CE 602 – MOCKBOARD QUIZ 2

Situation 01: Your Company has won a contract to provide and compact the fill material for an earth
levee, with the dimensions shown below. The levee fill is a silty clay soil to be compacted to at least
95% of maximum Standard Proctor of 𝛾𝑑 = 106𝑝𝑐𝑓 at an OMC of 18%. Your borrow pit has a silty
clay with an in-situ void moist density of 112.1pcf at 18% and a Gs = 2.68. When the soil is excavated
and loaded on to your trucks, the voids ratio of the material is e = 1.47. Your trucks can haul 15 cubic
yards of material per trip.
1. Determine the volume of fill required for the levee
a) 24700cy b) 25,300cy c) 23,300cy d) 22,500cy
2. Determine the volume required from the borrow pit
a) 24700cy b) 25,300cy c) 23,300cy d) 22,500cy
3. Determine the required number of truckloads.
a) 2314 b) 2143 c) 2413 d) 3421
4. The soil layers below have a cross section of 100mm x 100mm each.

The permeability of each soil is:

𝐾𝐴 = 10−2 𝑐𝑚/𝑠

𝐾𝐵 = 3 𝑥10−3 𝑐𝑚/𝑠

𝐾𝑐 = 4.9 𝑥 10−4 𝑐𝑚/𝑠

Find the rate of water supply in 𝑐𝑚3 /ℎ𝑟

a) 291 b) 392 c) 591 d) 492
5. How much does the capillary water rise above the water table in a very fine sand (d = 0.1mm) if
the surface tension force is 0.064N/m with an angle 𝛼 = 30 ?
a) +0.26m b) -0.26m c) + 0.45m d) -0.45m
6. The completed flow net for the dam shown below includes a steel sheet – pile cutoff wall located
at the head-water side of the dam in order to reduce the seepage loss. The dam is half a kilometer in
width (shore to shore) and the permeability of the silty sand stratum is 3.5 x 10^-4 cm/s. Determine
the total seepage loss under the dam in million liters per year.
a) 50 b) 100 c) 150 d) 200

Situation 2: The City of Houston, Texas has been experiencing a rapid lowering of its phreatic surface
(drawdowns) during the past 49 years due to large volumes of water pumped out of the ground by
industrial users.
7. What was the effective vertical stress at a depth of 15m in 1960?
a) 158KPa b) 200KPa c) 230KPa d) 128KPa
8. What is the effective stress at the dame depth in 2009?
a) 158KPa b) 200KPa c) 230KPa d) 128KPa
Situation 3: The temporary excavation shown below is braced with a steel tube strut. Every morning,
a misguided foreman tightens the screw mechanism on the strut “just to be safe”. The stress on a soil
particle at point A, just behind the wall, has been measured with a pressure sensor installed by the
Engineer. It now measures 40KPa. If the potential failure planes in the soil behind the wall sustain
60degree angle with respect to the vertical wall.
9. Determine the normal stresses at that point A along a potential failure plane.
a) 15KPa b) 20KPa c) 25KPa d) 30KPa
10. Determine the shear stresses at that point A along a potential failure plane.
a) 8.5KPa b) 8.6KPa c) 8.7KPa d) 8.8KPa

Situation 4: For the earth dam as shown below.

Note: 8 ≤ 𝐶 ≤ 15 for 𝐷10 mm to overestimate flows, use C = 1.5

11. Determine the seepage through the dam in gallons/ day if the sieve analysis shows that the
effective diameter is to be 0.17mm and the dam is 1200ft wide.
a) 18.8 x 10^6 gallons/day
b) 19.9 x 10^6 gallons/day
c) 20.2 x 10^6 gallons/day
d) 21.4 x 10^6 gallons/day
12. What is the pressure head at the top of the aquicide and at mid-dam (point A)?
a) 25.1ft b) 26.7ft c) 51.8ft d) 60.5ft
13. The coefficient of permeability of fine sand is 0.012cm/s at a voids ratio of 0.57. Determine the
increased permeability using the Kozeny – Carman formula of this same sand when its voids ratio
has increased to 0.72
a) 0.011cm/s b) 0.022cm/s c) 0.033cm/s d) 0.044cm/s
14. A standard proctor test yields the values listed below for a soil with Gs = 2.71. Determine the
volume of water in gallons that must be added to obtain 1 cubic yard of soil at the maximum density,
if the soil was originally at 10% water content.

a) 20 b) 30 c) 40 d) 50
15. From the standard proctor compaction curve as shown below:
Calculate the water content range in gallons needed to build a street 1,000feet long of compacted 16
in base at 98% standard proctor for two lanes, each 12 ft wide?
a) 58000±8000gallons
b) 38000±6000gallons
c) 68000±6000gallons
d) 48000±8000gallons
16. A sample of clean sand was retrieved from 7m below the surface. The sample had been under a
vertical load of 150KPa, a horizontal load of 250KPa, and a shear stress of 86.6 KPa. If the angle
between the vertical stress and the principal stress is 60degrees, what is the major principal stress
of this sample in KPa?
a) 100KPa b) 200KPa c) 300KPa d) 150KPa
17. A new building is planned upon the site as shown below. Assume that the clay solids have a
specific gravity of 2.67. Find the primary consolidation settlement if the clay is normally consolidated.

a) 5.7in b) 8.9in c) 4.2in d) 7.6in

18. Calculate the compression index, Cc
a) 0.21 b) 0.49 c) 0.56 d) 0.62
19. Calculate the effective stress at point x in psf.

a) 438psf b) 749psf c) 1187psf d) 523psf

20. A certain soil sample was tested using the tri-axial test and the following stresses were recorded.
Sx = +90MPa
Sy = +30MPa
Sz = -60MPa
The maximum shearing stress is equal to:
a) 45MPa b) 25MPa c) 75MPa d) 60MPa
21. An embankment consists of clay fill having a cohesion of 25KPa and an angle of internal friction
of 26degrees. The average weight of the fill per unit volume is 18.64KN/cu. m. Determine the shear
strength of the material on a horizontal plane at a point 20m below the surface of the embankment if
the pure pressure at this point is shown by a piezometer to be 180KPa.
a) 192.8KPa b) 202.5KPa c) 95.67KPa d) 119.03KPa
22. A cohesive soil has an angle of shearing resistance of 15degrees and a cohesion of 30KPa. If a
specimen of this soil is subjected to a tri-axial test, find the value of the lateral pressure in the cell for
a failure to occur at a total axial stress of 200KPa.
a) 71.65KPa b) 111.96KPa c) 223.92KPa d) 109.72KPa
23. A series of undrained shear box test (area of box = 360sq.mm) were carried out on a soil with the
following results

Normal Shear Force at Failure

Load(N) (N)
90 70
180 96.5
270 123
If a 30mm diameter, 72mm long sample of the same soil was tested in a tri-axial machine with a cell
pressure of 270KPa, what would be the additional axial load at failure if the sample shortened by
6.3mm.
a) 415N b) 520N c) 120.833N d) 535.6N
24. A series of shear tests were performed on a soil. Each test was carried out until the sample sheared
and the principal stresses for each test were as follows.

Test No. Minor Principal Major Principal Stress

Stress(KPa) (KPa)
1 200 600
2 300 900
3 400 1200
Calculate the shear stress at a depth of 4m below the formation of the soil if the unit weight of the dry
soil is 16.4KN/cu. m. Water table is located at a depth of 3m below the ground surface sp.gr = 2.60.
Assume the dry and saturated soil have the same void ratio.
a) 23.54KPa b) 34.23KPa c) 19.9KPa d) 16.4KPa
25. During an unconsolidated – undrained tri-axial test on a clayey soil specimen, the minor and
major principal stresses at failure were 100KPa and 180KPa, respectively. What would be the axial
stress at failure if a similar specimen is subjected to an unconfined compression test?
a) 40KPa b) 60KPa c) 80KPa d) 100KPa
ANSWER KEYS
1-5] CAAAB
6-10] BDCCC
11-15] ACBCD
16-20] CDBAC
21-25] DAABC