Soil Mechanics I

CE-225
Introduction & course outline

Dr. Zafar Mahmood

NUST Institute of Civil Engineering (NICE)
School of Civil & Env. Engineering (SCEE)

1
 Soil Mechanics 2

“Virtually every structure is supported by

soil or rock. Those that aren’t either fly,
float, or fall over.”
Richard L. Handy (1995)
 Soil Mechanics 3

• Soil mechanics is the science of equilibrium and

motion of soil bodies.
• Soil mechanics is a subset of geotechnical
engineering.
• It involves the application of soil mechanics, geology,
and hydraulics to the analysis and design of
geotechnical systems such as
– dams, embankments,
– tunnels, canals and water ways,
– foundations for bridges, roads, buildings,
– and solid waste disposal systems.
 Geotechnical Engineering 4

Geotechnical engineering is the branch of

civil engineering that deals with soil, rock,
and underground water, and their relation
to the design, construction, and operation
of engineering projects
 Soils 5

• Consist of
– Particles
– Water Typical 3 Phases
– Air
– Organics
– Other Fluids and Gases
 Typical geotechnical project 6

Geo-Laboratory soil properties

Design Office
for testing for design & analysis

construction site
 Shallow foundations 7

• For transferring building loads to underlying ground

• Mostly for firm soils or light loads

firm ground

bed rock
Deep foundations 8
 Retaining walls 9

For retaining soils from spreading laterally

retaining
wall

Road
Train
 Retaining walls – soil nailing 10

Steel rods placed

into holes drilled
into the walls and
grouted
 Earth dams 11

For impounding water

reservoir
clay
core shell

soil
 Concrete dams 12

reservoir concrete dam

soil
 Earth works 13

Preparing the ground prior to construction

 Geofabrics 14

Used for reinforcement, separation, filtration and

drainage in roads, retaining walls, embankments

Geofabrics used on Pacific Highway

 Sheet piles 15

Sheets of interlocking steel or timber driven into the

ground, forming a continuous sheet

warehouse

ship

sheet pile
 Sheet piles 16

Sheet piles resist lateral earth pressures. These are

used in excavations, waterfront structures.
 Cofferdam 17

sheet pile walls enclosing an area, to prevent water

seeping in
Land slides 18
 Shoring 19

Propping and supporting the exposed walls to resist

lateral earth pressures
Tunneling 20
 Geotechnical earthquake engineering 21

Liquefaction-induced bearing capacity failures of the kawaguchi-

cho apartment building following the 1964 Niigata Earthquake
Geotechnical earthquake engineering 22

Liquefaction-induced settlement
 Ground improvement 23

Impact Roller to Compact the Ground

 Ground improvement 24

Sheepfoot Roller to Compact Clay Soils

Ground improvement 25

Smooth-wheeled Roller
 Ground improvement 26

Heavy weights dropped from 25 m, compacting the ground.

Craters
formed in
compaction
 Conclusions 27

• Soil Mechanics leads to many possible

projects

• This class provides the fundamentals to begin

learning the concepts and projects shown
before

• A basic understanding of soil mechanics is

necessary for all civil engineers
Some unsung heroes of Civil Engineering … 28

… buried right under your feet.

foundations

soil exploration
tunnels
 Course outline 29

• Origin of soil and grain size (1 week)

• Weight-volume relationships, plasticity and structure
of soil (2 weeks)
• Engineering classification of soil (2 weeks)
• Soil compaction (2 weeks)
• Permeability (2 weeks)
• Seepage (2 weeks)
• Shear strength of soil (3 weeks)
• Soil exploration (2 weeks)
 Practicals 30

• Sieve analysis
• Hydrometer analysis
• Specific gravity
• Moisture content determination
• Atterberg limits
• Field identification tests
• Permeability by constant and variable head
• AASHO and modified AASHO test
• Density in situ by sand replacement and rubber balloon
method
• Direct shear test
• Unconfined compression test
• Triaxial test