ABSTRACT
The shear strength of soil is generally characterized by the Mohr-Coulomb failure criterion. This criterion states that there is a linear relationship between the shear strength on the failure plane at failure (
τ
) and the normal stress on the failure plane at failure (
σ
) as given in the following equation:
(17.1)
where
φ
is the friction angle and
c
is the intrinsic cohesion. The strength parameters (
φ
,
c
) are used directly in many stability calculations, including bearing capacity of shallow footings, slope stability, and stability of retaining walls. The line defined by Eq. (17.1) is called the
failure envelope.
