Abstract
One of the main characteristics of soils is that the shear deformations increase progressively when the shear stresses increase, and that for sufficiently large shear stresses the soil may eventually fail. In nature, or in engineering practice, dams, dikes, or embankments for railroads or highways may fail by part of the soil mass sliding over the soil below it. In this chapter the states of stresses causing such failures of the soil are described. In later chapters the laboratory tests to determine the shear strength of soils will be presented.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 Springer International Publishing AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Verruijt, A. (2018). Shear Strength . In: An Introduction to Soil Mechanics. Theory and Applications of Transport in Porous Media, vol 30. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-61185-3_20
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-61185-3_20
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-61184-6
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-61185-3
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceEarth and Environmental Science (R0)