Development of an earth pressure cell to evaluate the total and effective stresses of soil

Abstract

This study focuses on development of an earth pressure cell to identify the effective soil pressure and pore water pressure in a single degree of freedom sensor system. A strain gauge based four cross-beam metal structural element is used to identify the maximum earth pressure of 150 kN/m2. For that, pressure transferring mechanisms are developed to transfer the earth loads to sensing elements via deformation of cross-beam structure as a total load and as an effective load. Finite element analysis is done to select the optimum dimension for the sensor element. Other dimensions and the shape of the sensor are selected by referring the literature. Accuracy of the system will be verified by using methods which are currently available for measuring soil pressure and pore water pressure under laboratory and field conditions.