Shear resistance of soil can be attributed to:

Question

Question

This question was previously asked in

SSC JE Civil 10 Oct 2023 Shift 1 Official Paper-I

Answer 1

Explanation:

The soil's shear strength/resistance is the soil's capacity to resist shearing stresses. It can be defined as the maximum value of shear stress that can be mobilized within a soil mass.
If this value is exceeded by the shear stress on any plane or a surface at a point, failure will occur in the soil because of the movement of a portion of the soil mass along that plane.
The soil is then said to fail in shear. Therefore, shear strength generally represented the strength of the soil.
As per Mohr-Coulomb criteria, the Shear strength of soil is given as follows:

τ = C + σ tanϕ

Where,

C is the Cohesion

σ is normal stress

ϕ is the friction angle

From the above equation, it can be concluded that

a. It increases with an increase in normal stress.

b. It is proportional to the cohesion of the soil i.e. increases with an increase in cohesion.

c. it increases with increases in friction angle.

Therefore we can conclude that the shear strength of soil is attributed to COHESION, FRICTION ANGLE, and NORMAL STRESS.