The course consists of two distinct topics, which are essential to the application of soil mechanics principles in geotechnical engineering practice, namely: site investigation and deep foundations

2 lectures per week, 1 tutorial per week

None

None

Examination (70%), Coursework (30%)

It is the default expectation that all courses will offer opportunities for reassessment or deferred assessment. Where it is not possible to offer this in some assessment components, the grade achieved at the first attempt will be counted towards the final course grade, and any exceptions for this course are described below.

[No exceptions]

The aims of this course are:

1) to consolidate material taught in basic courses in soil mechanics and geotechnical engineering (e.g. Soil Mechanics 2 and Geotechnical Engineering 3) and which is essential to the further development of geotechnical engineering in this course;

2) to gain insight into site investigation procedures, to develop detailed knowledge of selected topics, and apply learnings to a range of practical problems;

3) to develop understanding of the mechanics and design of piled foundations and to use that knowledge for design purposes.

At the end of this course students will be able to:

1) list and discuss the phases of a "standard" site investigation describing the resources commonly employed;

2) list the application of drilling and sampling methods and be familiar with soil index testing and the relevance of the results;

3) describe standard laboratory element tests (the triaxial test, the direct shear test and the oedometer test); describe the procedure for and interpret data from standard in situ tests (standard penetration, cone penetration, vane shear and pressuremeter);

4) gain knowledge of the application of a range of pile types, construction/installation methods, and their purposes and the consequent implications for selection/design etc;

5) evaluate the axial capacity of a single vertical pile in the short-term and under long-term conditions;

6) utilise analytical approaches to determine the settlement of a single vertical pile. Be familiar with common static and dynamic pile testing methods; determine the lateral capacity of a single pile considering factors such as restrained and unrestrained loading on short stiff and long flexible piles.

7) design pile groups and determine the vertical capacity of a pile group under individual and block-failure conditions;

8) apply EC7 partial factors in pile design.