CE 313

Principles of Soil Mechanics

Introduction and
Weight Volume Relationships
 Materials Credit
Dr. Abu Siddique and Dr. Sarwar Jahan Md Yasin
Professor, Civil Engineering Department, BUET
Modified by
Sadia Rahman Badhan
Lecturer, Civil Engineering Department
BUBT
badhanoffice135@gmail.com
 Why Soil Mechanics?
Nearly every Civil Engineering structure – building, bridge,
highway, railway, tunnel, wall, retaining structures, tower, canal,
dam or embankment must rest and be founded in or on the
surface of the earth. As such, Civil Engineers must be concerned
with the interaction of structure and soil underneath. That is, the
strength, deformation (compressibility & swelling) and
permeability characteristics of foundation soil.

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 Soil Mechanics & Geotechnical
Engineering
• Soil Mechanics is a subset of the broad subject Geotechnical Engineering.
• Geotechnical engineering is a specialty of civil engineering that deals with
the properties, behaviour and use of earth materials and underground
water in engineering works.
• The earth materials referred to here include both soil and rock

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 Formation of Soil
Weathering of rocks and minerals at or near the surface of earth by either
physical disintegration or chemical decomposition leads to the formation of
soils. Soil is also formed due to decomposition of organic matters.

Soil: Soil is regarded as a natural aggregate

Rock: Rock is considered as a natural
of mineral grains, with or without organic
aggregate of mineral grains connected
matter, that can be separated by gentle
by strong and permanent internal
mechanical means such as agitation in
cohesive and molecular forces.
water.
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 Rock Cycle
There is a geological cycle continually taking place on the surface of the earth
that modifies the earth’s surface, destroys the old rock, creates new rock,
adds to the complexity of ground surface and results in the formation of
soils.
The cycle of events consists of weathering, transportation, deposition,
compaction, lithification, upheaval and again followed by weathering.

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Rock Cycle

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 Three Phase Diagram of Soil
• Soil: Uncemented aggregate of mineral grains (solid particles) and
decayed organic matter with liquid and gas in the empty space between
the solid particles.

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Three Phase Diagram of Soil

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Terms and Relations used in Soil Mechanics

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Terms and Relations used in Soil Mechanics

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Terms and Relations used in Soil Mechanics

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Terms and Relations used in Soil Mechanics

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Terms and Relations used in Soil Mechanics

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Terms and Relations used in Soil Mechanics

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Terms and Relations used in Soil Mechanics

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Terms and Relations used in Soil Mechanics

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Terms and Relations used in Soil Mechanics

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Terms and Relations used in Soil Mechanics

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Terms and Relations used in Soil Mechanics

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Terms and Relations used in Soil Mechanics

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Terms and Relations used in Soil Mechanics

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Terms and Relations used in Soil Mechanics

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Problems on Weight - Volume
Relationship

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