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04 - Soil Information for Structure Foundation

Ref: Principles of Geotechnical Engineering, Braja M. Das, 1994

Coastal Engineering Handbook, J.B. Herbich, 1991
Erosion & Sedimentation, P.Y. Julien, 1998

Topics:
Design Concerns
Surveys and Testing
Bulk Properties of Soil

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Design concerns:
Bearing capacity
Consolidation and Settlement - how much and how long
Liquefaction potential
Bottom slope stability

Surveys and Testing

1. Hydrograph data - surveys
a. Echo sounder survey - limited soil property info obtained
b. Side-scan sonar - locate hard bottom or rock outcrop
2. Waves, wind and tide data
3. Field data sampling
a. Surface sand samples - need longshore and cross-shore samples
b. Borehole samples - sampler is hammered into soil (heavy equipment
required), 15-30 m, longshore variation is usually more than cross-shore (i.e.
need more longshore samples 2:1)
c. Vibracore samples - sampler is vibrated into soil (lighter equipment), < 2 m,
sandy soil surrounding the area, determine local material => may be useful
(e.g. in concrete mix, fill material)
d. In-situ testing - borehole sampling changes the characteristics of the soil (e.g.
consolidation and shear strength), in-situ testing is used to calibrate/validate
lab work

Bulk Properties of Soil:

Weight and Volume (W and V) -

weight and volume of solids, water, and air, usually neglect air in marine soils

Nice to Porosity (n)

have Ratio of void volume to total volume (usually expressed as percentage)
Vvoids
n= × 100%
Vsolids + Vvoids
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• neglect air for saturated soils, therefore Vvoids = Vwater vice Vvoids = Vair + Vwater
• sand, n ~ 38%
Must
have Voids Ratio (e)
Ratio of volume of voids to volume of solids
V
e = voids
Vsolids
• e may be greater than 1
n
• e= (note: n expressed as a fraction, not %)
1− n

Specific Volume (Vc)

Volume occupied by a unit weight of solids
V + Vvoids
Vc = solids = 1+ e
Vsolids

Degree of Saturation (S)

Percent of void volume filled with water
V
S = water × 100%
Vvoids
• S = 100% Î saturated, solids + water only
• S = 0% Î dry, solids + air only

Water Content (w)

Ratio of the weight of water in the voids to the weight of solids
W
w = water × 100%
Wsolids
• w = 100% Î equal weight of water and solids
• w may be greater than 100% (i.e. water has higher weight than solids in
sample)
w% γ wVw 1 Vw e
• = = =
100 γ sVs G Vs G
w
• e= G
100

Specific Gravity (G)

Ratio of the unit weight of solids to the unit weight of water
ρ γ
G = solids = solids
ρ water γ water
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Specific Weight (γ)

Weight of material per unit volume

Ws
Specific Weight of Soil Solids γs = = ρ s g = Gγ w
Vs

Specific Weight of Bulk (Bulk Density)

W + Ww Vs Gγ w + γ wVw + γ airVair (Vs G + Vw )γ w
γ= s = =
Vtotal Vs + Vv Vs + Vv

γ=
(G + Se )γ w
1+ e
1+ w 1+ w
γ= Gγ w = γs
1+ e 1+ e
1+ w
γ= Gγ w
1 + wG

Ws G Gγ w γ
Specific Weight of Dry Soil γd = = γw = =
Vtotal 1 + e 1 + wG / S 1 + w

Specific Weight of Submerged Soil (Effective Bulk Density)

G −1
γ′ = γ − γ w = γw
1+ e
G −1
γ′= γw
1 + wG
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Sediment Particles and Size Distributions

Forces on a submerged particle:

Buoyancy,
B = γwVs

Drag,
D = ½ρCDAw2
pressure distribution
on the surface

Gravity,
W = γsVs

Vs ≡ particle volume
w ≡ vertical particle velocity
A ≡ particle projected area
CD ≡ drag coefficient CD = f(sediment size, shape, velocity)
γs, γw ≡ specific weight of sediment and water, respectively

Submerge weight: Wsub = W − B = (γ s − γ w )Vs = (G − 1)ρ w gVs

G ≡ specific gravity

Fall Velocity (wf): terminal velocity of a particle falling through a fluid

Balance of forces: W −B−D = 0
(G − 1)ρw gVs − 12 ρw C D Aw f2 = 0

2(G − 1)gVs
wf =
CD A

assume particles are spherical with diameter D: A = 14 πD 2 , Vs = 16 πD3

4(G − 1)gD
wf = , for sand CD ≈ 1.5
3C D
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Sediment Size Distribution

log-normal plot

84%

Cumulative % finer

50%

16%
d50 d84
d16

Sediment/sieve diameter (d)

(log scale)

• Plot of the % of material by weight is finer than the sieve size… e.g. 84% of the
material is finer (has a smaller diameter) than d84
• x-axis of plot is log-scale
• often use the phi-scale for the x-axis: φ = − log 2 (d ) , with d in mm

d 84
sediment size standard deviation (or gradation): σg =
d16
1  d 84 d 50 
sediment gradation coefficient: Gr =  + 
2  d 50 d16 

if the distribution is assumed to be Gaussian (Normal) on a log-normal scale than the

following relationships are true:
d 90 = σ1g.3d 50
d 84 = σg d 50
d16 = σg−1d 50
d10 = σg−1.3d 50
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Sediment Size/Class
(Julien, 1998, pg 10)

Class Name Size Ranges mm in

very large 2000-4000 80-160
Boulder large 1000-2000 40-80
>250 mm
(>10 in) medium 500-1000 20-40
small 250-500 10-20
Cobble large 130-250 5-10
64-250 mm
(2.5-10 in) small 64-130 2.5-5
very coarse 32-64 1.3-2.5

Gravel coarse 16-32 0.6-1.3

2-64 mm medium 8-16 0.3-0.6
(0.08-2.5 in)
fine 4-8 0.16-0.3
very fine 2-4 0.08-0.16
very coarse 1-2
coarse 0.5-1
Sand
medium 0.25-0.5
0.062-2 mm
fine 0.125-0.25
very fine 0.062-0.125
coarse 0.031-0.062
Silt medium 0.016-0.031
0.004-0.062
mm fine 0.008-0.016
very fine 0.004-0.008
coarse 0.002-0.004
Clay medium 0.001-0.002
0.00024-
0.004 mm fine 0.0005-0.001
very fine 0.00024-0.0005
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Liquid and Plastic Limits (LL and PL)

Measure the clay properties in the soil, LL is the upper limit of water content at
which the soil-water mix is virtually liquid, PL is the lower limit of water content
at which the mix is so stiff so as to behave as a plastic

Blow Count - number of blows to force a soil sample into a 1 ft (30 cm) tube, 0 means
just pressing on the sample fills the tube. Higher BC Î harder soil
important information for driving piles,
• may not be able to drive piles to same depth throughout the site
• BC>50 Î difficult to drive pile ("BC for refusal"), may require drilling to
penetrate (i.e. if only a layer)

Seepage (or Permeability Property) - steady flow of water through a saturated soil under
due to gradients in the pore pressure. Indicates the rate of consolidation and stability

Coefficient of permeability (from Darcy's model for steady laminar flow)

q
k=
i× A

k = coefficient of permeability (cm/s)

q = volume of water flow in the soil per unit time (cm3/s)
i = Hydraulic gradient
A = cross-sectional area (cm2)

If k is constant, q ∝ i n

Approximate permeability by particle size

Material Particle Size (mm) k (cm/s)
Clay 0.0001-0.005 10-8 - 10-5
Silt 0.005-0.05 10-5 - 10-3
Very Fine Sand 0.05-0.1 10-3 - 0.25
Fine Sand 0.1-0.25 0.25 - 1.0
Medium Sand 0.25-0.5 1.0 - 5.0
Coarse Sand 0.5-2.0 5.0 - 75
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