Geotechnical Engineering I

Soil Structure Lecture # 2

Engr. Muhammad Awais Shafique Department of Transportation Engineering & Management University of Engineering & Technology, Lahore
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Fruit for mind

Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.
Leo Tolstoy

Soil Texture
The texture of a soil is its appearance or feel and it depends on the relative sizes and shapes of the particles as well as the range or distribution of those sizes.

Soil Texture

Coarse Textured Fine Textured

Also known as coarse grained or light textured Includes gravels, sands and their mixtures

Also known as fine grained or heavy textured Very small sizes (< 0.075 mm) Includes silts and clays.

Inter-particle Forces

Weight of the particle, Fg

Particle surface forces, Fs

Inter-particle Forces
Weight is a result of gravitational forces
Fg D3 Particle surface forces are a result of unsatisfied electrical charges in the particles crystalline structure Fs D2
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Inter-particle Forces

So

Fg/Fs D

What is the meaning of large D and small D

Inter-particle Forces

Soil Structure
The manner of geometric arrangement of the particles forming a soil mass as well as the interparticle forces which may act between them characterizes its structure.
Soil fabric only refers to the geometric arrangement of the grains in a soil mass.

Types of Structures

Single Grained

Honeycombed

Flocculent

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Clay Minerals
Clay is a material composed of a mass of small mineral particles. These minerals are essentially hydrous aluminum silicates, with magnesium or iron replacing wholly or in part for the aluminum, in some minerals.

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Clay Minerals
Clays can be divided into three general groups on the basis of their crystalline arrangement and it is observed that roughly similar engineering properties are connected with all the clay minerals belonging to the same group.

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Clay Minerals

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So what have we studied

today??

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