Professional Documents
Culture Documents
(Geol 4111)
Credit Hour: 3
Instructor: Matebie Meten (PhD)
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Course Outline
1. Origin and Properties of Soils
o Formation of soils 4. Hydraulic Properties of Soils
o Soil profiles o Permeability
o Types of soils o Concept of effective stress
o Introduction to clay mineralogy o Seepage and flow nets
2. Textural and Grain Size Classification of o Critical hydraulic gradient & piping
Soils for Engineering Purpose o Lab demonstrations on permeability tests
o Mechanical analysis and seepage determination
o Hydrometer analysis 5. Shear Strength of Soils
o Particle size-textural classification o Coulomb’s equation for shear strength
o Lab exercises and tutorials o Determination of shear strengths of soils
3. Plasticity in Soils and Soil Structure o Shear characteristics of soils
o Soil structure o Tutorial on shear strength of soils with
o Plasticity in soils lab demonstration
o Atterberg’s limits & their determination 6. Compaction and Consolidation in Soils
o Uses of Atterberg’s limits o Compaction and consolidation in soils
o AASHTO classification system o Compaction and consolidation tests
o Unified Soil Classification System (USCS) o Tutorial on compaction and
o Laboratory practical work on Atterberg consolidation tests
limit tests 2
Course Outline
7. Classification and Index Properties of 10. Planes of Weakness in Rocks
Rocks
o Types of discontinuities
8. Engineering properties of rocks
o Effect of discontinuities in rock mass
o Rock strength (compressive, tensile and
shear) strength
o Compression and shear tests on rocks o Interrelationships among displacements
o Modulus of elasticity, modulus of & strength
compression, Poisson’s ration, residual 11. Rock Slope Stability
stress in rocks o Discontinuities and rock slope stability
o Rock deformation and its significance in o Shear strength of discontinuities
engineering
o Tutorial on rock mechanics and laboratory o Types of rock failures (Wedge, Circular,
visits Toppling)
9. Rock Strength and Failure Criteria o Water & rock slope stability
o Modes of failure of rocks (Coloumb’s o Criteria for support of rock cuts and
criteria) slope stability
o Stress-Strain behavior in compression Course Delivery: Lecture, tutorials,
o The Effect of water on strength
practical laboratory works, lab
o Controlling factors in rock strength and
failure demonstrations & video shows.
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Course Aim/Rationale
To acquire civil engineering knowledge for effective application of
geology in engineering problems;
To introduce students how to characterize engineering properties of
geological materials (soils, rocks) and their measurements and
classification.
Learning Outcomes
Upon successful completion of this course, students will acquire:
A basic understanding about the principles of rock and soil
mechanics;
Skills in the engineering testing of soils & rocks in the laboratory.
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Figure 1 The weathering profile.
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Figure 2 Origins of soils from rocks. 9
Soils in geotechnical engineering
• Excavations or ground leveling can modify the existing environmental
conditions and the way the soil reacts will depend on many factors including:
soil composition & geology,
human activity and
Adaptability of the engineering project to the natural environment.
• The ground response is therefore complex and depends on the:
existing materials in the area and
actions and forces applied to the soils.
• The response of a rock mass depends on its strength, weathering and
discontinuities.
• Fig. 3 shows the following characteristic properties of soils.
Soils are formed of small individual particles(ranging from microns to a
few centimeters), which can be considered incompressible.
Between these cemented/uncemeted particles are voids with a total volume
that can approach & sometimes exceed the volume occupied by the
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particles.
A soil is either a two- phase or three phase system (solid, liquid + gas).
The voids, pores and interstices may be full of water, as in saturated soils,
or contain air and water, as in semi-saturated soils. The degree of saturation
conditions determine the response of the material as a whole . Under
normal temperature and pressure conditions, water is considered to be
incompressible.
• The chemical composition of the soil differs depending on the original parent
rock and the changes produced by particle weathering, deposition and
cementation.
• A soil is defined as an aggregate of uncemented or weakly cemented
materials, with weak point of contact, which can be separated by low energy
mechanical means or by agitation in water.
• Soil response to actions derived from engineering activities results in an
interactive displacement of rotating and slipping particles and this depends
on the:
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Proportions of the various solid materials in a unit volume of soil.
Particle size and distribution.
Ratio of the total volume to the volume of solids; the higher the
ratio, the more deformable the soil will be .
Average size of voids.
• The complexity of soil behavior means that the following problems
must be considered:
Problems of deformability, produced by loads and external actions,
causing failure by normal and shear stresses where the change in
apparent volume is resulting from a change in external loading.
Problems of flow. Water flow in different soil conditions, its
response to applied load as load -induced deformations develop
over time, the soil may expel or absorb water . This consolidation
process is needed to stabilize the changes induced with in a soil by
external actions. 12
(a) Soil formation.
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Geotechnical properties and mineralogical composition
• From the geotechnical point of view, clays are considered problematic
materials as their behavior depends both on their mineralogical and chemical
composition and environmental conditions. These factors often change e.g.
modification of the chemical composition of water may produce reactions
within the mineral structure and changes in the geotechnical properties of
the soil.
• The mineralogical composition of clays is the most influencing factor on
geotechnical properties such as plasticity, strength, compressibility and
change in volume.
• The amount of water adsorbed by clay minerals depends on the cation
exchange and the specific surface area. Water molecules are joined at the
particle surface by bipolar bonding surrounding them with a film of water.
The weakness of bipolar bonds allows displacement of the particles when
pressure is applied.
• In Fig. 5 the lowest plasticities correspond to the kaolinites & the highest to
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the smectites, with sodium montmorillonite being the highest in this group.
Figure 5 Mineralogical composition and plasticity (Day, 1999). 27
• Activity is defined as the ratio between the plasticity index and the clay
fraction(PI/ % particles < 2µm).
• Clays are classified according to their activity as:
Active: with an activity ratio higher than 1.25.
Normal: with an activity ratio between 1.25 and 0.75.
Inactive: with activity lower than 0.75.
• Both the clay fraction content and the type of predominant clay mineral
influence the strength of soils. Shear strength decreases as clay content
increases.
• The capacity for water adsorption at the edges of the layers and interlayer
areas produces changes in volume in clays (Fig. 7).
• The swelling of clay minerals by water adsorption is due to various factors:
surface adsorption of water molecules, exchange cation
hydration(intercrystalline expansion), osmotic expansion, interlayer charge
in sodium montmorillonites and pressure at the edges of magnesium
smectites(saponites).
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Figure 6 Influence of mineralogy on strength(Tsige et al., 1995).
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• Mineralogical composition also influences the compressibility of clays (Fig.
8). Smectites being the most compressible and kaolinites the least.
• In their natural surroundings, soils are mixed in both mineralogical
composition and particle size distribution and this determines the
complexity of their behavior.
• However, the influence of mineralogy on the geotechnical properties of soil
is so marked that even the presence of small percentages of certain minerals,
such as smectites (above 10%), can have a significant influence on soil
behavior.
Microfabric of Clayey Soils
• Another factor influencing the geotechnical behavior of soils is their fabric.
The soil fabric or microfabric is defined as the spatial arrangement of
particles, pores, discontinuities and other elements present in the soil.
• The fabric is directly related to the degree of orientation of the soil
components, their porosity and density.
• Microfabric analysis is usually performed with a scanning electron
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microscope (SEM) and transmission electron microscope (TEM).
Figure 7 Change in volume depending
on mineralogical composition.
Figure 8 Influence of mineralogical
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composition on compressibility.
• While the spatial distribution of particles constituting the coarse fraction of
soils basically depends on the shape, size and degree of packing, in the fine
fractions the microfabric depends on physico-chemical properties, especially
the degree of interaction between clay crystals.
• This interaction is due to the van der Waals forces while repulsion forces are
due to the negative charges present on clay surfaces and in the double
diffuse layer.
• The electron charge on clay surfaces varies according to the different
parameters of the system(pH, degree of isomorphic substitution,
concentration of dissolved salts, temperature etc.). This means that in certain
conditions the edge of the particles may acquire as many negative charges as
positive ones, with a variable degree of interaction.
• Depending on the condition of a soil suspension, especially the
concentration of electrolytes, clay minerals may adopt the following basic
associations: face-to-face, face-to-edge, where the face has a negative
charge and the edge a positive charge, and edge-to-edge, where in case of
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edges with positive and negative charges (Fig. 9).
Figure 9 Electrical charges in clays and their particle associations.
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• In suspensions with high concentrations of electrons, where the pH is
relatively high (> 8.2), edge-to-face interactions predominate because the
positive charge is maintained at the edges and the negative charge on the
clay surface. In conditions like these, with high concentration of ions, the
net electrical forces between adjacent particles are predominantly
attractive, leading to a phenomenon of flocculation, which gives rise to an
open structure (flocculated structure) with large voids, typical of marine
soils (Fig. 10).
• On the other hand, when electrolyte concentration is low, clay minerals tend
to have a negative charge, both at the surface and at the edges. In this case,
the double diffuse layer will increase and therefore electrical repulsion
forces will predominate between the adjacent particles in the phenomenon
known as dispersion (Fig. 11). This produces a dense elongated structure
(dispersive structure) in which the clay particles are not in contact due to the
predominance of repulsive forces. This dispersive structure is characteristic
of freshwater lacustrine deposits.
• Between these two types of structures(flocculated and dispersive) there are34
Fig. 10 Basic structural associations
in flocculated clays
(A) Flocculation forms
(B) Flocculated structure in an aqueous medium.
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multiple ways in which clay particles can be spatially organized, since
various factors intervene in the interaction. These factors include
mineralogical and chemical composition, particle size, concentration of
solids and dissolved salts, water turbulence, biological activity, temperature
and sedimentation rate. As a result, there is a wider and more complex
variety of particle associations than the two described above.
• Depending on the type of basic particle association and the different
environmental factors that intervene in sedimentation, natural clay soils have
various types of microfabrics.
Turbostratic or regular aggregation: continuous compact clay matrix,
very dense structure with no preferred orientation; characteristic of
overconsolidated marine sediments.
Laminar or oriented: homogeneous matrix formed of clay particles
oriented in a preferred direction, compact anisotropic structures.
Honeycomb: open structures formed by clay particle floccules bonded by
adhesion forces. These have a large quantity of intercommunicating pores
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and are characteristics of saline environments and sensitive soils.
Skeletal: metastable organization of clay aggregates and fragments joined
by large connectors and abundant pores. This is typical of weathered and
collapsible soils.
Oolitic or nodular: made up of nodules or spherical aggregates which
may be densely packed; characteristic of continental environments rich in
iron oxides.
• In addition to solid particles, pores, discontinuities, microfissures, shear
surfaces, particle bonds and cementing agents are also present.
Geotechnical properties and microfabric
• The geotechnical properties of soils are related to its structure or
microfabric. This is the result of different geological and environmental
processes acting on it throughout its geological history.
• Properties such as porosity and anisotropy have their origins in the
orientation and reordering of particles.
• Collapsibility and sensitivity are closely related to the flocculation state,
with very open structures typical of saline sediments and residual soils.
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• Sensitivity(St) is defined as the ratio of undrained shear strength (Su) in
undisturbed state to the strength with in the same water content in a
remoulded state, and indicates the loss of shear strength in a soil that has
been remoulded.
St = Su (undisturbed)/ Su (remoulded)
• Based on this ratio, clay soils can be classified as:
Non-sensitive: St = 1
Slightly sensitive: St = 1 – 2
Moderately sensitive: St = 2 – 4
Highly sensitive: St = 4 – 8
Extra sensitive: St = 8 – 16
Quick clays: St >16
• Sensitive soils have an open and meta-stable microfabric. The most
characteristic are the quick clays, where original intergranular cementation
and particle interaction is lost by leaching when it comes into contact with
fresh water. This phenomenon may also occur in residual soils.
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N
(a)Turbostratic microfabric (b)Laminar microfabric
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Table 2 Microfabric of clays and their engineering geological properties.
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