CIVL 1100

Discovering Civil and Environmental Engineering

Part II: Geotechnical Engineering

Professor Anthony Leung, PhD

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology

TAs: Mr Shivam Singh, Mr Raul Sousa and Mr Zhenyang Jia

 CIVL 1100
Discovering Civil and Environmental Engineering
- Geotechnical Engineering

Lecture x 4 Thu 12:00 – 13:50 LTC

Lecture 5. Engineering geology and soil behaviour (6 Oct)

Lecture 6. Foundations for high-rise buildings (13 Oct)
Lecture 7. Landslide hazards and prevention (20 Oct)
Lecture 8. Underground constructions and land reclamation (27 Oct)

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 Recap
Course assessment:
• Assignments (18%)
• Two (2) from each part; each assignment 3%

• Lab report (24%)

• Two (2) group reports

• Final examination (58%)

• Multiple choices from ALL three (3) parts

Note:
• Due one week after they are assigned
• Generally not accepting late submissions

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 CIVL 1100
Discovering Civil and Environmental Engineering
- Geotechnical Engineering
Geotechnical engineering concerns with constructions on or in the ground.
Geotechnical engineers use principles of soil mechanics and rock mechanics to
investigate ground conditions and materials; evaluate stability of slopes; and
design underground structures and structure foundations.
Geotechnical engineering is a discipline of the HKIE, which is most in-demand
among all disciplines of HKIE.

Geological Structural Slope Tunneling, Land reclamation,

investigations, foundations safety underground harbours and
highways and constructions airports
railways 4
 Lecture 9
Engineering Geology and soil behaviour

• Structure of the Earth

• Rocks and soils
• Engineering geological investigations
• Soil and rock classification
• Behaviour of soil vs concrete/steel
• Shear strength of soil

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 Know Our Earth
Earth Topography

Earth’s topography is measured with respect to sea level. Elevations vary from almost
9 km above sea level to about 11 km below sea level.
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 Our Earth
Crust Mantle Liquid iron
outer core

Solid iron
inner core

Earth’s inner core is solid despite its high

temperature because of the extremely
high pressures at Earth’s center.

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 Earth Crust
Less dense continental Continental crust
crust floats on denser is less dense than
mantle oceanic crust

0 (km)
10 Continental crust Oceanic crust
20 (2.8 g/cm3) (3.0 g/cm3)
30 Mantle Moho
40 (3.4 g/cm3)
discontinuity
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Horizontal distance not to scale

Crustal rocks are less dense than mantle rocks, allowing the crust to float on the mantle.
Continental crust is thicker and has a lower density than oceanic crust, which causes it to
ride higher, explaining the elevation difference between continents and the deep sea floor.
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 Plate Tectonics

...where it cools, …causing plates to

Convection moves laterally,
causes form and diverge.
sinks,…
hot water to Hot matter from the
rise… Where plates
mantle rises,…
converge, a
cooled plate is
dragged under…
Plate Plate

…warms, and …sinks, warms,

rises again. and rises again.
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Crustal Plates on the Earth

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Seismic Active Zones

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2011 Tohoku Earthquake, Japan

Time: 11 March 2011

Magnitude: 9.0 (Mw)
Depth: 30 km
Death： 15,883
Missing: 2,652
83 mm/y Injured： 6,149
Tsunami: Up to 40.5 m

菲律宾海板塊

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 Geotechnical engineering
deals with naturally occurring materials

Rocks & Soils

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 Rocks

Three major types: Igneous / sedimentary / metamorphic rocks

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 Igneous Rocks

magma

Igneous rocks form by crystallization from a magma. Geologists

distinguish two major types of igneous rocks – intrusive and extrusive
– on the basis of the sizes of their crystals.

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Igneous Intrusive Rocks

Granite (花崗岩)

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 Igneous Extrusive Rocks
• Tuffs: common in
Hong Kong

HKUST Tuff 凝灰岩

Volcanic bomb
Volcanic breccia

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Sedimentary Rocks

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 Sedimentary Rocks

Utah
Page

Arizona
Metamorphic Rocks

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Metamorphic Rocks

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 Metamorphic Rocks
Quartzite Folded foliation

Dioptase (Namibia) Black Opal

Red Rock Crystal Quartz

Diamond
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Geological Map of Hong Kong

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 HKUST Geology
HKUST is solidly founded on volcanic tuff!

HKUST
Che Kwu Shan
Formation (142
mil. yr ago).

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 Quick test (NOT assessed)
Which of the following statements on rock types is
INCORRECT?

A. The granite in the west Kowloon area belongs to intrusive

igneous rock
B. The HKUST tuffs are extrusive igneous rocks
C. Rocks consist of crystals
D. The crystals of intrusive igneous rocks are often smaller
than the crystals of extrusive igneous rocks

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26
 Columnar Volcanic Tuffs

High Island Reservoir

During cooling of lava, contraction

caused a series of cracks or joints, which
formed a polygonal structure.

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Tension
crack

nucleus

Columnar Volcanic Tuffs

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 Engineering Geological Investigations
Geology is the field of knowledge concerning the present and
past morphology and structure of the earth, its
environments, and the fossil record of its inhabitants. The
goal is to decipher the physical, chemical, and biological
evolution of our planet from its origin to the present time.

Engineering Geology serves the art and science of engineering

through description of the structure and attributes of the
rocks connected with engineering works.
Engineering geologist presents geological data and
interpretations for use by the civil engineer.

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 Weathering Processes- Physical & Chemical Weathering

Fresh Moderately decomposed Completely decomposed

In Hong Kong, rocks are decomposed mainly by the action of water on the
chemically less stable minerals, i.e. plagioclase feldspar and biotite, causing a
gradual change into kaolinite type or other clay minerals.

As a rock weathers Six grade system:

- its porosity increases
- it begins to hold moisture
- its minerals lose their luster
- cracks appear between crystals
- softens to the point to break in hand
Grade I, II and III: considered as rock
Grade IV: transitional / weak rock
Grade V, VI: soils

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How to Obtain Geological Information?

Drilling in rocks Drilling in soils

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Core Boxes

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Reporting borehole data

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Rock classification
• Quality of rock masses depends on
o Compressive strength
o Drill core quality
o Groundwater conditions
o Joint characteristics (spacing,
infill materials etc.)
o Joint orientation

• Two classification systems in practice

– Rock Mass Rating (RMR)
– Q-system

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Rock classification
• Rock mass rating (RMR)

RMR = RMRI (strength) + RMRI (RQD) + RMRI (Joint spacing)

+ RMRI (Joint condition) + RMRI (Groundwater)
where RMRI is rock mass rating index; RQD is rock quality designation

• Weighting: Strength (15%), RQD (20%), Joint spacing (30%),

Joint condition (25%), Groundwater condition (10%)

• Varies between 0 (very poor) to 100 (very good)

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 Rock classification
Strength

RQD

Joint spacing

Joint condition

Groundwater

Joint
orientation

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Rock classification
• Q-system
𝑅𝑄𝐷 𝐽𝑟 𝐽𝑤
𝑄= + +( )
𝐽𝑛 𝐽𝑎 𝑆𝑅𝐹

Size of Strength of Environmental

joint blocks joint surface conditions

where Jn is number of joint sets

Jr is roughness of the most important joints
Ja is filling materials condition
Jw is water flow characteristics of the rock
SRF is stress reduction factor due to environmental loading

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Rock classification 𝑅𝑄𝐷 𝐽𝑟 𝐽𝑤
𝑄= + +( )
𝐽𝑛 𝐽𝑎 𝑆𝑅𝐹
• Q-system
(Part 1)

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Rock classification
• Q-system
(Part 2)

𝑅𝑄𝐷 𝐽𝑟
𝑄= +
𝐽𝑛 𝐽𝑎
𝐽𝑤
+( )
𝑆𝑅𝐹

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Soil classification

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 Soil classification
Classification for fine-grained soil
• More than 50% passing the No. 200 (75 mm) sieve

Atterberg Limits
– A measure of the consistency of a fine-grained soil varies in
proportion of its moisture content
Increasing
Technical dividers Consistency “Feel” like water
content
Liquid Toothpaste
Liquid Limit

Plasticity index Plastic Peanut butter

Plastic Limit
Semi-solid
Cheese
Shrinkage Limit
Solid Hard candy
Soil classification (ASTM, American Standard Testing Method)
Classification for fine-grained soil
 Behaviour of Soil vs Concrete/Steel
Nature
Soil Concrete or steel
• Particulate • Continuum, bonding
• Naturally occurring material • Man-made materials
• Uncertainty • Defined properties

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 Behaviour of Soil vs Concrete/Steel
Origin of strength
Soil Concrete or steel
• Frictional (coarse-grained) • Mainly cohesive (cementation)
• Cohesive (fine-grained) • CAN stand 90o without collapse
• Most of time not able to • Self-weight INsensitive
stand 90o
• Self-weight dependent
Angle of repose

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 Behaviour of Soil vs Concrete/Steel
Physical effects of water
Soil Concrete or steel
• Dependent on water pressure • INdependent of water
• “Effective” stress pressure
s is total stress • Total stress
𝝈′ = 𝝈 − 𝒑 p is pore water pressure

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 Physical effects of water on soil
Physical effects of water
Stationary Sliding

Holes

• Build up of water pressure between two frictional surfaces

• Reduction of normal contact force, HENCE interface shearing
resistance (recalling Coulomb friction law) ′
• Landslides problems 𝝈 =𝝈−𝒑
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 Measurements of soil shear strength
• Direct shear box apparatus

Soil

General test procedures:

• Apply any vertical load (to
simulate overburden pressure of
soil at depths)
• Apply shear (horizontal)
load (to determine the strength)

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 Measurements of soil shear strength
• Data interpretation method
Shear stress Shear strength at failure

sv = Effective normal stress

Shear displacement 10 20 50 100 200

Effective normal stress

• Mohr-Coulomb failure envelope

Shear strength Friction angle
at failure
True cohesion (Due to bonding) Effective normal stress
Thank you!

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