lecture .

1 : Preface

Dr. Omer Fadol

Civil Engineering, Structures
(Geotechnics)
PREFACE
 The difference between:
 1. Geotechnical Engineering.
 2. Geo Environmental Engineering.
 3. Geology.
 4. Soil Mechanics.
 5. Rock Mechanics.
 6. Foundation Engineering.
 1. Geotechnical Engineering:

 All Civil Engineering begins

with Geotechnical Engineering

ground
 Definitions:
 Geotechnical Engineering is the
branch of civil engineering that
deals with soil, rock, and
underground water, and
 Their relation to the design,
construction and operation of
engineering projects (Coduto
1998)
  Typical Geotechnical Project:

Geo-Laboratory Design Office

~ for testing soil properties ~ for design & analysis

construction site
 Shallow Foundations
 For transferring building loads to
underlying ground
 Mostly for firm soils or
light loads

firm ground

bed rock
 Shallow Foundations
 Foundation Systems
 Designing of Shallow Foundations Systems –
Bearing Capacity Failure

Transcend Grain Elevator

(from Budhu 2000)
 Foundation Systems

 Designing of Shallow Foundation Systems – Differential

Settlement

Leaning Tower of Pisa

 Deep Foundations
 For transferring building
loads to underlying
ground
 Mostly for weak
P
soils or heavy loads I
L
weak soil E

bed rock
 Foundation Systems
 Deep Foundation Systems: Driven Piles
 Deep Foundations

Driven timber piles, Pacific Highway

 Foundation Systems
Deep Foundation Systems: Drilled Shafts
 Retaining Walls

 Prevent soils from spreading laterally

retaining
wall

Road
Train
 Earth Pressure and Retaining Walls
 Reinforced Earth Walls

(The Reinforced Wall Company 2003)

 Retaining Structure Systems
 Gabions

(Gaviones LEMAC (2003)

 Retaining Structure Systems

 Tie-backs

(Boulanger and Duncan 2003)

 Retaining Structure Systems

 Soil Nailing:
steel rods placed
into holes drilled
into the walls and
grouted

19
 Retaining Structure Systems
 Excavation Support Systems
 Sheet Piles
Sheets of interlocking steel or timber driven into
the ground, forming a continuous sheet

warehouse

ship

sheet pile
 Sheet Piles
 Resist lateral earth pressures
 Used in temporary works
 Used in excavations, waterfront structures
Sheet Pile Walls

(Boulanger and Duncan 2003)

 Cofferdam
 Sheet pile walls enclosing an area, to
prevent water seeping in
Tunneling
 Earth Dams
 For impounding water

reservoir
clay
core shell

soil
 Landslides
 Earthworks
 Preparing the ground prior to construction

Roadwork,
Pacific Highway
 Geofabrics
~ used for reinforcement, separation, filtration and
drainage in roads, retaining walls, embankments…

Geofabrics used on Pacific Highway

 Geosynthetics
 Geosynthetic stabilized walls

(kshitija.wordpress.com 2007) (Environmental Science & Engineering 2007)

 Mechanically Stabilized Earth Walls
 Using geofabrics to strengthen the soil
 Instrumentation
 To monitor the performances of earth and earth
supported structures
 To measure loads, pressures, deformations,
strains
 Soil Testing

Vane Shear Test Standard Penetration Test

 Soil Testing

Cone Penetration
Testing
 Soil Testing

Triaxial Test on Soil

Sample in Laboratory
Geotechnical Engineering Problems

 How will the

groundwater conditions
impact the engineering
project?
Teton Dam Failure (1975)
 Geotechnical Engineering Problems
 What will be the
impact of
excavations,
grading, or filling?

 Collapse of Nicoll
Highway,
Singapore, 2004
 Geotechnical Engineering Problems
 Are natural or proposed earth slope stable?

(from Norwegian Geotechnical

Institute, 2001)
 Geotechnical Earthquake Engineering
 Effects of earthquakes

(from Kramer – www.ce.washington.edu 1996) (from Alshibli 2001)

 Geotechnical Earthquake Engineering
 Effects of earthquakes

1995 Kobe Earthquake 1999 Chi Chi Earthquake

(Boulanger and Duncan 2006)

 Ground Improvement

Impact Roller to Compact the Ground

 Ground Improvement

Sheep foot Roller to Compact Clay Soils

 Ground Improvement
Big weights dropped from 25
m, compacting the ground.

Craters formed in compaction

 Soil Improvement
 Stone Columns

(Boulanger and Duncan 2003)

 Soil Improvement
 Jet Grouting

(Boulanger and Duncan 2003)

 Soil Improvement
 Compaction Grouting

(Boulanger and Duncan 2003)

 Soil Improvement
 Chemical Injection

(Boulanger and Duncan 2003)

2. Geo Environmental Engineering
 GENERAL QUESTION…

 What is GEOENVIRONMENT?
 Why do we need to study this
subject?
 What are the types of
Geoenvironmental problems
available?
 WHAT IS GEOENVIRONMENT?!!!

ENVIRONMENTAL
GEOLOGY GEOTECHNIC
STUDY
 Why do we need to study this subject?
G
E L
O
E E
N N
Physical V G Chemical
characteristics of I I characteristics of
subsurface: R N subsurface:
geotechnical O E environmental
engineering N E engineering
M R
E I
N N
T G
A
 Traditional geotechnical engineers responsibility
 Investigating subsurface conditions.
 Designing foundation for roads, buildings,
machines, storage tanks and offshore
structures.
 Designing earthworks for dams, levees, roads,
tunnels and underground structures.
 Investigating landmass problems such as
landslides, slope stability and subsidence.
 Factors influencing the growth of geoenvironmental
field
 The practice of rock mechanics,
engineering geology, soil mechanics and
foundation engineering.
 The growth of chemical industries that
leads to the increase of waste disposal
and contamination problems.
 The knowledge of geotecnical engineers
in earth materials and ground water
making them the most suitable people to
solve contamination problems.
 Types of geoenvironmental problems
 Contaminated site remediation
 Remediation of already contaminated soils and
groundwater using in-situ barriers and in-situ or ex-situ
treatment methods.
 Waste containment
 Safe disposal of newly generated wastes in engineered
impoundments and landfills.
 Waste minimization by recycling
 Minimization of waste generation and disposal by recycling
and using waste materials in various civil engineering
applications and beneficial use of closed waste disposal
sites.
3. Geology
DEFINITION

GEOLOGY
Greek Earth The study of

Geology = The study of Earth

 INNER CORE
- HOT!!!! –
Thought to be as
hot as the surface
of the Sun!
- Solid
- Composed of
Iron and Nickel
 OUTER CORE
 HOT!
(but not as hot as
the inner core)
 Liquid
 Composed of
Iron and Nickel
 MANTLE
 Still hot! – but
not as hot as the
core!
 Largest layer
 Composed of
various
materials
 Solid and liquid
 CRUST
 Cool
 What we live on
 Composed of
rocks, various
materials make
up the crust
 Solid or Liquid?
Even though 70% of
the Earth’s surface is
water, there is crust
under the water. The
water sits on top of
the crust!
-The Earth’s crust moves!!!!!
-The continents have not always been arranged
like they are today.

- The
Earth’s crust
is divided
into
segments
called
plates.
Pangaea
 Supercontinent that existed 250
million years ago
 All the land made up 1 continent until
its split into the modern day
configuration of the continents.
 Discovered by Alfred
Wegner in 1912, but
not accepted by the
public until after his
death in the 1950’s.
• Importance of engineering geology in
Civil engineering practices
• To recognise potential difficult ground
conditions prior to detailed design and
construction
• It helps to identify areas susceptible to
failure due to geological hazards
• To establish design specifications
• To have best selection of site for
engineering purposes
• To have best selection of engineering
materials for construction
• Geological Structures
• These are the modified structures formed
from primary structures due to the
influence of tectonic forces on it.
• It gives details about how inherent
properties of rocks get modified , making
them either suitable or unsuitable for civil
engineering works. Examples are: Folds,
Faults, Joints and
• Uncomformities
 Not all rocks are suitable for the studies
 The suitable rocks are:
 Sand stones and shales – Sedimentary rock
 Gneissses and schist ( to some extent) -
Metamorphic rock
Folds
• They bend either upwards or down wards when a set of
horizontal layers are subjected to compressive forces
• Parts of fold:
• Limbs or flanks - side of a fold
• Crest and trough – the curved portions of fold at the top
and bottom are called crest and trough respectively
• Axial plane- Imaginary plane which divides the fold into
two equal or nearly equal halves’
• Axis – Trace of intersection between the axial plane and the
crest or trough of the fold
• Wave length – The distance between the successive crest or
trough
 Deformation of A) flat-lying strata. B) compression stress tend to shorten a rock
body, often by folding. C) Tensional stress acts to elongate or pull apart a rock unit.
D) Shear stress acts to bend and break them. (Tarbuck and Lutgents)
• Classifications and types of folds
• Based on different principles the folds are variously
classified as
• Symmetrical and asymmetrical – symmetrical
character
• Anticline and syncline – upward or downward
bend
• Occurrence of plunge – plunging and non-
plunging
• Uniformity of bend thickness – open and closed
• Behaviour of the fold pattern with depth – similar
and parallel
 An illustration of principle types of folds.
 Plunging folds. Note the nose of a plunging anticline in outcrop points in
the direction of the plunge, while the opposite is true of plunging
synclines. (Tarbuck and Lutgents)
 Effects of folds and their
engineering Importance
 Location of dams
 Location of reservoirs
 Location of tunnels
 Quarrying
 Ground water occurrence
 Roads and railways
 Faults
 These are fractures along relative i.e
parallel displacement of adjacent
blocks taken place.
 Parts of fault:
o Fault plane: The plane along which
the adjacent blocks relatively
displaced
o Footwall and hanging wall

o Heave and throw

o Slip
 Classification and types of
faults:
 Translational and rotational faults –
based on type of displacement along
fault plane
 Normal/Gravity and reverse/thrust,
dextral faults – relative movement of
the footwall and hanging wall
 Strike and dip faults – type of slip
involved
 Types of faults. a) Normal faults, caused by tensional forces, result in extension. b)
Reverse faults, caused by compression forces, result in shortening. c) Strike-slip faults
associated with shearing forces. d) Oblique slip suggests a combination of shearing and
compression/tension. (Press and Sever)
 A normal fault. (Tarbuck and Lutgents)
 The relative movement of a reverse fault
4. Soil Mechanics
 The term "soil" can have different
meanings, depending upon the field in
which it is considered.
 To an engineer, it is a material that
can be:
•built on: foundations of buildings,
bridges
•built in: basements, culverts,
tunnels
•built with: embankments, roads,
dams
•supported: retaining walls
 Engineers are concerned with soil's
mechanical properties: permeability,
stiffness, and strength.
 These depend primarily on the nature
of the soil grains, the current stress, the
water content and unit weight.
 Weathering is the process of the
breaking down rocks.
 There are two different types of
weathering.
 Physical and chemical weathering.
SOIL TYPES
Residual soil
Sediment soil
• Alluvium soil
• Lacustrine soil
• Marine soil
Particular soil
• Expansive soil
• Organic soil
• Collapsible soil
• Quick clay
5. Rock Mechanics
6. Foundation Engineering
 Sub-structure is usually called
foundation.
 Thus structural elements that
connect, bridges, buildings etc. to the
ground are called foundations.
 Foundation of any structure is very
important because the safety and
reliability of structure depends upon
foundation.
 Load of a structure are transmitted
from the superstructure to the sub-
structure i.e., foundation by columns
or walls.
 The foundation distributes the
load to the soil in such a manner that
the soil is able to withstand the load
as shown in figure below
Load transmission through foundation
 Types of Foundations:

 Foundations are broadly

classified into two categories:
i. Shallow foundations and
ii. Deep foundations
 Please, see figures below depict
types of foundations
 D/B ≤ 1

Shallow foundations Deep foundations

Types of foundations