Effective stress and complex soil settlement behaviour

• Main Authors: Md. Noor, M.J., Mat. Jidin, R., Hafez, M.A.
• Published: 2018
• Online Access: http://dspace.uniten.edu.my/jspui/handle/123456789/9307

Soil settlement behaviour is very complex to characterise. The existing soil settlement models used to predict soil settlement are based on the effective stress concept. And this concept is the existing fundamental concept applied in soil mechanics. By the concept, settlement is always associated with the effective stress increase. However it is difficult to extend the concept to partially saturated soils. The concept of effective stress by itself cannot explain the occurrence of wetting collapse which takes place under effective stress decrease when the condition changes from partially saturated to fully saturation. The role of effective stress in governing the soil volume change behaviour will be discussed and evaluated. It is realised that in the process of soil $ettlement, besides effective stress the role of shear strength has equal importance. However due to the complexity of the soil volume change behaviour itself it is very difficult to integrate both the variables in characterising the soil volume change behaviour. In addition to the existing unusual soil volume change behaviour like settlement under effective stress decrease during wetting and massive settlement near saturation, another odd behaviour was encountered during laboratory inundation tests at different net stress. This creates further complexity in characterising the volume change behaviour. The additional soil peculiar volume change behaviour will be presented. © 2008 ejge.