STRESS AND VELOCITY FIELDS IN SOIL MECHANICS

Abstract : Lines of discontinuity in the plastic stress field of a cohesive soil in a state of plane strain are discussed. The jump conditions on the stress and the restrictions on the velocity field in the neighborhood of the line are obtained. The theory is applied to the problems of uniform pressure on 1 face of a wedge (or earth dam) and to a loaded trapezoid. An analytic intergration of the plane strain equations is carried out, and expressions are derived for the coordinates and curvatures of the failure lines and the velocity components at any point of plastic stress field in terms of the boundary values.