CE 150: Geotechnical

Engineering 1 (Soil Mechanics)

ENGR. ALJON G. LANGUING

INSTRUCTOR
LESSON 1:
INTRODUCTION TO
GEOTECHNICAL ENGINEERING

CONTENT:
A. DEFINITION OF GEOTECHNICAL ENGINEERING AND SOIL MECHANICS
B. HISTORY OF SOIL MECHANICS
C. IMPORTANCE OF SOIL MECHANICS
D. DEFINITION OF SOIL
E. SOIL CONSTITUENTS
F. SOIL-PARTICLE SIZE AND SHAPE
G. IDENTIFICATION OF SOIL
 INTRODUCTION TO
LESSON 1:
GEOTECHNICAL ENGINEERING
 A. INTRODUCTION TO GEOTECHNICAL ENGINEERING AND SOIL MECHANICS
GEOTECHNICAL ENGINEERING
Also known as geotechnics, is the branch of civil engineering concerned with the
engineering behavior of earth materials. It uses the principles and methods of soil
mechanics and rock mechanics for the solution of engineering problems and the design
of engineering works.
INCLUDES:
a. Investigating Existing Subsurface Conditions
b. Determining Soil Properties
c. Assessing Risks Posed by Site Conditions
d. Designing Earthworks and Structure Foundation
e. Monitoring Site Conditions, Earthwork and Foundation Construction.
 INTRODUCTION TO
LESSON 1:
GEOTECHNICAL ENGINEERING
 A. INTRODUCTION TO GEOTECHNICAL ENGINEERING AND SOIL MECHANICS
SOIL MECHANICS
A discipline of engineering science which deals with the properties and behavior of
soil as a structural material.
All structures have to be built on soils. Our main objective in the study of soil
mechanics is to lay down certain principles, theories and procedures for the design of a
safe and sound structure.
The foundation engineer must have the ability to interpret the principles of soil
mechanics to suit the field conditions.
 B. HISTORY OF SOIL MECHANICS
• 1930: “ Soil Mechanics ” was established as a branch of civil
engineering. Karl Terzaghi’s contribution in the field of Soil
Mechanics have been immense and he is fittingly called the “Father
of Soil Mechanics”. The term Soil Mechanics was coined by him.
 B. HISTORY OF SOIL MECHANICS
Preclassical Period of Soil Mechanics (1700-1776)
This period concentrated on studies relating to natural slope and unit weights of
various types of soils, as well as the semi-empirical pressure theories.
1717: Henri Gautier (1660-1737) studied the natural slopes of soils.
1729: Bernard Forest de Belidor (1671-1761) published a textbook proposing a theory
for lateral earth pressure on retaining walls.
1746: Francois Gadroy (1705-1759) reported the first laboratory model test results on a
76mm high retaining wall built with sand backfill.
Classical Soil Mechanics- Phase (1776-1856)
During this period, most of the developments in the area of geotechnical
engineering came from engineers and scientists in France.
1776: French Scientist Charles Augustin Coulomb (1736-1806) used the principles of
calculus for maxima and minima in his study in retaining walls.
 B. HISTORY OF SOIL MECHANICS
Classical Soil Mechanics- Phase I (1776-1856)
1790: Gaspard Clair Marie Riche de Prony (1755-1839) included Coulomb’s Theory in
his leading textbook, Nouvelle Architecture Hydraulique (Vol. 1)
1820: Jacques Frederic Francais (1775-1833) and Claude Louis Marie Henri Navier
(1785-1836) studied special cased related to inclined backfills and backfills supporting
surcharge.
1840: Jean Victor Poncelet (1788-1867) extended Coulomb’s Theory by providing a
graphical method for determining the magnitude of lateral earth pressure.
1846: Alexandre Collin (18-08-1890) provided the details for deep slips in clay slopes,
cutting, and embankments.
Classical Soil Mechanics- Phase II (1856-1910)
Several experiment results from laboratory tests on sand appeared in the literature
in this phase.
 B. HISTORY OF SOIL MECHANICS
Classical Soil Mechanics- Phase II (1856-1910)
1856: Henri Philibert Gaspard Darcy (1803-1858) published a study on the permeability of
sand filters.
George Howard Darwin (1845-1912) conducted laboratory tests to determine the
overturning moment on a hinged wall retaining sand.
1885: Joseph Valentin Boussinesq (1842-1929), was the development of the theory of
stress distribution.
1887: Osborne Reynolds (1842-1912) demonstrated the phenomenon of dilatancy in
sand.
1998: Beresford’s 1898 study on uplift pressure on the Norora Weir on the Ganges River
has been documented in Technical Paper No. 97, Government of India, 1902.
 B. HISTORY OF SOIL MECHANICS
Modern Soil Mechanics (1910-1927)
In this period, results of research conducted on clays were published in which the
fundamental properties and parameters of clay were established.
1911: Albert Mauritz Atterberg explained the consistency of cohesive soils by defining liuid,
plastic, and shrinkage limits.
1918, 1926: Wolmar Fellenius (1876-1957) developed the stability analysis of saturated
clay.
1919-1924: Karl Terzaghi (1883-1963) of Austria developed the theory of consolidation for
clays as we know today.
 C. IMPORTANCE OF SOIL MECHANICS
FOUNDATIONS
All the civil engineering structures, ultimately rest on the soil. They transfer their
whole load to the soil, so we have to construct the foundations to retain these structures.
In case of the hard soil/having sufficient strength we can provide the shallow foundations.
If we know the strength of the soil then we can decide which type of foundation is to be
used. If the soil is weak in strength then we have to provide the deep foundations like pile
foundation, well foundation etc. It is important to know the method to calculate the method
to know the strength of the soil.
 C. IMPORTANCE OF SOIL MECHANICS

EARTHEN DAMS:
There are so many earthen dams constructed to
retain the water. The soil to be used for the construction of
these earthen dams must be suitable enough to use it in
its construction. Various properties of the soil, like its
permeability, strength, and density are checked on regular
basis to know if the soil compacted to required density or
not. The earthen dams are costly structure and also they
have a high risk of getting failed, so they must be
constructed with great care, so it is very important to study
the properties of the soil.
 C. IMPORTANCE OF SOIL MECHANICS

EMBANKMENTS:
There are embankments constructed to raise the
levels of the highways on the plains because there are
chances of the floods etc, and also it is required to keep
the foundation of the pavement above the water table. The
embankments are generally constructed of the soil, which
is testes for its various properties. There is need to design
a economical embankment which is only possible by
studying the various soil properties.
 C. IMPORTANCE OF SOIL MECHANICS

CANALS OR OTHER RETAINING AND UNDER GROUND STRUCTURES:

The canals also are formed by the soil which to be constructed to be
impermeable and of enough strength. The retaining structure like the retaining walls,
are constructed to retain the earth. The earth properties are important to know about.
The properties like the earth pressure, shear strength etc gives us the idea to design
the retaining structure. The soil strata is constantly investigated by the geologist to give
the idea of the type of construction to be carried further in case of the tunneling.
 D. DEFINITION OF SOILS
SOILS IS DEFINED AS:
 A naturally occurring material obtained from weathering or decomposition or
disintegration of rocks.
 The unaggregated or uncemented deposits of minerals and organic particles
covering large portion of earth crust.
 A heterogeneous mixture of fluids (air and water) and particles (clay, sand, silt and
gravel), sometimes it may contain organic solids, liquids, gases and other matters.

 E. SOIL CONSTITUENTS
A soil mass is commonly considered to consist of
solid particles, enclosed voids or interspaces. Thus, there
are two constituents of soil.
a. Soil or Solid Particles
b. Voids
 E. SOIL CONSTITUENTS
On the basis of constituents, the soil types are:
1. Dry Soil – if only air is present in the voids of the
compressed soil then it is called dry soil.
2. Saturated Soil – if only water is present in the voids
then it is called saturated soil.
3. Partially Saturated/Moist Soil – If water along with air is
present in the voids then it is called partially
saturated/moist soil.

FORMATION OF SOIL OR WEATHERING OF ROCKS

The conversion, decomposition or disintegration of intact mass of rock
mechanically or chemically to small pieces is called weathering.
There are two types of Weathering:
1. Mechanical Weathering – grinding, abrasion, shuttering
2. Chemical Weathering – hydration, carbonation, nitration, oxidation and organic acids
 F. SOIL-PARTICLE SIZE
Soils generally are called gravel, sand, silt, or clay, depending on the predominant
size of particles within the soil. To describe soils by their particle size, several organizations
have developed particle-size classifications . Table 2.3 shows the particle size
classifications developed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the U.S.
Department of Agriculture, the American Association of State Highway and Transportation
Officials, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.
 F. SOIL-PARTICLE SIZE
Gravels are pieces of rocks with occasional particles
of quartz, feldspar, and other minerals.
Sand particles are made of mostly quartz and
feldspar.
Gravel and sand particles are coarse grain soil
(cohesionless soil). In coarse grain soil, the particles have
large size and do not have any intermolecular attractive
forces.
Silts are the microscopic soil fractions that consist of
very fine quartz grains and some flake-shaped particles that
are fragments of micaceous minerals.
Clays are mostly flake-shaped microscopic and
submicroscopic particles of mica, clay minerals, and other
minerals.
Silts and clays are fine grain soil (cohesive soil). In
fine grain soil, the particles are small in size and have
intermolecular forces of attraction.
PARTICLE SHAPE
The shape of particles present in a soil mass is
equally as important as the particle-size distribution because
it has significant influence on the physical properties of a
given soil. However, not much attention is paid to particle
shape because it is more difficult to measure. The particle
shape generally can be divided into three major categories:
1. Bulky
2. Flaky
3. Needle Shaped

Bulky particles are formed mostly by mechanical

weathering of rock and minerals. Geologists use such terms
as angular, subangular, subrounded and rounded to
describe the shapes of bulky particles.
PARTICLE SHAPE

Flaky particles are the materials of which the thickness is small as compared to
the other two dimensions. These particles are predominantly clay minerals.
Needle-shaped particles are much less common than the other particle types.
Examples of soils containing needle-shaped particles are some coral deposits and
attapulgite clays
 G. IDENTIFICATION OF SOIL
For the identification of soil, we may perform the
following test:
1. Visual Examination
In visual examination, we observe with naked eye the
following properties:
a. Colour b. Gradation c. Angularity
b. And decide whether it is a coarse or fine grain soil
2. Feel Test
In feel test, we take small amount of soil, add a few drops
of water, rub it between our fingers and observe that:
c. If large particles, then it is a sand
d. If small particles, then it is silt
e. If small and soapy, then it is clay.
 G. IDENTIFICATION OF SOIL

3. Rolling Test - In rolling test, take the sample soil, add

few drops of water and make a ball out of it by keeping it
on the palm and rolling it. Now, convert it into a thread:
a. If it immediately crumbles without assuming thread
shape then it is sandy soil.
b. If it is converted to a ball and cracks appear then it is
silty soil.
c. If it is converted to thread of 3mm then it is clayey soil.
 G. IDENTIFICATION OF SOIL

4. Dry Strength Test - Take soil and add few drops of

water, make a cube out of it, place it under the sun or in
oven at 100 degrees Celsius. When all the water is
removed, try to break it by hand
a. In case of sandy soil, it will break easily.
b. In case of silty soil, some pressure is required to break
it.
c. In case of clay, it cannot break easily.
 G. IDENTIFICATION OF SOIL

5. Dispersion Test - Take some dry soil and put it in a

glass of water (i.e. Transparent glass)
a. In case of sandy soil, the particles will settle down in
a very short time (i.e. few seconds).
b. In case of silty soil, it will take some time to settle
down
c. In case of clayey soil, it will take a lot of time to
settle down.

All of the above tests are simple and are performed to

get the general idea about soil type.