Faculty of Civil & Environmental Engineering

Department of Infrastructure & Geomatic Engineering

Subject: Geotechnics I (BFC 21702)

Tutorial: CHAPTER 6 (Shear Strength)

1. The following are the results of four drained direct shear tests on undisturbed normally consolidated
clay samples having a diameter of 50 mm and height of 25 mm.

Test no. Normal force (N) Shear force at failure (N)

1 250 139
2 375 209
3 450 250
4 540 300

i) Draw a graph of shear stress at failure against the normal stress and determine the ’ and c’.
ii) For a normal force of 400N, what shear force is required to cause failure?
iii) If a drained triaxial test is conducted on the same soil with a confining pressure of 210 kN/m2,
what would be the deviator stress at failure?
iv) Based on (iii), what is the inclination of the failure plane with the major principle plane?
v) Based on (iii), determine the normal and shear stress on a plane inclined at 30° with the major
principle plane at failure.

2. The undisturbed soil samples were collected from a 5 m thick saturated clay in the field (sat
= 18 kN/m2). A consolidated drained triaxial test was conducted on a normally consolidated
clay with a confining pressure, 3 = 172 kN/m2. The deviator stress at failure, (d)f = 227
kN/m2. Determine :

i) The angle of friction, ’

ii) The angle  that the failure plane makes with the major principle plane
iii) The normal stress and the shear stress on the failure plane
iv) The shear strength in the middle of the clay layer.

UTHM | MOHD FAIRUS YUSOF 1

3. The results of two consolidated drained triaxial test on a clay are given below:
Specimen Confining pressure , 3 Deviator stress at failure ,
(kN/m2) (1-3)f (kN/m2)
I 105 220
II 210 400

Determine:
i) the shear strength parameters of the soil
ii) the normal and shear stresses on a plane inclined at 40° to the major principle plane
for specimen I and II
iii) the effective normal stress on the plane of maximum shear stress

4. A soil profile consisting of three layers is shown in Figure below.

c’= 0 kN/m2
2.1 m ’ = 30°
d = 18 kN/m3
c’= 0 kN/m2
3.5 m ’ = 25°
sat = 19 kN/m3

c’= 25 kN/m2
1.8 m ’ = 20°
sat = 21 kN/m3

i) Determine the shear strength at the middle of soil layer 1, layer 2 and layer 3.
ii) Soil samples was obtained at the middle of the soil layer 3. Assuming that the
horizontal stress is 1/3 of the vertical stress. Plot the Mohr Circle and failure envelope
than determine whether the shear failure occur or not?

UTHM | MOHD FAIRUS YUSOF 2