UNIVERSITY OF JUBA
COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING AND ARCHITECTURE
DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL ENGINEERING COURSE WORK I
SEMESTERII: CE423: SOIL MECHANICS III:

Date: 17th September, 2022 to 25th October, 2022

Instructions:
(i) Read these instructions carefully.
(ii) It is a group work, max. 4 people in a group, minimum, 2 people.
(iii) Answer ALL questions.
(iv) For question i, Study it carefully, access the website and follow the instructions and recompute using
STB2006 and compare, or use hand calculations with the usual limited number of slices for hand
calculations.
(v) Use question i to answer question ii as an example.
(vi) Write a comprehensive report of the coursework, and bind with hard cover with a tape and submit, one
copy per group. None comprehensive report will not be accepted.
(vii) Use Muni Budhu for reference.

(i) EXAMPLE TO FOLLOW AND DOCUMENT: DESIGN OF A SLOPE IN A CANAL

A lake is required at a housing project for drainage and recreation. The soil profile is shown in Figure below. Based on
historical weather data and nearby drainage conditions, the water level is expected to fluctuate by 2 m. A 1 (V): 1.5 (H) slope
is selected. Evaluate the stability of this slope.

Instructions : It is best to use a slope stability program. Use a freely available program, STB2006, which you
can obtain from http://geo.verruijt.net . This program is based on Bishop’s method and treats the soil as a cohesive–
frictional material. Soil is treated as a dilatant–frictional material. To use this program for undrained conditions, substitute the
undrained shear strength for cohesion and input a friction angle of zero. The worst-case condition is rapid drawdown to the
bottom of the proposed lake.

Solution: 
Step 1: Input data.
Iinvestigate two cases. One is a rapid drawdown to the low water level (LWL) and the other is a gradual drawdown,
neglecting seepage stresses (the program does not consider seepage stresses). The most serious case is rapid drawdown to the
bottom of the proposed lake. We will assume here that the client will maintain the lake level to the LWL. Define nodal points
to establish the top of each soil layer and the groundwater level within the slope and in the lake, as shown in Figure b and c.

 
Rapid drawdown b
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
Gradual drawdown c

Case 1: During rapid drawdown, the water level within the slope remains constant, while the water in the lake drops to the
low water level. We can assume that undrained condition prevails. The strength parameter is the undrained shear strength.
Partial listing of the input soil parameters is shown in Table E16.8a. Click on “help” when running STB2006 to see the
notation used.

RAPID DRAWDOWN

    
 
Case 2: For gradual drawdown, we have to estimate the groundwater level within the slope for the desired time period. The
estimated groundwater level for a year is shown in Figure below. The appropriate shear strength parameter is the friction
angle. The input soil parameters for the gradual drawdown are shown in Table below.

GRADUAL DRAWDOWN
Step 2: Run the program and evaluate the results.

In STB2006, you have to specify the search area for the centres of rotation of the slip circles. This is done by defining the
coordinates of nodes 1 through 4. You have to try different search areas. Also, you have to define the search depth of the slip
circles. This is specified by the coordinates of node 5. The minimum FS for Case 1 is 2.572. While for Case 2 it is 1.157.

(ii) FOLLOW THE ABOVE EXAMPLE.

A cross section of a levee is shown in Figure below.
(a) Describe how you would determine the stability of the levee. You must provide sufficient justification for the loading
conditions you would consider.
(b) Use a slope stability software program such as STB2006 to analyse the stability. Vane shear test data for the medium-
to-soft clay is shown in Figure. The average water content is 40%.
(c) If the upstream slope is subjected to scouring and its gradient can change, research and describe methods you would use
to protect it. The subscripts p and cs on the strength parameters in Figure P16.13a denote peak and critical state
condition, respectively.