A.

Terminologies:
Geotechnical Engineering

 The term geo means earth or soil

 deals with the engineering aspects of soils and rocks, sometimes known as geomaterials.
 subdiscipline of civil engineering that involves natural materials found close to the surface of the earth.
 includes the application of the principles of soil mechanics and rock mechanics to the design of
foundations, retaining structures, and earth structures.
 Traditional geotechnical engineering, which is also called geomechanics or geoengineering, includes soil
mechanics and foundation engineering.


Soil mechanics
 A branch of science that deals with the study of the physical properties of soil and the behavior of soil
masses subjected to various types of forces.
 According to TERZAGHI, ‘‘Soil Mechanics is the application of the laws of mechanics and hydraulics to engineering
problems dealing with sediments and other unconsolidated accumulations of soil particles produced by the mechanical
and chemical disintegration of rocks regardless of whether or not they contain an admixture of organic constituents’’.

Soils engineering is the application of the principles of soil mechanics to practical problems.

Foundation Engineering
 is the application of the soil mechanics principles to design earth and earth-supported structures such as
foundations, retaining structures, dams, etc.

B. Historical Perspective

1. Prior to 18th century.

 In true engineering terms, the understanding of geotechnical engineering as it is known today began early
in the 18th century (Skempton, 1985).
 Ancient civilizations flourished along the banks of rivers, such as the Nile (Egypt), the Tigris and
Euphrates (Mesopotamia), the Huang Ho (Yellow River, China), and the Indus (India).
 2000 B.C – Dykes were built in the basin of the Indus to protect the town of Mohenjo Dara (in what became
Pakistan after 1947).
 1120 B.C. to 249 B.C. (Chan dynasty in China) – many dykes were built for irrigation purposes. There is no
evidence that measures were taken to stabilize the foundations or check erosion caused by floods.
 Ancient Greek civilization used isolated pad footings and strip-and-raft
foundations for building structures.
 2700 B.C. - several pyramids were built in Egypt, as of 2008, a total of 138
pyramids were discovered. It posed formidable challenges regarding
foundations, stability of slopes, and construction of underground chambers.
 Eastern Han dynasty in 68 A.D. - thousands of pagodas were constructed on silt
and soft clay layers. In some cases the foundation pressure exceeded the load-
bearing capacity of the soil which caused extensive structural damage. One
famous examples of problems related to soil-bearing capacity prior to the 18th
century is the Leaning Tower of Pisa in Italy. It weighs about 15,700 metric
tons and is supported by a circular base (20 m. Dia). The tower has tilted
because of a weak clay layer existed at a depth of about 11 m below the ground
 surface compression. It became more than 5 m out of plumb with the 54 m height. It recently has been
stabilized by excavating soil from under the north side of the tower. About 70 metric tons of earth were
removed in 41 separate extractions that spanned the width of the tower. The tower now leans 5 degrees.
The half-degree change is not noticeable, but it is considerably more stable.

the Leaning Tower of Pisa, Italy, built between 1174 and 1350 A.D., is a glaring example of a lack of
sufficient knowledge of the behaviour of compressible soil, in those days.

 12th century – similar problem, On the left is Garisenda Tower, located in Bologna, Italy. Has 48 m in
height and weighs about 4210 metric tons. On right is Asinelli Tower, which is 97 m high and weighs 7300
metric tons. It has tilted about 1.3 degrees. After encountering several foundation-related problems during
construction, engineers and scientists began to address the properties and behaviors of soils starting in the
early part of the 18th century.

The iconic leaning towers of Bologna, with the Asinelli Tower (97m) on the right, and the shorter
Garisenda Tower (48m) on the left.

2. Pre-classical Period (1700 - 1776)

This period concentrated on studies relating to natural slope and unit weights of various types of soils, as
well as the semiempirical earth pressure theories.

Henry Gautier – in 1717, he studied the natural slopes of soils when tipped in a heap for formulating the
design procedures of retaining walls.
 The natural slope refers to the angle of repose. According to this study, the natural slope of clean dry sand
and ordinary earth were 31° and 45°, respectively. Also, the unit weight of clean dry sand and ordinary
earth were recommended to be 18.1 kN/m3 and 13.4 kN/m3 (85 lb/ft3), respectively. No test results on clay
were reported.
Bernard Forest de Belidor

– in 1729, he published a textbook for military and civil engineers in France. In the
book, he proposed a theory for lateral earth pressure on retaining walls that was a follow up to Gautier’s (1717)
original study.
He also specified a soil classification system in the manner shown in the following table.

Francois Gadroy – in 1746, The first laboratory model test results on a 76-mm-high retaining wall built with
sand backfill by a French engineer, who observed the existence of slip planes in the soil at failure. Gadroy’s
study was later summarized by J. J. Mayniel in 1808.
o John Grundy

Jean-Rodolphe Perronet- in 1769, a French engineer studied slope stability and distinguished
between intact ground and fills.

3. Classical Period - Phase I (1776 - 1856)

In this period, most of the developments in the area of geotechnical engineering came from engineers
and scientists in France

Charles Augustin Coulomb – in 1776, a French scientist used the principles of calculus for maxima
and minima to determine the true position of the sliding surface in soil behind a retaining wall. In this analysis,
Coulomb used the laws of friction and cohesion for solid bodies.

Claude Louis Marie Henri Navier – in 1820, special cases of Coulomb’s work were studied by French
engineer Jacques Frederic Francais (1775–1833) and by French applied mechanics professor Claude Louis Marie
Henri Navier (1785–1836). These special cases related to inclined backfills and backfills supporting surcharge.

Jean Victor Poncelet- in 1840, an army engineer and professor of mechanics, extended Coulomb’s theory by
providing a graphical method for determining the magnitude of lateral earth pressure on vertical and inclined
retaining walls with arbitrarily broken polygonal ground surfaces. He was also the first to use the symbol f for
soil friction angle and provided the first ultimate bearing-capacity theory for shallow foundations.

Alexandre Collin – in 1846, an engineer, provided the details for deep slips in clay slopes, cutting, and
embankments. Collin theorized that in all cases the failure takes place when the mobilized cohesion exceeds the
existing cohesion of the soil. He also observed that the actual failure surfaces could be approximated as arcs of
cycloids.

William John Macquorn Rankine – in 1857, a professor of civil engineering at the University of Glasgow
has his first publication. It has a notable theory on earth pressure and equilibrium of earth masses. His theory is a
simplification of Coulomb’s theory.

4. Classical Period - Phase II (1856 - 1910)

Several experimental results from laboratory tests on sand appeared in the literature in this phase.

Henri Philibert Gaspard Darcy - In 1856, a French engineer published a study on the permeability of sand
filters. Based on those tests, he defined the term coefficient of permeability (or hydraulic conductivity) of soil, a very
useful parameter in geotechnical engineering to this day.

George Howard Darwin - professor of astronomy, conducted laboratory tests to determine the overturning
moment on a hinged wall retaining sand in loose and dense states of compaction.

Joseph Valentin Boussinesq – in 1885, a noteworthy contribution was published, it’s the
development of the theory of stress distribution under loaded bearing areas in a homogeneous, semiinfinite, elastic,
and isotropic medium.

o Osborne Reynolds – in 1887, he demonstrated the phenomenon of dilatancy in sand.

Christian Otto Mohr – Mohr, in 1871, gave a graphical representation of the state of stress at a point, called
‘Mohr’s Circle of Stress’. This has an extensive application in the strength theories applicable
to soil.

5. Modern Soil Mechanics (1910 - 1927)

In this period, results of research conducted on clays were published in which the fundamental
properties and parameters of clay were established.

Albert Mauritz Atterberg – in 1908, a Swedish chemist and soil scientist, defined clay-size fractions as the
percentage by weight of particles smaller than 2 microns in size. He realized the important role of clay particles in a
soil and the plasticity thereof.
In 1911, he explained the consistency of cohesive soils by defining liquid, plastic, and shrinkage limits. He also
defined the plasticity index as the difference between liquid limit and plastic limit

Jean Fontard – in oct 1909, the 17-m-high earth dam, built between 1902 and 1906, at Charmes, France,
failed. He carried out regarding cause of failure . In that context, he conducted undrained double-shear
tests on clay specimens (0.77 m2 in area and 200 mm thick) under constant vertical stress to determine their shear
strength parameters. The times for failure of these specimens were between 10 to 20 minutes.

Arthur Langley Bell- a civil engineer from England, worked on the design and construction of the outer seawall
at Rosyth Dockyard. Based on his work, he developed relationships for lateral pressure and resistance in clay as well
as bearing capacity of shallow foundations in clay. He also used shear-box tests to measure the undrained shear
strength of undisturbed clay specimens.

Wolmar Fellenius - an engineer from Sweden, developed the stability analysis of saturated clay slopes (that is,
∅=0 condition) with the assumption that the critical surface of sliding is the arc of a circle. The paper published in
1926 gave correct numerical solutions for the stability numbers of circular slip surfaces passing through the toe of
the slope.

-(1927) he headed a Swedish Geotechnical Commission for determining the causes of failure of many railway
and canal embankments. The so-called Swedish Circle method or otherwise termed as the Slip Circle method
was the outcome of his investigation which was published in 1927.

Karl Terzaghi – he developed the theory of consolidation for clays. The theory was developed when Terzaghi
was teaching at the American Robert College in Istanbul, Turkey. His study spanned a five-year period from 1919 to
1924. Five different clay soils were used. The liquid limit of those soils ranged between 36 and 67, and the plasticity
index was in the range of 18 to 38. The consolidation theory was published in Terzaghi’s celebrated book
Erdbaumechanik in 1925, the first treatise on Soil Mechanics. Thus, he is regarded as the Father of modern
soil mechanics’

E. Soil Profile-the soil profile is a natural succession of zones or strata below the ground surface
and represents the alterations in the original soil material which have been brought about by
weathering processes. It may extend to different depths at different places and each stratum

may have varying thickness.

Generally, three distinct strata or horizons occur in a natural soil-profile; this number
may increase to five or more in soils which are very old or in which the weathering processes
have been unusually intense.
From top to bottom these horizons are designated as the A-horizon, the B-horizon and

the C-horizon.

1. A – Horizon

The A-horizon is rich in humus and organic plant residue. This is usually eluviated and leached; that is, the ultrafine
colloidal material and the soluble mineral salts are washed out of this horizon by percolating water. It is dark in
colour and its thickness may range from a few centimetres to half a metre. This horizon often exhibits many
undesirable engineering characteristics and is of value only to agricultural soil scientists.

2. E – Horizon

3. B – Horizon
The B-horizon is referred to zone of accumulation. The material which has migrated from the A-horizon by leaching
and eluviation gets deposited in this zone. There is a distinct difference of colour between this zone and the dark top
soil of the A-horizon. This soil is very much chemically active at the surface and contains unstable fine-grained
material. Thus, this is important in highway and airfield construction work and light structures such as single storey
residential buildings, in which the foundations are located near the ground surface. The thickness of B-horizon may
range from 0.50 to 0.75 m.

4. C – Horizon

The material in the C-horizon is in the same physical and chemical state as it was first deposited by water, wind or
ice in the geological cycle. The thickness of this horizon may range from a few centimetres to more than 30 m. The
upper region of this horizon is often oxidised to a considerable extent. It is from this horizon that the bulk of the
material is often borrowed for the construction of large soil structures such as earth dams.

5. R  Horizon

F. Clay Minerals- The word 'clay' is generally understood to refer to a material composed of a mass of
small mineral particles which, in association with certain quantities of water, exhibits the property of plasticity.
According to the clay mineral concept, clay materials are essentially composed of extremely small
crystalline particles of one or more members of a small group of minerals that are commonly
known as clay minerals.

Minerals are crystalline materials and make up the solids constituent of a soil. The mineral particles of fi ne-grained
soils are platy. Minerals are classified according to chemical composition and structure.

The main groups of crystalline materials that make up clays are the minerals kaolinite, illite, and
montmorillonite.

1. Kaolinite- This is the most common mineral of the kaolin group. It has a structure that consists of one
silica sheet and one alumina sheet bonded together into a layer about 0.72 nm thick and stacked repeatedly
(Figure 2.7a). The layers are held together by hydrogen bonds. Tightly stacked layers result from numerous
hydrogen bonds. Kaolinite is common in clays in humid tropical regions.

2. Illite - Illite consists of repeated layers of one alumina sheet sandwiched by two silicate sheets (Figure
2.7b). The layers, each of thickness 0.96 nm, are held together by potassium ions. The bonds with the
nonexchangeable K+ ions are weaker than the hydrogen bonds, but stronger than the water bond of
montmorillonite. Illite, therefore, does not swell as much in the presence of water as does montmorillonite.

3. Montmorillonite- Montmorillonite has a structure similar to illite, but the layers are held together by
weak van der Waals forces. Montmorillonite belongs to the smectite clay family. It is an aluminum
smectite with a small amount of Al13 replaced by Mg21. This causes a charge inequity that is balanced by
 exchangeable cations Na1 or Ca21 and oriented water (Figure 2.7c).Montmorillonite is often called a
swelling or expansive clay.

G. Structure of Soil - The ‘structure’ of a soil may be defined as the manner of arrangement and state of
aggregation of soil grains.
The orientation of particles in a mass depends on the size and shape of the grains as well as upon the minerals of
which the grains are formed. The structure of soils that is formed by natural deposition can be altered by external
forces.

Single - grained structure

Single-grained structure is characteristic of coarse-grained soils, with a particle size greater than 0.02 mm.
Gravitational forces predominate the surface forces and hence grain to grain contact results. The deposition may
occur in a loose state, with large voids or in a sense state, with less of voids.
 1. Honey - combed structure

This structure can occur only in fine-grained soils, especially in silt and rock flour. Due to the relatively
smaller size of grains, besides gravitational forces, inter-particle surface forces also play an important role
in the process of settling down. Miniature arches are formed, which bridge over relatively large void spaces.
This results in the formation of a honey-comb structure, each cell of a honey-comb being made up of numerous
individual soil grains. The structure has a large void space and may carry high loads without a significant volume
change. The structure can be broken down by external disturbances.
 2. Flocculent structure

This structure is characteristic of fine-grained soils such as clays. Inter-particle forces play a predominant role
in the deposition. Mutual repulsion of the particles may be eliminated by means of an appropriate chemical; this will
result in grains coming closer together to form a ‘floc’. Formation of flocs is ‘flocculation’. But the flocs tend to
settle in a honeycomb structure, in which in place of each grain, a floc occurs.
Thus, grains grouping around void spaces larger than the grain-size are flocs and flocs grouping
around void spaces larger than even the flocs result in the formation of a ‘flocculent’ structure.