Question

Contact pressure is the ratio of ___________

(a) area to normal load

(b) normal load to tangential load

(c) tangential load to normal load

(d) normal load to true contact area

The question was posed to me by my school teacher while I was bunking the class.

The doubt is from Stress Distribution topic in section Stress Distribution of Geotechnical Engineering I

Answer 1

The correct choice is (d) normal load to true contact area

Easiest explanation: Contact pressure is defined as the vertical pressure acting at the surface of contact between the base of footing and the underlying soil mass.

∴ \(Contact \,pressure=\frac{normal \,load}{true \,contact \,area}.\)