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Chapter One: General Introduction and Definition

This document provides an introduction and definition of soil for civil engineers. It discusses how soil is the oldest construction material and how Coulomb was the first to use mechanics to study soil problems. It defines soil as loose unconsolidated inorganic material produced by rock disintegration. Karl Terzaghi is credited with coining the term "soil mechanics" and establishing it as the application of mechanics to geotechnical problems dealing with soils. The document also notes how soil mechanics helps analyze soil behavior and design stable and economic foundations.

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Minilik Tikur Sew
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192 views6 pages

Chapter One: General Introduction and Definition

This document provides an introduction and definition of soil for civil engineers. It discusses how soil is the oldest construction material and how Coulomb was the first to use mechanics to study soil problems. It defines soil as loose unconsolidated inorganic material produced by rock disintegration. Karl Terzaghi is credited with coining the term "soil mechanics" and establishing it as the application of mechanics to geotechnical problems dealing with soils. The document also notes how soil mechanics helps analyze soil behavior and design stable and economic foundations.

Uploaded by

Minilik Tikur Sew
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Chapter One

General Introduction and Definition


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. Coulomb (1773) is credited as the first
person to use mechanics to solve soil problems.
Coulomb has tacitly defined a failure criterion for
soils. Today, 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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
1.5 Geotechnical lessons from past failures
Stability and economy are two tenets of engineering
design. Structural failures do occur due to different
reasons. Such as:-
o Inadequate site and soil investigations;
o Unforeseen soil and water conditions;
o Natural hazards;
o Poor engineering analysis, design, construction, and
quality control; post-construction activities; and
o 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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