Course overview
This course will introduce students to the fundamental concepts of soil and rock engineering, and to geotechnical design. Introduction to terminology, engineering soil classification, seepage and compaction, stresses in soil masses due to external loads and pore water pressures, consolidation and excess pore water pressures; strength and stiffness; gravity retaining walls; analysis of slopes with pore water pressures; immediate settlements; total settlement; design of shallow footings for bearing capacity; design of deep footings; site investigations, rock testing; rock mass classification; stress theories and strength criteria; slope stability.
Course learning outcomes
- Design appropriate index tests to determine engineering soil behaviour (PO1).
- Apply the principles of consolidation for predicting settlement with time (PO 1).
- Demonstrate familiarity with direct shear and triaxial tests and their applicability to common soil engineering problems (PO 1).
- Compute pressures acting on gravity retaining walls (PO 1, 9, 5).
- Evaluate slope stability with pore water pressures for soil or rock based on appropriate shear strength parameters (PO 5, 4).
- Design shallow and deep footings for bearing capacity (PO 5, 4).
- Operate in a small team to formulate a geotechnical model of a site and to complete a geotechnical design for the site (PO 1, 2, 4, 5, 8 and 9).