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CH-1
INTRODUCTION
Soil
Mechanics-I 1 2

 To a Pedologist: Soil is the substance existing on

the earth's surface, which grows and develops
plant life.
 To a Geologist: Soil is the material in the relative

What is Soil? thin surface zone within which roots occur, and
all the rest of the crust is grouped under the
term Rock irrespective of its hardness.
 To an Engineer: Soil is the un-aggregated or un-
cemented deposits of mineral and/or organic
particles or fragments covering large portion of
the earth’s crust.

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 Soil is the oldest and most complex

engineering material.
 Coulomb (1773) is credited as the first
person to use mechanics to solve soil BIRTH OF SOIL
problems.
MECHANICS

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 Recorded history tells us that ancient

civilizations flourished along the banks of
rivers, such as the Nile (Egypt) and
(Ethiopia), the Tigris and Euphrates
 From the early 20th century, the rapid
(Mesopotamia)…
growth of cities, industry and commerce
required numerous building systems.  As of 2008, a total of 138 pyramids have
been discovered in Egypt.

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 To answer these questions, we

need the help of some rational
 These building systems require stable and method and, consequently, soil
economic foundations and new questions mechanics was born.
about soils were asked.  Karl Terzaghi (1883-1963) is the
o what is the state of stress in a soil mass? undisputed father of soil
o How to design safe and economic foundations? mechanics.
o How much would a building settle and what is  The publication of his book
the stability of structures founded on or within
soil?
"Erdbaumechanik" in 1925 laid
the foundation for soil
mechanics and brought
recognition to the importance
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of soils in engineering activities.
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 The first conference of the International Society of  Two other important milestones between 1948
Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering and 1960 are
(ISSMFE) was held at Harvard University in 1936
with Karl Terzaghi presiding. (1) the publication of A. W. Skempton’s paper on A
 The conference was possible due to the conviction and B pore pressure parameters, which made
and efforts of Professor Arthur Casagrande of effective stress calculations more practical for
Harvard University. About 200 individuals various engineering works, and
representing 21 countries attended this conference.
(2) publication of the book entitled The
 conference covering a wide range of topics, such as
Measurement of Soil Properties in the Triaxial
 Effective stress
Text by A. W. Bishop and B. J. Henkel (Arnold,
 Shear strength London) in 1957.
 Consolidation
 Swelling clays
 By the early 1950s, computer-aided finite
difference and finite element solutions were
 Earthquake and soil liquefaction
applied to various types of geotechnical
 Machine vibration 11 engineering problems. 12
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GEOTECHNICAL LESSONS
FROM PAST FAILURES

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• What do all of these

occurrences have in common? SOIL MECHANICS AND
Soil Related Failures ITS APPLICATION TO
 Geotechnical Engineering FOUNDATIONS

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 Soil mechanics also called Geotechnics or

Geomechanics, is the application of
engineering mechanics to the solution of
problems dealing with soils as a foundation
and a construction material.

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 Every application of soil mechanics involves

 Soil mechanics is a subset of geotechnical uncertainty because of the variability of
engineering, which involves the application soils and their compositions.
of soil mechanics, geology and hydraulics to  Thus, engineering mechanics can provide
the analysis and design of geotechnical only partial solutions to soil problems.
systems such as dams, embankments,  Experience and approximate calculations
tunnels, canals and waterways, foundations are essential for the successful application
for bridges, roads, buildings, etc. of soil mechanics to practical problems.

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 Virtually every structure is supported by soil

WHY WE STUDY or rock, unless it is floating…or flying.

SOIL MECHANICS?

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o To design and construct foundations for

structures.

 Various reasons to study soil

mechanics include…

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o To use soil as a construction material o To analyze the stability of slopes and causes
and possibilities of landslides.

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o To design and construct earth retaining

structures

GEOTECHNICAL
ENGINEERING

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 Geotechnical Engineering is the sub  Geotechnical Engineering includes:

discipline of Civil Engineering that involves  Soil Mechanics (Soil properties and behavior)
applications of the principles of Soil  Soil Dynamics (Dynamic properties of soils,
Mechanics and Rock Mechanics to the earthquake engineering, machine foundation)
design of foundations, retaining structures  Foundation Engineering (Deep and shallow
and earth structures, evaluation of stability foundations)
of natural slopes and man made soil  Rock Mechanics (Rock stability and tunneling)
deposits and related works.  Geosynthetics (Soil improvement)

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 The work that geotechnical engineers do is

often invisible once construction is
completed.
 A satisfactory foundation design requires
MARVELS OF CIVIL ENGINEERING: the proper application of soil mechanics
THE HIDDEN TRUTH principles, accumulated experience and
good judgment. The stability and life of any
structure

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 Failures occur because of

 inadequate site and soil investigations;
 All structures that are founded on earth rely  unforeseen soil and water conditions;
on our ability to design safe and economic
 natural hazards;
foundations.
 poor engineering analysis, design,
 Structural failures do occur due to different construction, and quality control;
reasons.
 post-construction activities; and usage
 Some failures have been catastrophic and outside the design conditions.
caused severe damage to lives and  When failures are investigated thoroughly, we
properties. obtain lessons and information that will guide
us to prevent similar types of failures in the
future.
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Formation of soils
The materials that constitute the earth’s
crust are rather arbitrarily divided into two
categories, soil and rock.
So do you think learning and Soil is a natural aggregate of mineral grains,
studying soil Mechanics is with or without organic constituents that can
be separated by gentle mechanical means.
Significant to Civil Whereas rocks is considered to be a natural
Engineers? aggregate of mineral grains connected by
strong and permanent cohesive forces.

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Formation of soils Formation of soils

Rocks All soils originate, directly or indirectly, from solid
rocks by the process of weathering. The process of
weathering of the rock decreases the cohesive forces
binding the mineral grains and leads to the
disintegration of bigger masses to smaller and
smaller particles. The weathering of the rocks might
be mechanical (disintegration) and/or chemical
(decomposition).
Mechanical weathering is the fragmentation of rock
by physical forces.
Among the many physical forces responsible for the
disintegration of rock, the following may be cited.
 Temperature Changes
 Freezing action of water
 Spreading of roots of plants
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 Abrasion

Formation of soils COMMON SOIL TYPES

 Depending upon the weathered rocks and the different
 When chemical weathering of rocks takes place, original methods of transportation and deposition, different
rock minerals are transformed into new minerals by soils are formed. These soils have been differently
chemical reaction. named. Some of the important soils, so found in general
 The following chemical processes generally occur in practice, are given below
nature 1. Sand, gravel, cobbles and boulders are coarse grained cohesionless
soils
2. Silt is a fine grained soil
 Oxidation 3. Clay is composed of microscopic particles
 Carbonation 4. Black cotton soil is a residual soil containing a high percentage of
 Hydration the clay mineral montomorillonite.
 Leaching 5. Tuff is a fine grained soil composed of very small particles ejected
from volcanoes during its explosion and deposited by wind or water.
 Soils, which are formed by mechanical or chemical 6. Hardpan
weathering, may be classified as residual or transported 7. Peat is composed of fibrous particles of decayed vegetable matter
soils 8. Top soil is surface soil that supports plants
9. Lateritic soil
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10. Loam is a mixture of sand, silt and clay 52
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COMMON SOIL TYPES COMMON SOIL TYPES

cobbles Black
sand and Silt cotton
boulders soil

gravel Clay

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COMMON SOIL TYPES COMMON SOIL TYPES

Tuff Top soil Peat Loam

Lateritic
Hardpan soil

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