of R and 9, the equation (5) becomes /[ee Diogu nog [amifiauieromnameG |i], |e lnu MG ec nae ant” Bag! Rar] *|R aRdp” Bde de RE gt” ROR x o and the corresponding stresses according to equation (4) eee eee Bagh Rag har Ring (ay . IG _Asin2p IG cos2y 2G 2sin2g IG _cos2— An p Roe Rt “RE TOR OR 2G 2c0s29 HG sin29 ay ete ey Its interesting to note that p, A, B and D do not appear in the expressions for the stresses. 2.1. Solution for an ideal cohesive mass (C = ¢ and K = 0} From equation (7) one has % 460‘The solution has the shape The corresponding stress functions describe the Rankine state of stress (12a) and the radial shear slates of stress (126) GaRe (10) in an ideal cohesiv mass. The stresses are in polar coordinates where v is a function of ¢ alone and follows from the equation G,= —a—csin 2B + 7° Resing (13a) oy = — a Hesin 2 +4 Resing (136) VOF TAGE = 20 ee ae (036) ‘The solutions of (11) are : : 2ep + esin 2p + y+ R-sing + 2€ passin 9 +8) - > (12a) (14a) 2ep Sesin2y +7 Rising + 2e w-tate (12) «a4yy a, Band € are arbitrary constants Sere0s 2p (ade) 22 Solutions for an ideal non-cohesive mass (C =0; K #0) WG 1 8G Tt sep ii ay 2,6 2 dG] [oe 1 ve 1 ac, eth ate Ring aR Roget RR ial i TRdp” B90 dR RE og ROR uy ‘The solution has the form vet. RVI =H Gm yea 06) oe wy where zis a function of alone and follows from the equation — ney mL Vibe FEF GP = Kr +7 + 25ing) ToKE Ve ay It isa very delicate problem to solve this equation and only fone of the solutions can be presented. It has the shape 2 a-sing +Beose 4 dsin 39 + €cos 39 ao where «, 8, 0 and € have the following values a os poem oo o = ELDON we KV T= HU + 20K) say 12 = KA 2is an arbitrary constant which links the coefficients together. This solution gives the following expressions for a,, and 7 in Cartesian coordinates RVI = RU 42K) yk | ed (20a) It can be observed that for the lines Teak Gy, 6, and +t are all equal to zero. This means that these lines are unloaded surfaces, whose inclinations depend on the 2 value. If the surface is to be horizontal, \ must have the value + 1 and with these values introduced in equation (20) the well-known expressions for active and passive pressure are obtained, en KYI— xy \ T+2K is studied as a function of A, this inclination has a maximum - ; = tng) eee ‘This means that the angle of repose for an ideal non-cohesive mass is equal to the angle of shear strength, At present no other solution of (15) has been found and it looks as if the easiest way to obtain other solutions is to tegrate the equation numerically. be inclination 2 ofthe fre surface (tan for) = — Kandisequal 100 (tens 7 If the derivatives of (16) are put into equation (8) one ‘obtains the following expressions for the stresses. 4612a, = Y°RU9 + 3008 29) — Ar’ sin 2p +2"(I — c0s2) + 2sing] 20, = + RL9 — 3.605 29) = RU = 3esin29 = It can thus be seen that when a non-cohesive mass is in plastic equilibrium the stresses increase in direct proportion with the radius vector R, 2.21. Approximonive soluions—It sin ois neglected in equation (17) the following solutions are obtained renee 3 2 =Csin39 ~Cycos3¢ ‘Another approximative solution can be obtained if y is pput equal to zero in equation (15), ie. for a weightless mass. The solution to equation (15) has in this case the shape Garr ea where x is a function of 2 alone and m is an arbitrary number. x follows from the equation Vint — De EF le DE = Klee x] 9 The solutions are of the form xa Ace 26) where x has the following values en ‘There is thus an infinite number of possible solutions when +7 is considered equal to zero. If the value of 1 is chosen equal o 2, Prandt!’s solution is obtained. To obtain a solution which gives stresses increasing directly with R, the value of = 3 is introduced and the following solutions remain = a) x =Cysin3-7 + Ccos 39 ‘The solutions for z and x are thus identical, If Prandt’s expression for radial shear 462 42’ sin 2p 4-2. + 008 29) + 28in gl cos 2p +2" sin 26] 22 the new ones is compared it can be seen that with increasing K the last expression gives stresses increasing more rapidly than that of Prandtl. This is, however, true only when K is greater than 1/+/5, ie. when D > 26°6. I is interesting to compare this result with those obtained bby the Danish Geotechnical Institute from model tests on foundations in sand. Up to an angle of shear strength of about 30° the theoretical bearing capacities show good agreement with the tests but with increasing angle of shear strength increasing differences have been obtained. ‘The differences between theory and test in a non-cohesive soil may thus be explained from the fact that an approxima- tive theory has hitherto been used which in certain cases is too conservative, 23, Solutions when C and K are different from zero ‘The solution for this case follows from the solution of (15) by a simple transformation. If the new stresses are called oy, 4, and they are c K c 29) K where o,, ¢, and are the stresses obtained from the solution of (15). This follows immediately from Mohr's diagram, (See Fig. 1) r 5 ee a rar & éae Fig. 1 Mobr's diagram illustrating coordinate transformation. Diagramme de Mohr montrant la transformation de oordonnées 3. Conclusions ‘The plane plastic equilibrium in soils, when the unit weight #0 can be solved by inserting a stress function Fin polar Coordinates of a simple shape.It is, however, difficult 10 solve the resulting differentia! equation and it seems to be necessary to integrate the equation numerically in order to obtain the most interesting solution which describes the states of stress in the radial shear zones. From some approximate solutions it seems as if Prandtl’, solution in certain cases is too conservative. This is confirmed by model tests on foundations in sand carried out by the Danish Geotechnical Institute Aknowledgements The author is very grateful to Mr. Erling Gustavsson, Civil Engineer, The Swedish State Power Board, for valuable help in computation and other matters. References, UW) Praxor,, L. (1920). Ueber die Harte plastischer Krper ‘Nachrichten von der Kéniglichen Gesellschaft der Wissen: schafien’ 2u Gottingen: [2] LUNDGREN, “H. and BRINCH-HANSEN, J. Totlag, Geotekaik, Kobenhavn, (1958). Teknik 463