Estimation of Tensile Strength of Soils from Penetration Resistance

Abstract

Tensile strength of soil plays a decisive role in formation/initiation of cracks and their propagation, and its knowledge is essential to study and analyze the stability of earth-fill dams, slopes, embankments, highways, airfield pavements, deterioration of cricket pitches, and development of ice lenses during freezing. Many researchers have worked on determination of tensile strength of soil, and many methodologies and subsequent correlations between the tensile strength and basic properties of soil have been developed and reported. However, these methodologies are time-consuming and yield results that are soil specific. Further, these studies either neglect the effect of overall soil properties or the water content of soil, which are the most crucial parameters affecting tensile strength. An undermined fact is that there are no easy to adopt methodologies or generalized relationships available in the literature that would yield tensile strength of soil quickly and precisely. As such, to address this issue, a simple methodology for determining the tensile strength of soil, based on its penetration resistance, has been proposed, and its utility and efficiency has been demonstrated.