Geotechnical Engineering – I
CEPC16
Field Applications and Historical
Developments
Course instructor
Dr. Chandaluri Vinay Kumar
Assistant Professor
Department of Civil Engineering
NIT Tiruchirappalli
Karl von Terzaghi
Father of Soil Mechanics
Karl von Terzaghi (2nd October, 1883- 25th October 1963)
An Austrian Mechanical Engineer, Geotechnical and Geologist
Source: https://ascelibrary.org/doi/10.1061/9780784403648.ch08
Recommended Study Material
Basic and Applied Soil Mechanics by Gopal Ranjan
and A.S.R. Rao, Wiley Eastern Ltd., New Delhi, 2016.
Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engg by V.N.S.
Murthy, CBS Pub. New Delhi. 2007.
Essentials of Soil Mechanics and Foundations – Basic
Geotechnics by David F.McCarthy, 2015, Pearson
Pub., New Delhi.
Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering by B.N.D.
Narsinga Rao, 2015, Wiley India Pvt. Ltd. New Delhi.
Geotechnical Engineering by Debashis Moitra, 2016,
University Press (India) Pvt. Ltd. Hyderabad.
Craig, R.F. (2006): Craig’s Soil Mechanics, Seventh
Edition, Spon Press, Taylor and Francis Group.
Braja M. Das (2006): Principles of Geotechnical
Engineering, Fifth Edition, Thomson, Brooks/Cole.
Karl Terzaghi, R.B. Peck, G. Mesri (1996): Soil
Mechanics in Engineering Practice, Third Edition,
John Wiley & Sons Inc.
Indian Standard Codes of Practice (IS 2720: Part 1 to
42)
Relevant International Codes of Practice (ASTM,BS,
etc)
Site Investigation, Clayton, C.R.I, Matthews, M.C.,
Simons, N.E.
Introduction:
Geotechnical Engineering or soil mechanics
The Greek word “Ge” and English word Geo”
means “Earth”
Source: https://membean.com/wrotds/ge-earth
Soil is derived from “solum” Latin word
- means the substratum in which plant grows
Source: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/soil#Etymology_1
Origin
• Geotechnical Engineering: Application of civil
engineering technology to some aspect of natural
materials found at or near the earth’s surface.
• According to Karl Van Terzaghi:
• Soil can be relatively easily broken down into their
constituent small particles
• On the other hand, rocks have very strong internal
cohesive and molecular forces which hold the constituent
mineral grains together.
Often, this distinction between soil and rock is not clear-cut
many times a hard soil can also be termed as soft rock or
vice versa.
• Soil Mechanics It is the branch of geotechnical
engineering concerned with engineering behaviour and
properties of soil.
• Rock Mechanics It is the branch of geotechnical
engineering concerned with engineering behaviour and
properties of rock.
• There are significant differences between the behaviour
of soil masses and rock masses and in principle there is
not much overlap between two materials.
Q: What is need of studying Geotechnical Eng. ?
Civil engineering problems related to soil
• Every civil engineering structure (e.g. building, bridge,
tower, embankment, road pavement, railway line, tunnel
or dam) has to be founded on the soil (assuming that
rock stratum is not available) and thus transmit dead and
live loads to the soil stratum.
• Soil is also the most abundantly available construction
material (use for constructing earth dam and
embankments etc.)
Field applications of Geotechnical
Foundations of sensitive and high-rise structures
Foundations of dams and other water retaining
structures
Foundations of offshore structures
Slope protection and landslide mitigation
Earth retaining structures
Cont..
Road, rail and air pavements/embankments
Municipal solid and Nuclear waste disposal
structures
Deep excavations and underground
structures
Machine foundations
Foundations of rocket launching pads
…..
Foundations in Erratic Profiles
Lecture notes CE632, IIT Bombay
Shallow and deep foundations
Source: https://www.slideshare.net/khushi9922/chapter-3-shallow-foundations
Water Retaining Structures
Bhakra – Nangal Dam
226 m height
Source: http://www.news.civilserviceindia.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Bhakra-Dam-pun.jpg
http://www.hydroquebec.com/learning/hydroelectricite/ouvrages-retenue.html
Slope protection and landslide mitigation
https://kshitija.files.wordpress.com/2006/06/soil-nails.jpg
https://phys.org/news/2013-09-gardens-landslides.html
Foundations of offshore structures
Source: https://www.windpowerengineering.com/developments-bottom-fixed-offshore-wind-foundations-europe/
Earth Retaining Structures
Lecture notes CE632, IIT Bombay
Deep excavations
Source: https://www.kasktas.com.tr/en/deep-excavations/#
Tunneling
Source: http://www.cat-bus.com/2018/01/far-from-boringmeet-the-most-interesting-tunnel-boring-machines/
Typical Road Cross-section
Typical Railway track Cross-section
https://www.cleanpng.com/png-rail-transport-train-track-ballast-railroad-tie-ro-6526840/
Machine foundation
Turbines, Generators, Compressors etc..
Unique nature of soil
Soil deposits are often highly variable since they have
been placed by nature under a variety of conditions
Soil sample are taken from a two locations at a given site
and from the same stratum may show widely varying
properties
Unexpected changes can take place when certain
environmental changes occur e.g. vibrations alter sand
deposits from loose state to dense state. Some clays are
extremely hard when dry and turn into slush when their
content is high
Natural deposits are complex to deal with
why ?
• Stress-strain relationship is non-linear
• Soils have memory for stress undergone in their
geological history
• Soil deposits are non-homogeneous and exhibit
properties which vary from location to location
• One has to rely on tests carried out on small
samples
• No sample is truly undisturbed, behaviour of soil
in-situ is often controlled by joints and fissures,
weak layers and zones: yet laboratory tests often
do not take in to account these characteristics
Historical Development
As long as people have been building things, they have
used soils as foundation or construction material
Pyramids of Egypt (2630 - 2611 BCE)
Source: https://mymodernmet.com/egyptian-pyramids/
Hanging gardens built by Babylonians (605-562 BCE)
Iraq
https://www.ancient.eu/Hanging_Gardens_of_Babylon/
The Great Wall of China (221-207 BC)
21,000km long
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/2711342/great-wall-china/
Roads/aqueducts built by Romans are some of the
outstanding construction that must have required great
knowledge, skill and ingenuity on the part of their
boulders
Mid-2nd century BCE
https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/roman-aqueducts/
https://www.ancient.eu/Roman_Engineering/
Aztecs constructed temples and cities on very poor soils
in the valley of Mexico “God city”
https://medium.com/@daniel_lanciana/mexico-city-tourist-nye-edition-8fd036e87de4
European architects and builders during Middle-Ages
learned about the problem of settlements of cathedrals
and large buildings
The most noteworthy example is the Leaning Tower of
Pisa
Scandinavians used timber piles to support houses and
wharf structures on soft clays
• The “design” of foundation and other constructions
involving soil and rock was by the thumb rule and, very
little theory as such was developed until the mid 1700s
• Coulomb (1776) is the most famous name of that era. He
was interested in the problems of earth pressure against
retaining walls. (Some of his calculation procedures are
still in use today)
• The most common theory for shear strength of soils is
named after him
• In the next century, French engineers Collin and Darcy
and Scotsman Rankine made important discoveries
• Darcy established his law for the flow of water through
sands
• Collin worked on failures in clay slopes and
measurement of shear strength of soils
• Rankine developed a method for estimating earth
pressure against retaining walls
• In 1871, Mohr developed the rupture theory and Mohr’s
stress circles
• The beginning of the 20th century saw some important
developments related to physical properties of soil
• In Sweden, Atterberg defined the consistency limits for
clays that are still in use today
• During 1914 – 1922, Geotechnical Commission of the
Swedish State Railways developed many important
concepts and apparatus in Geotechnical engineering
• A method for calculating the stability of slopes (now
known as the Swedish Circle Method) was developed
• For the first time, concepts of clay sensitivity and
consolidation were understood
• Even with these early developments in Sweden, the
father of soil mechanics is really an Austrian Prof. Karl
Terzaghi
• In 1925 he published the first modern text book on soil
mechanics
• Terzaghi has numerous contributions to soil mechanics
• For instance, development of principle of effective stress and one
dimension consolidation theory are landmarks in the understanding
of soil behaviour
• Other prominent contributors to the growth of soil mechanics in the
modern era includes Proctor (famous for theory of compaction),
Arthur Casagrande, Taylor, Peck, Skempton, Bjerrum and Seed
• The growth of literature in soil mechanics after WW II has been
phenomenal as reflected in the proceedings of a series of
International Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical
Engineering
• The Indian Geotechnical Society (IGC) was established in 1948 by
A.N.Khosla The society coordinates the activities in the field of
Geotechnical Engineering in India
