Soil Mechanics

Soil Characteristics: Classification and mineralogy of soils; Grains, grain size distribution and porosity; Introduction to in situ testing.

Groundwater: Pore pressure and effective stress; Darcys law, permeability and groundwater flow.

Geomechanics: Stresses and initial stress state; Strains, stress-strain relationships and tangent modulus; Elastic solutions; Consolidation, drained and undrained behaviour.

Shear Strength of Soils: Drained and undrained soil behaviour; total and effective shear strength parameters; Mohr circles; Mohr-Coulomb failure criterion; stress paths; shear test; triaxial test; site investigation; soil sampling.

Retaining Structures: Lateral earth pressure at rest; passive and active pressures; Rankine; Coulomb; sheet pile walls; Blum.

Foundations: Geotechnical bearing capacity; shallow and deep foundations; Prandtl; Brinch Hansen; pile foundations.

Slope Stability: Limit equilibrium methods; vertical slope; infinite slope; method of slices; Fellenius; Bishop.