This document provides an overview of geotechnical engineering topics including typical geotechnical projects, shallow and deep foundations, retaining walls, earth dams, concrete dams, earthworks, geofabrics, reinforced earth walls, soil nailing, sheet piles, cofferdams, landslides, shoring, tunneling, blasting, ground improvement techniques, environmental geomechanics, instrumentation, soil testing methods, typical safety factors, notable contributors to geotechnical engineering, landmarks, and advice for studying geotechnical engineering.

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Introduction to Geotechnical
Engineering
ground

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Typical Geotechnical Project
construction site
Geo-Laboratory
~ for testing
Design Office
~ for design & analysis
soilsamples
soil properties
design details

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bed rock
firm
ground
Shallow Foundations
~ for transferring building loads to underlying ground
~ mostly for firm soils or light loads

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Shallow Foundations

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bed rock
weak soil
Deep Foundations
P
I
L
E
~ for transferring building loads to underlying ground
~ mostly for weak soils or heavy loads

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Deep Foundations
Driven timber piles, Pacific Highway

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Retaining Walls
~ for retaining soils from spreading laterally
Road
Train
retaining
wall

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Earth Dams
~ for impounding water
soil
reservoir
clay
core shell

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Concrete Dams
reservoir
soil
concrete dam

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Concrete Dams
Three Gorges Dam, Hong Kong

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Concrete Dams

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Earthworks
Roadwork, Pacific Highway
~ preparing the ground prior to construction

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Construction hazard
~ an unwelcome visitor at an earthwork site.
A dead Anaconda python (courtesy: J. Brunskill)
What does it have
to do with Geo?#!

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Geofabrics
~ used for reinforcement, separation, filtration and
drainage in roads, retaining walls, embankments…
Geofabrics used on Pacific Highway

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Reinforced Earth Walls
~ using geofabrics to strengthen the soil

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Soil Nailing
~ steel rods placed into holes drilled into the walls
and grouted

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Sheet Piles
~ sheets of interlockingsteel or timber driven into
the ground, forming a continuous sheet
ship
warehouse
sheet pile

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Sheet Piles
~ resist lateral earth pressures
~ used in excavations, waterfront structures, ..

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Sheet Piles
~ used in temporary works

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Sheet Piles
~ interlocking sections

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Cofferdam
~ sheet pile walls enclosing an area, to
prevent water seeping in

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Landslides

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Shoring
propping and supporting the exposed walls to
resist lateral earth pressures

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Tunneling

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Blasting
For ore recovery in mines

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Ground Improvement
Impact Roller to Compact the Ground

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Ground Improvement
Sheepsfoot Roller to Compact Clay Soils

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Ground Improvement
Smooth-wheeled Roller

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Ground Improvement
Big weights dropped
from 25 m, compacting
the ground.
Craters formed in compaction

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Environmental Geomechanics
Waste Disposal in Landfills

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Instrumentation
~ to monitor the performances of earth and
earth supported structures
~ to measure loads, pressures, deformations,
strains,…

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Soil Testing
Cone Penetration Test Truck – Lavarach Barracks, Townsville

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Soil Testing
More Field Tests
Standard Penetration TestVane Shear Test

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Soil Testing
Triaxial Test on Soil Sample in Laboratory

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Soil Testing
Variety of Field Testing Devices

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Typical Safety Factors
Type of Design Safety
Factor
Probability of
Failure
Earthworks 1.3-1.5 1/500
Retaining
structures
1.5-2.0 1/1500
Foundations 2.0-3.0 1/5000

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Some unsung heroes of Civil Engineering…
… buried right under your feet.
foundations soil
exploration
tunneling

39. Great Contributors to the Developments
in Geotechnical Engineering

40. Karl Terzaghi
1883-1963
C.A.Coulomb
1736-1806
WJM Rankine
1820-1872 A.Casagrande
1902-1981
L. Bjerrum
1918-1973
A.W.Skempton
1914-
G.F.Sowers
1921-1996
G.A. Leonards
1921-1997
Siva’s teacher in USA –
deserves gold frame
Siva’s teacher in USA –
deserves gold frame

41. Geotechnical Engineering Landmarks

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Leaning Tower of Pisa
Our blunders become monuments!

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Hoover Dam, USA
Tallest (221 m) concrete dam

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Petronas Tower, Malaysia
Tallest building in the
world

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and….
Monuments

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Some Suggestions
Thou shall not wait till the last minute.

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Exams
My mama always said, “Exam is like a box
of chocolates; you never know what you
are gonna get”

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Geo-engineering at JCU
CS2005
Geo-engineering I
CS3002
Geo-engineering I
CS4001
Geo-engineering I
Postgrad
MEngSc/PhD

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Practicals
~ five practical sessions
~ closed footwear must be worn in the
lab

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Laboratory Staff
Neville Hines & Rudd Rankine

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Soil Testing
Being Pushed around by my Supervisors
Purdue University, USA

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Quizzes
 about 4-6, 50 minutes each
 open book
How?
Why?
 to reinforce main points
 provides a wake up call
 form of assessment

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Past CS2005 Grades
1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002
HD 5 1 1 3 3 0
?
D 4 2 3 2 9 6
C 15 12 6 7 7 2
P 12 8 8 6 10 8
P- 6 0 2 4 1 5
N 12 10 12 14 9 13
X 0 0 3 3 3 1
Total 54 33 35 39 42 35

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Some Suggestions
Work in groups.

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Some Suggestions
Attend the lectures.
Develop a good feel for the subject.
It takes longer to understand
from the lecture notes
It is practical, interesting and
makes lot of sense.