Heavy Civil Exam 1 Practice

Mohr-Coulomb criterion defines soil shear strength solely through cohesion and the internal friction angle. The shear strength is given by tau = c + sigma' tan(phi), so the parameters that control resistance to shear are c and phi, not how easily water moves through the soil. Permeability affects drainage and pore-pressure development, which can change the effective stress and therefore bearing capacity under different conditions, but it is not part of the Mohr-Coulomb shear-strength equation itself. Therefore, cohesion and internal friction angle determine shear strength, while permeability plays a secondary role related to drainage effects rather than the direct shear-strength expression. The other statements misstate what sets shear strength (Young's modulus isn’t the determinant) or bring in permeability as the primary control, which isn’t how the Mohr-Coulomb criterion works.