In which type of soil does local shear failure typically occur?

Local shear failure typically occurs in looser, more compressible soils due to their inability to adequately hold loads when subjected to stress conditions. These soils tend to have lower shear strength and can be easily deformed, making them susceptible to shear failure when they experience increased load or changes in conditions, such as water content.

In practical applications, looser soils, which include silts and loose sands, experience reduced effective stress, allowing the mobilization of shear forces that can lead to failure in localized areas. Factors such as moisture content and soil structure also play a significant role in the failure mechanism, as these looser soils can lose their strength when saturated or disturbed.

Dense sandy soils and granular soils, while they can fail, are generally more stable and possess greater shear strength under similar loading conditions. Inorganic soils, depending on their composition, may also exhibit significant strength and resistance to shear failure compared to the more compressible, loose soils. Thus, understanding the behavior of looser soils under load conditions is crucial for predicting failures in geotechnical engineering contexts.