Soil Mechanics I General Introduction

Chapter One

General introduction and definition of soil

1.1 Introduction
Soil is the oldest and most complex engineering material. Our ancestors used soils
as construction material to build burial sites, flood protection, and shelters.
Western civilization credits the Romans for recognizing the importance of soils in
the stability of structures, Roman engineers, especially Vitruvius, who served
during the reign of Emperor Augustus in the first century B.C, paid a great
attention to soil type (sand, gravel, etc.) and to design and construction of solid
foundation. There is no theoretical basis for design; experience from trial and error
was relied upon. Coulomb (1773) is credited as the first person to use
mechanics to solve soil problems. He was a member of the French Royal
engineers, who were interested in protecting old fortresses that fell easily from
cannon fire. To protect the fortresses from artillery attack, sloping masses of soil
were placed in front of them (Fig. 1.1). The enemy had to tunnel below the soil
mass and the fortress to attack. Of course, the enemy then became an easy target.

Figure 1.1: Unprotected and protected fortress.

The soil mass applies a lateral force to the fortress that could cause it to topple
over or slide away from the soil mass. Coulomb attempted to determine the lateral
force so that he could evaluate the stability of the fortress. He postulated that a
wedge of soil ABC (Fig. 1.1) would fail along a slip plane BC and this wedge would
push the wall out or over topple it as it moves down the slip plane. Movement of
the wedge along the slip plane would occur only if the soil resistance along the
wedge were overcome. Coulomb assumed that the soil resistance is provided by
friction between the soil particles and the problem now becomes one of a wedge
sliding on a rough (frictional) plane, which you may have analyzed in your Physics
or Mechanics course. Coulomb has tacitly defined a failure criterion for soils. Today,

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Coulomb's failure criterion and method of analysis still prevail.

1.2 Definition of Soil

The term ‘Soil’ has different meanings in different scientific fields. It has originated
from the Latin word Solium. To an agricultural scientist “Agronomy”, it means ‘‘the
loose material on the earth’s crust consisting of disintegrated rock with an
admixture of organic matter, which supports plant life’’. To a geologist, it means
the disintegrated rock material which has not been transported from the place of
origin. But, to a civil engineer, the term ‘soil’ means, and the loose unconsolidated
inorganic material on the earth’s crust produced by the disintegration of rocks,
overlying hard rock with or without organic matter. Foundations of all structures
have to be placed on or in such soil, which is the primary reason for our interest as
Civil Engineers in its engineering behavior.
‘‘Soil mechanics’’ is the study of the engineering behavior of soil when it is used
either as a construction material or as a foundation material. The term soil
mechanics was coined by Dr. karl Terzaghi and is the application of laws of mechanics
and hydraulics to engineering problems dealing with sediments and other
unconsolidated accumulations of soils particles produced by the mechanical and
chemical disintegration of rocks regardless whether or not they contain an admixture of
organic constituents: and therefore soil mechanics is branch mechanics which deal with
the action of forces on soil and with flow of water in soil.
Soil engineering is not an exact science because of the nature and the variability of
soils; sweeping assumptions are in the derivation of equations.

1.3 Birth of Soil Mechanics

From the early 20th century, the rapid growth of cities, industry and commerce required
numerous building systems. For example, skyscrapers, large public buildings, dams for
electric power generation and reservoirs for water supply and irrigation, tunnels, roads
and railroads, port and harbor facilities, bridges, airports and runways, mining activities,
hospitals, sanitation systems, drainage systems, towers for communication systems, etc.
These building systems require stable and economic foundations and new questions
about soils were asked. For example, what is the state of stress in a soil mass, how to
design safe and economic foundations, how much would a building settle and what is
the stability of structures founded on or within soil? We continue to ask these questions
and to try to find answers as new issues has confronted us. Some of these new issues
include removing toxic compounds from soil and water, designing foundations and

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earth structures to mitigate damage from earthquakes and other natural hazards, and
designing systems to protect the environment.
To answer these questions, we need the help of some rational method and, consequently,
soil mechanics was born. Karl Terzaghi (1883-1963) is the undisputed father of soil
mechanics. The publication of his book "Erdbaumechanik" in 1925 laid the foundation
for soil mechanics and brought recognition to the importance of soils in engineering
activities.

1.4 Soil Mechanics and Its application to foundations

Soil mechanics also called geotechnique or geotechnics or geomechanics, is the

application of engineering mechanics to the solution of problems dealing with soils as a
foundation and a construction material. Engineering mechanics is used to understand
and interpret the properties, behavior, and performance of soils. Soil mechanics is a
subset of geotechnical engineering, which involves the application of soil mechanics,
geology and hydraulics to the analysis and design of geotechnical systems such as dams,
embankments, tunnels, canals and waterways, foundations for bridges, roads, buildings,
etc. Every application of soil mechanics involves uncertainty because of the variability
of soils and their compositions. Thus, engineering mechanics can provide only partial
solutions to soil problems. Experience and approximate calculations are essential for the
successful application of soil mechanics to practical problems. Many of the calculations
that you will learn in this course are approximations.

1.5 Geotechnical lessons from past failures

Stability and economy are two tenets of engineering design. All structures that are
founded on earth rely on our ability to design safe and economic foundations. Structural
failures do occur due to different reasons. Some failures have been catastrophic and
caused severe damage to lives and properties. Failures occur because of inadequate site
and soil investigations; unforeseen soil and water conditions; natural hazards; poor
engineering analysis, design, construction, and quality control; post-construction
activities; and usage outside the design conditions. When failures are investigated
thoroughly, we obtain lessons and information that will guide us to prevent similar types
of failures in the future.

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