Geotechnical Engineering

This book discusses contemporary issues related to soil mechanics and foundation engineering in earthworks, which are critical components in construction projects and often require detailed management techniques and unique solutions to address failures and implement remedial measures. The geotechnical engineering community continues to improve the classical testing techniques for measuring critical properties of soils and rocks, including stress wave-based non-destructive testing methods as well as methods used to improve shallow and deep foundation design. To minimize failure during construction, contemporary issues and related data may reveal useful lessons to improve project management and minimize economic losses. This book focuses on these aspects using appropriate methods in a rather simple manner. It also touches upon many interesting topics in soil mechanics and modern geotechnical engineering practice such as geotechnical earthquake engineering, principals in foundation design, slope stability analysis, modeling in geomechanics, offshore geotechnics, and geotechnical engineering perspective in the preservation of historical buildings and archeological sites. A total of seven chapters are included in the book

Undergraduate geotechnical engineering education of the 21st century

Forum papers are thought-provoking opinion pieces or essays founded in fact, sometimes containing speculation, on a civil engineering topic of general interest and relevance to the readership of the journal.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Building Research Skills: Course-Integrated Training Methods

An enriched syllabus has been experimentally introduced to undergraduate level students enrolled in a geotechnical engineering course. Two research assignments have been integrated in the course, which require students to find information on a geotechnical engineering topic using both print and electronic resources available at the university library and on the Internet. Aiming to foster the development of technical information literacy and communication skills, the students are required to prepare a report based on a specific set of guidelines, followed by oral presentations of the topics researched. Between the two assignments, a lecture on the subject of identifying and using information resources for geotechnical engineering is included in the syllabus. Preliminary results of the study are presented along with directions for designing and implementing an enriched curriculum for geotechnical engineering courses

Mineralogy in Geotechnical Engineering

The several investigations on soils by different researchers have been executed, but research on soil mechanical propertiesbased on mineralogy is very meager, in this regard the author intention is employee of natural minerals for evaluation of soilcohesion, it may leads to developments of a soil with appropriates characteristics in permeability, transmitting load, resistingagainst deformation and settlement. This paper deals with analysis of soil cohesion based on mineralogy. The result revealedcohesion of a plastic soil could be improve by mineral presented in an non plastic soil, and also carbonate has negative affecton soil cohesion and some other soil minerals also have same affect on cohesion that required to be more investigate

Fundamentals of Geotechnical Engineering

Principles of Foundation Engineering and Principles of Geotechnical Engineering were originally published with 1984 and 1985 copyrights, respectively. These texts were well received by instructors, students, and practitioners alike. Depending on the needs of the users, the texts were revised and are presently in their eighth editions. These texts have also been translated in several languages. Toward the latter part of 1998, there were several requests to prepare a single volume that was concise in nature but combined the essential components of Principles of Foundation Engineering and Principles of Geotechnical Engineering. In response to those requests, the first edition of Fundamentals of Geotechnical Engineering was published in 2000. This text includes the fundamental concepts of soil mechanics as well as foundation engineering, including bearing capacity and settlement of shallow foundations spread footings and mats), retaining walls, braced cuts, piles, and drilled shafts

Geotechnical Failures: an Excellent Tool to Teach Geotechnical Engineering

It is well understood that geotechnical engineering is a branch of civil engineering that requires most engineering judgment. However, the question remains, how to effectively convey this to the students who are used to learn from typical lectures, using textbook approach, i.e., explanation of basic concepts by the course instructor, solution of a lot of example problems with assumed parameters having straight forward steps and definite answers, solution of additional similar problems by students as a part homework assignments, and traditional exams. Case histories of geotechnical failures could play an invaluable role in training the geotechnical engineers for 21st century. Southern Illinois University at Carbondale (SIUC) offers a unique 3 credit hour course on geotechnical engineering in professional practice which is entirely based on practical aspects of geotechnical engineering. The course contents include learning from geotechnical engineering case histories. This paper presents information about the course and how case histories are used to train geotechnical engineers at SIUC

Geomechanics for Energy and a Sustainable Environment

This book describes recent advances in geomechanics for energy and the sustainable environment. Four research articles, related to high-level radioactive nuclear waste disposal stability, geological effect and wellbore stability considerations for methane gas hydrate production, and artificial soil freezing, are presented in this book. In addition, a comprehensive state-of-the-art review verifies the strong correlation between global climate change and the occurrence of geotechnical engineering hazards. The review also summarizes recent attempts to reduce CO2 emissions from civil and geotechnical engineering practices. Readers will gain ideas as to how we can deal with conventional and renewable energy sources and environment-related geotechnical engineering issues