EN7723 – GEOTECHNICAL ENGINEERING III

 

Elective for Term 7                                                                                     Instructor:

Civil students                                                                                      R. Popescu

 

1. Rationale:

 

EN7723 is an elective in geotechnical engineering offered to term 7 students. It is intended to complement the first two general Geotechnical Engineering courses by offering more topics for students interested in this area: Soil investigation and site characterization; Offshore geotechnical engineering; Embankment dams; Pile foundations; Elements of geotechnical earthquake engineering; Constitutive theories for soil materials; Numerical methods in geotechnical engineering. The students select two of the above topics on which they are interested in concentrating their efforts. Weekly lectures are also offered on all the special topics.

 

2. Syllabus

 

  1. Soil investigation and site characterization (advanced methods of subsurface investigation; determination of stratigraphy and engineering properties by in-situ testing; advanced soil laboratory instrumentation and measurement techniques; estimation of soil properties for foundation design; planning of the site investigation program; probabilistic aspects in site characterization);

 

  1. Offshore geotechnical engineering (nature of submarine soils; offshore soil investigations; seabed sediments; wave action on seabed; submarine slope stability; seabed anchor systems);

 

  1. Embankment dams (types of embankment dams; field and laboratory investigations;  foundation conditions and treatment;  seepage and seepage control;  stability analysis;  deformation analysis; seismic considerations;  instrumentation and monitoring;  risk based design);

 

  1. Pile foundations (types of pile foundations, loads, subsurface investigations, laboratory and field testing, selection of shear strength parameters, pile capacity, pile group analysis, construction practices and equipment);

 

  1. Elements of geotechnical earthquake engineering (seismic loading and its effect on earth structures; dynamic response of single, and multi-degree of freedom systems and continuous systems; behaviour of soil under dynamic loading; pore pressure generation and liquefaction effects; seismicity and seismic design parameters);

 

  1. Constitutive theories for soil materials (stress and strain, linear elastic and incremental linear elastic models; plastic dilatancy of soil materials; critical state concept; concepts of plasticity, elastic-plastic soil models);

 

  1. Numerical methods in geotechnical engineering (application of finite element method to the solution of stress, deformation, seepage, and consolidation problems; numerical solutions for soil dynamics problems; soil-structure interaction).

 

Weekly lectures and tutorials focusing on the selected topics are offered, and the students solve related problems and submit a term project. Term project defense is open to the public. In addition, weekly seminars are offered on all the special topics listed above. As most of the areas addressed by the seminars are not selected by currently enrolled students, they are usually kept at an introductory and informal level. The seminars are open to the public. Their topics comprise the subject of theoretical and practical questions of the final examination.

 

3. Grading System

 

Assignments (5)       – 20%

Term Project               – 40%

Final Examination            – 40%

 

4. Recommended reading

 

·       American Society of Civil Engineers, “Design of Pile Foundations”, ASCE, 1993.

·       J.E. Bowles, “Foundation Analysis and Design”, 5th edition, McGraw-Hill, 1996.

·       J.E. Bowles, “Engineering Properties of Soils and Their Measurement”, McGraw-Hill, 1992.

·       Campanella, R.G., Field methods for dynamic geotechnical testing: An overview of capabilities and needs. Symp. on Dynamic Geotech. Testing II, pg. 3-23, San Francisco, CA, 1994.

·       D.P. Conduto, "Geotechnical Engineering - Principles and Practice", Prentice Hall, 1999.

·       B.M. Das, “Principles of Geotechnical Engineering”, 5th edition, Prindle, Weber and Schmidt, 2002.

·       B.M. Das, “Principles of Foundation Engineering”, 5th edition, Prindle, Weber and Schmidt, 2004.

·       Das, B.M., Fundamentals of Soil Dynamics. Elsevier, 1996.

·       R.D. Holtz and W.D. Kovacz, “An Introduction to Geotechnical Engineering”, Prentice Hall, 1981.

·       Ishihara, K., Liquefaction and flow failure during earthquakes, Geotechnique, 43(3):351-415, 1993.

·       Lambe, T.W and Whitman, R.V., Soil mechanics, SI version, 1979.

·       Prevost, J.H., Modeling the Behavior of Geomaterials, Princeton Univ. Press, 1990.

·       Prevost J.H. and R. Popescu, "Constitutive Relations for Soil Materials", Electronic Journal of Geotechnical Engnrg., ASCE, 1996.

·       V. J. Zipparo and H. Hansen, "Davis' Handbook of Applied Hydraulics", 4th edition, McGraw-Hill, 1993.