Geotechnical Engineering Education and Training, Manoliu, Antonescu & Riidulescu (eds)

© 2000 Balkema, Rotterdam, ISBN 90 5809 154 6

Interactive multimedia geotechnical engineering course

M.Budhu
Department of Civil Engineering and Engineering Mechanics, University of Arizona, Tucson, Ariz., USA

ABSTRACT: Multimedia and the Internet are transforming the delivery of information and in particular edu­
cation. Multimedia training courses for corporations have virtually eliminated classroom instructions. The
purpose of this paper is to present an interactive multimedia geotechnical engineering courseware that is suit­
able for web-based instructions and/or delivery by a CD-ROM. Geotechnical engineering consists of a num­
ber of basic concepts such as consolidation, shear strength, effective stresses, etc. Multimedia can signifi­
cantly enhance the presentation of these concepts and improve learning and retention. Two teaching modules
- consolidation and shear strengths - from a courseware that contains text, interactive animations of the vari­
ous concepts of geotechnical engineering, images, a glossary, notation, a notepad, a virtual geotechnicallabo­
ratory, interactive problem solving, electronic quizzes and computer program utilities are presented in this pa­
per. These modules include virtual geotechnical laboratory tests.

INTRODUCTION There is now a growing trend of using these newer

Soil mechanics involves the integration of
fundamental principles and laboratory exercises on
the physical and mechanical properties of soils.
Students pursuing a course in soil mechanics should
normally have a solid background in solid mechan­
ics, physics and mathematics. The learning out­
comes from an undergraduate course in soil me­
chanics should include an understanding of the
physical and mechanical properties of soils and the
determination of parameters from soil testing to
characterize soil properties, soil strength and defor­
mations.
Many of the concepts in soil mechanics, for ex­
ample the concept of consolidation, require imagi­
nation and thinking. To get the students to fully
grasp these concepts require visualization tech­
niques. The normal teaching delivery method of
employing two dimensional line drawings on a chalk
board or white board or using transparences cannot
capture and transmit the dynamic nature of many of
the concepts in soil mechanics. The question is how
to improve our teaching techniques to increase un­
derstanding and retention? Communication tech­
nologies have advanced to a stage where we can
now significantiy enhance teaching aids to improve
the transmission and retention of difficult concepts.
Such technologies include multimedia, chat room,
web pages, email, conferencing and listservers.
technologies in the delivery of local and distance
education. Indeed one of the expectations of the US
President's educational initiative is that "Educa­
tional software will be an integral part of curriculum
and as engaging as the best video game"(l).
Today's students are surrounded with a host of
visual media - TV, computer games, video games,
etc. - and obtain much of their information from
them. To capture these students' interests we must
pay particular attention to developing engaging vis­
ual teaching material. Research has shown (2) that
hearing and seeing (lecture and demonstration) lead
to 50% knowledge retention compared with 20% for
hearing only. It appears that we can significantly
improve the learning of soil mechanics by incorpo­
rating modern communication technologies. How­
ever, in using modern communication technologies
we should be careful to develop contents that can
engage both the active and passive learners. In
courses such as soil mechanics, we must also con­
sider how to integrate laboratory exercises with text­
based materials especially if the intended audience
includes distance learners. In this paper, the author
describes two teaching modules that u:ilize multi­
media to enhance learning and retention on two im­
portant concepts in soil mechanics - consolidation
and shear strength. Both of these concepts have
laboratory requirements, which are included in the
modules as virtual laboratories. These modules are
part of a geotechnical courseware that contains text,

329
interactive animations of the various concepts of
geotechnical engineering, images, a glossary, nota­
tion, a notepad, a virtual geotechnical laboratory,
interactive problem solving, electronic quizzes and
computer program utilities.
2 CONSOLIDATION MODULE
Consolidation is the time-dependent settlement
of a fine-grained soil. The learning outcomes from
teaching students the concepts of consolidation and
their use in practical situations can be summarized
as follows . Students should be able to understand
that:
( I) Settlement of fine-grained soils is a time­
dependent process.
(2) At the instant a load is applied all of it is as­
sumed to be transferred to the pore water. The
instantaneous increase in pore water pressure is
called the initial excess pore water pressure.
(3) Settlement occurs from the dissipation of the
initial excess pore water pressure and the con­
comitant transfer of load from the pore water to
the soil grains.
(4) Settlement depends on effective not total stress.
(5) After a long time under a constant load, the ini­
tial excess pore water pressure in a fine-grained
soil dissipates almost completely and, for practi­
cal purposes, the total consolidation settlement is
achieved.
(6) The time for a given amount of initial excess
pore water pressure to dissipate depends on its
initial distribution and on the drainage bounda­
ries.
(7) The process of consolidation is composed of two
parts that are not very distinct. One part, called
primary consolidation, occurs early and results
from dissipation of the initial excess pore water
pressure. The other part, secondary consolida­
tion, is not fully understood but it is presumed to
be caused by the slippage and rearrangement of
soil grains.
(8) Modeling soil consolidation is complex and re­
quires assumptions, which are not strictly valid
for practical situations.
(9) A simple model for one-dimensional consolida­
tion results in an equation that gives the distri­
bution of excess pore water pressure with time
and depth.
(10) A consolidation test on a saturated soil is re­
quired to determine model parameters to predict
settlement. Students should perform tests and be
able to interpret results and calculate total set­
tlement and settlement at a given time.
A multimedia courseware was developed with
interactivity to enable the desired learning outcomes
to be achieved. The students are given a cylinder
330
with a soil sample sandwiched between two porous
stones. Pore water pressure loading devices are at­
tached to the cylinder to display the excess pore
water pressure (Figure I) at different depths.
Valves are used to allow or restrict water move­
ment from the soil sample. The student drags a load
onto a plateau to introduce a vertical stress of
100kPa on the soil. The water outflow values are
closed. Once the student releases the load, the ex­
cess pore water pressure, which was initially zero, is
displaced on the pore water measuring devices
jumps to lOOkPa (the vertical stress imposed on the
soil). The student is instructed to open the outflow
valve and water escaping the soil sample is meas­
ured by a burette. Also a plot showing the excess
pore water pressure at the current time versus depth
is dynamically displayed (Figure 2). The excess
pore water pressures are predicted using an explicit
finite difference solution of the governing consoli­
dation equation.
"Thit it your uptnrn,rQI tet up . Th, toil
umpl, i.in.riqideylind,rw!lh pOt"Ou,
;gg •• :
stoneson d\etDp_d bottotntwu.".,dati".
Avtrbc.al S6Cti0noltl'le app ... tbu"
dlown . ....ovwill.pplyato6dtotheu""',.
"iothllplaton.PI.."se notetl'l.foRo ...ir\o­
v.lve.bwette.pla~ n .pO¥II .... t.rpre$' ut.
..............
.nddi5pl.. ~r. . douttl"it$ . 6I'Id.
woiQht.
1 . The so ~ is saturated, hOIT\(l Q.neOlJi , nd
jsotropic
2. "The initial n.ceu pore waler pteu ur, ' s
distributed uniformly within the so~ .
J. The soil partides end w,ter.,.
incompressIble.
-4. Th,loadino is isotropic.
Oi.m,ter of soil .. 150 mm
HeiQhtofsoil .. lOOmm
Cn)u section, •• rea .. 17671.5 mm 2
_1.77 ~ lo6 mm '
Volume
W"Qhtwnpos."",rtic,l,tnuoflODkP,
Figure I Experimental set-up
iii
Clo,.
T'PUd til' .
105 m,n
"§JL:: l
vol. of
1
(mm)~
100 0 ' 100
Ho ·hho;Jhtof5Oil(mml
au(kh)
lIH _ chanoe iI'I tleiQht (mffl)
tau .. chang.e in tnitial eJtCBSS po.......ttr ptOSfUnl (kP.)
watch how the ,MiMe)!OUI por. w,te, DreSS"'"
dis , ipates frfithtJme OY8ftM depttl of the JOiI . 'The
s h.o.d .,.., II the .mount of uw.I nQllU ~
I
wat.".prllSsU1',th.c~lbe.ndiiSI PMAId . At
mid-depth the e ..Clu ponI . . . . , pr.II \,II" ts the
greltestet.nytIfM,t(tleuthan.,l'IIinrty),beee<ne
240 • pertld, ofw.t.rth.... h.stM l,fQlttdistonc,to
tr"v eltoth' dr/linao,.urleca. lniti.tl"the
settlement (lccun quiekly end then deere"e, ,101'11,
•
IIndnon-line.rl,wittltime .
Figure 2 Visual ization of the consolidation process
 A displacement gauge showing the changes in
settlement versus time is displayed. The time is
scaled so that a 24-hour process is scaled to about 2
minutes of observation time. When the excess pore
water pressure reaches a small value a summary is
displayed to inform students of the essential points
they should retain. Students are shown how to cal­
culate the change in void ratio from the change in
height.
The information presented so far is intended
to satisfy learning outcomes (1) through (5). To pro­
vide information to obtain learning outcome (6), the
student is presented with different initial excess pore
water pressure and drainage boundary conditions.
He/she can click on any of these different conditions
and observe how the excess pore water distribution
is different from the previous conditions.
Rather than dragging weights to further load
the soil, a pneumatic cylinder with a control valve is
now introduced to give students the opportunity to
use more involved loading systems. By clicking on
a valve movie, a valve opens to allow the passage of
air to pressurize a pneumatic cylinder up to the de­
sired pressure. Three plots are now displayed. The
first shows the variation of void ratio with vertical
effective stress, the second the variation of void ratio
with the logarithm of vertical stress and the third, the
variation of vertical strain with vertical effective
stress. The student loads the soil up to about
1600kPa then unloads it to almost SOOkPa and re­
loads it to a vertical effective stress of 3200kPa.
Each time a loading or unloading occurs, the corre­
sponding changes in void ratio and vertical strain are
displayed on the three plots.
Students are shown how to extract consoli­
dation parameters such as compression and recom­
pression indices (C c and Cr respectively) and the
modulus of volume change (mv). The use of these
values in the calculation of total consolidation set­
tlement is illustrated using animations.
The development of a one-dimensional
model is the next learning module. No animation is
used for the model development because the author
believes that animations cannot significantly en­
hance the understanding of the mathematical details
and assumptions that are required in developing the
governing one-dimensional consolidation equation.
The next stage is to let students obtain the
consolidation parameters such as Cc and the coeffi­
cient of consolidation, Cv, is a laboratory environ­
ment. A virtual consolidation laboratory developed
by the author allows a student not only to perform
all the standard procedures for a consolidation test in
a 3D virtual laboratory but also to learn how to in­
terpret the results and apply them to a practical sce­
nario. The virtual laboratory has the following fea­
tures:
331
I. Testing of pre-requisite knowledge such as effec­
tive stress.
2. Familiarity with the parts of the apparatus.
3. Sample preparation
4. Setting up a sample in cell
5. Application of loading
6. Observation of soil settlement with time
7. Extraction of consolidation parameters (C c , C r,
my, Cv using the root-time method and the log time
method, coefficient of permeability, k, and the pre­
consolidation stress).
S. Use of the extracted parameters to calculate set­
tlement of a building located on the soil that was
tested.
9.Answer a quiz to test retention.
Soil parameters are randomly generated so that
each student not only has his or her own apparatus
but also his/her own sample type. A frame in the
virtual consolidation laboratory requesting the stu­
dent to pour water into the cell is shown in Figure 3.
Figure 3 A frame in the virtual soil consolidation laboratory
3 SHEAR STRENGTH MODULE
The shear strength of soil is one of the most
important concepts in soil mechanics. The multime­
dia courseware strives to present the following.
I. The importance of shear strength and the conse­
quences when the imposed shear stress exceeds
the shear strength of the soil.
2. The interpretation of shear strength using Cou­
lomb's frictional law and the Mohr-Coulomb
failure criterion.
3. Virtual laboratory triaxial and direct shear tests
to determine shear strength of soils.
4. Interpretation of the results of the laboratory
shear tests.
 The teaching module for students to get an un­ •

derstanding of the shear strength of soils is centered

on an animated direct shear box test in which the
students apply vertical and shear loads and observe
how the shear force-shear displacement and vertical
displacement-shear displacement changes with nor­
mal stress level and void ratio. Students interact with
the results to extract the peak and critical state fric­
tion angles and the angle of dilation. Figure 4 illus­
trates a frame in the animation of the of the direct
shear box tests illustration.
,
•
• •
1 1

'·';6 '.
.~ "'"
Figure 5 Selling up the apparatus in the virtual triaxial labora­
¢-: , (N)U5 .. uk
lory module

~ D··· · · · ·····.. :' 'r-:::=::::::===i

(N) ~ lu:(mm
'; 0 < ~ (mtn) a M,.,;,-t-;-...-;,...,..i-t""
10 .. -1 - ~ - --

o 0 50 100 1'0 . 00 -2

" (N)

Figure 4 A frame in the direct shear box animation

Of particular importance is the influence of dila­

tion on the shearing resistance of soils. A simple
model based on Coulomb's frictional law is used as
a basis for interpreting the shearing resistance and
failure of soils if failure were to occur on a planar
surface with and without dilation. An animation of
the Mohr-Coulomb failure criterion is used to let
student understand how to interpret soil failure for a
two-dimensional stress system.
Virtual triaxial and direct shear tests are used to
allow students to conduct tests independent of loca­
tion and time. These virtual tests simulate all the
procedures that would normally be conducted in a
real (3D environment) laboratory. Because of time
constraints in regular laboratory classes, students
cannot normally conduct drain tests on fine-grained
soils and apply back-pressure saturation. In the vir­
tual the environment, the students can conduct a va­
riety of drained and undrained tests with or without
back pressures, with or without pore water pressure
measurements and apply loads to follow different
stress paths. Figure 5 and Figure 6 shows two
frames in the virtual triaxial tests.
The stress-strain behavior of the soil is predicted
using the modified cam-clay model with parameters
randomly generated within practical rage of values.
Perturbation functions are used to modify the stress­
Figure 6 A drained test in progress in the virtual triaxial labo­
ratory module
strain curve to more closely replicate real soil re­
sponse. These functions may shift predicted stress­
strain points to make the curve less smooth than
predicted.
4 EVALUATION
Preliminary evaluation at the University of
Arizona showed that students who use these mod­
ules were able to perform better in tests to assess
understanding and retention than students who did
not use these modules. In a questionnaire to evalu­
ate the effectiveness of the modules to transmit in­
formation, 98% of the students agree that they un­
derstood the material better because of the use of
interactive animation. The same percentage of stu­
dents claimed in the questionnaire that they think
that they are visual learners.

332
5 CONCLUSIONS

Modern communication technologies when used

judiciously can enhance the understanding of diffi­
cult concepts and improve knowledge retention.
The two modules presented in this paper appear to
be effective on visual learners.

6 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The work described in this paper was partly

funded by a grant (DUE-9950906) from the Division
of Undergraduate Education, United States National
Science Foundation.

7 REFERENCES

I. Executive office of the President. " The Presi­

dent's educational technology initiative",
http://www.whitehouse.govIWH/EOP/OP/edtech
Ihtmlledtech.html, 1995.
2. Carpenter, Mark, "Oh, Now I get it!," Journal of
Engineering Education, ASCEE, Vol. 88 (4),
1999, pp. 387-383.

333