Professional Documents
Culture Documents
L. Sebastian Bryson
University of Kentucky
Introduction to Geotechnical Engineering
All Civil Engineering begins
with Geotechnical
Engineering
ground
2
Definitions
Soil mechanics is a discipline that applies the
principles of engineering mechanics to soils to
predict the mechanical behavior of soil.
construction site 4
Shallow Foundations
~ for transferring building loads to
underlying ground
~ mostly for firm soils or
light loads
firm
ground
6 bed rock
Shallow Foundations
Foundation Systems
Designing of Shallow Foundations Systems –
Bearing Capacity Failure
Transcona Grain Elevator
bed rock
10
Foundation Systems
Deep Foundation Systems: Driven Piles
Deep Foundations
retaining
wall
Road
Train
14
Earth Pressure
and Retaining Walls
Reinforced Earth Walls
18
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
20
Sheet Piles
~ resist lateral earth pressures
~ used in temporary works
~ used in excavations, waterfront structures
21
Sheet Pile Walls
23
Tunneling
24
Earth Dams ~ for impounding water
reservoir
clay
core shell
soil
25
Landslides
26
Earthworks
~ preparing the ground prior to construction
Roadwork, Pacific
Highway
27
Geofabrics
~ used for reinforcement, separation, filtration and
drainage in roads, retaining walls, embankments…
30
Geoenvironmental Engineering
Characterization and remediation of Geo-
environmental hazards
MSW Landfill
32
Instrumentation
~ to monitor the performances of earth and earth
supported structures
~ to measure loads, pressures, deformations,
strains
33
Soil Testing
Collapse of Nicoll
Highway,Singapore,
2004
Geotechnical Engineering
Problems
Are natural or proposed earth slope stable?