GEOTECHNICAL ENGINEERING

What is Geotechnical Engineering?

Geotechnical engineering is the science that explains mechanics of soil and rock and its applications to the
development of humankind. It includes, without being limited to, the analysis, design and construction of
foundations, slopes, retaining structures, embankments, roadways, tunnels, levees, wharves, landfills and other
systems that are made of or are supported by soil or rock.

Everything you see around you is supported by soil or rock. Geotechnical engineers are responsible for that.
Anything that is not supported by soil or rock, either floats, flies or falls down.

Transportation
Geotechnical engineers are responsible to ensure that roads, highways and railroads are properly designed and
maintained to ensure their longevity.

Deep Foundations
All buildings, high-rise structures, bridges, towers, antennas, and essentially everything you see around has a
foundation that is carefully designed by a geotechnical engineer to transfer the loads to the ground.

Deep Foundation – depth of exploration is to be at least to the anticipated pile tip. 2 – 3 borings to be drilled to a
depth of 20-30% beyond the anticipated tip of the pile

Landslides
Geotechnical engineers are responsible to design excavations so that they remain stable as well as stabilize natural
slopes that may threaten public safety.

Earthquakes
Geotechnical engineers are responsible to protect public safety by designing civil infrastructure during earthquakes.

Underground Infrastructure
Geotechnical engineers are responsible for the design and construction of tunnels, subways, and underground
facilities that are used in subways, underground highways, railroads, waterways and waste storage.

Dams
Geotechnical engineers are responsible for the design, construction, maintenance and monitoring of thousands of
dams that are providing water storage and leisure areas to millions.

Dykes and Levees

Geotechnical engineers are responsible for the design, construction and maintenance of dykes and levees that protect
daily millions of people from floods and hurricanes.

Landfills
Geotechnical engineers are involved in the design of landfills to ensure that solid waste is isolated from the
environment and that public health is protected. Modern landfills are sophisticated engineered infrastructure systems
that have very few similarities to waste dumps.

Subsurface Characterization
Geotechnical engineers perform a variety of tests on site or the laboratory to characterize the subsurface conditions.
That way, the properties of the soils and rocks are characterized, softer soils, fractured rocks, faults, caverns and
sinkhole can be identified before building at the surface.
Offshore
Geotechnical engineers are responsible for the stability of foundations of offshore platforms and energy facilities
that are used for oil and gas extraction as well as wind power.

Ground Improvement
Geotechnical engineers use principles of physics and chemistry to modify the characteristics and properties of the
subsurface so that it can support civil infrastructure that it would not be able to do otherwise.

Deep Excavations
Geotechnical engineers are responsible to ensure the stability of deep excavation, by Shoring. Such shoring systems
allow the execution of deep excavation in urban areas such as the heart of Paris or New York City adjacent to
existing subways, structures, or infrastructures.

Scour and Erosion

Soils tend to erode when subjected to natural processes, and especially in extreme weather that may involve, rainfall,
snowfall, tornadoes, hurricanes and floods. Geotechnical engineers devise strategies to mitigate against scour and
erosion.

Contaminated Site Remediation

Geotechnical engineers are commonly engaged in the clean-up or remediation of sites that have been contaminated
and represent a health to the environment.

Shallow Foundation – extend borings to a depth where the additional load resulting from the proposed building is
less than 10% of the average load of the structure or less than 5% of the effective stress.

4.2 Soil mechanics

In geotechnical engineering, soils are considered a three-phase material composed of: rock or mineral
particles, water and air. The voids of a soil, the spaces in between mineral particles, contain the water and
air.

The engineering properties of soils are affected by four main factors:

 The predominant size of the mineral particles
 The type of mineral particles
 The grain size distribution
 The relative quantities of mineral, water and air present in the soil matrix.

Fine particles (fines) are defined as particles less than 0.075mm in diameter.

4.2.1 Soil properties

Some of the important properties of soils that are used by geotechnical engineers to analyses
conditions and design earthworks, retaining structures, and foundations are:

 Specific weight or unit weight- cumulative weight of the solid particles, water and air of the
unit volume of soil. Note that the air phase is often assumed to be weightless.
 Porosity- ratio of the volume of voids (containing air, water, or other fluids) in a soil to the
total volume of the soil. Porosity is mathematically related to void ratio by:

n = e1+e where: e = void ratio

n = porosity
  Void ratio- the ratio of the volume of voids to the volume of solid particles in a soil mass.
Void ratio is mathematically related to the porosity by:

e = n1−n where: e = void ratio

n = porosity

 Permeability - a measure of the ability of water to flow through the soil. It is expressed in
units of velocity.

 Compressibility- the rate of change of volume with effective stress. If the pores are filled with
water, then the water must be squeezed out of the pores to allow volumetric compression of
the soil; this process is called consolidation.

 Shear strength- the maximum shear stress that can be applied in a soil mass without causing
shear failure.

 Atterberg Limits- Liquid limit, plastic limit, and shrinkage limit. These indices are used for
estimation of other engineering properties and for soil classification.

4.3 Geotechnical investigation

Geotechnical engineers and engineering geologists perform geotechnical investigations to obtain

information on the physical properties of soil and rock underlying (sometimes adjacent to) a site to design
earthworks and foundations for proposed structures, and for repair of distress to earthworks and structures
caused by subsurface conditions. This investigation will include:

 Surface exploration- geologic mapping, geophysical methods, and photogrammetry; or it can be as

simple an engineer walking around to observe the physical conditions at the site.
 Subsurface exploration of a site- usually involves in-situ testing (two common examples of in-situ tests
are the standard penetration test and cone penetration test)
 Geophysical methods are also used to obtain data about sites- includes measurement of seismic waves
(pressure, shear, and Rayleigh waves), surface-wave methods and/or down hole methods, and
electromagnetic surveys (magnetometer, resistivity, and ground-penetrating radar)
 Subsurface sampling and laboratory testing of the soil samples retrieved.
 Digging of test pits and trenching (particularly for locating faults and slide planes) may also be used to
learn about soil conditions at depth.

 Geotechnical Analysis – techniques used in analyzing geotechnical problems.

 SPT or standard penetration test – uses a thick-walled split spoon sampler, is the most common way
to collect disturbed samples. Sampler is driven into the soil by hammer blows to the top of the drill.
The standard weight of the hammer is 140 lb. and for each blow the hammer drops a distance of 30 in.
The no. of blows required for spoon penetration of 3 – 6” intervals are recorded. The no. of blows
required for the last 2 intervals are added to give the SPT No. at that depth.

Piston samplers – employing a thin-walled tube, are most commonly used for the collection of less
disturbed samples.

Atterberg limits tests, water content measurements, and grain size analysis- may be performed on
disturbed samples obtained from thick-walled soil samplers.

4.4 Soil Investigation

A soil investigation is necessary to provide information for design and construction and for environmental
assessment. The purposes of a soil investigation are:

1. To evaluate the general suitability of the site for the proposed project
2. To enable an adequate and economical design to be made
3. To disclose and make provision for difficulties that may arise during construction due to ground and
other local conditions.

Example Calculations

A soil sample has a weight of 0.7 kg, and the volume was found to be
3.5 × 10 m³. After drying out the weight was reduced to 0.6 kg. The particle specific gravity test gave 2.6.
-4

Determine the following:

(a) Moisture content (d) Void ratio

(b) Dry density (e) Porosity
(c) Bulk density (f) Degree of saturation

(a) Moisture content (b) Dry density (c) Bulk density

Mass of water is 0.7 kg - 0.6 kg =

0.1 kg

or in percentage 14.3%

To calculate the void ratio, we must first calculate the volume of solids. Then we can find the volume of voids by
subtracting the volume of solids from the total volume.
 (e) Porosity
(d) Void ratio
(f) Degree of saturation

More example calculations

Example 1
A soil sample has a porosity of 41%, a moisture content of 15.2% and a specific gravity of 2.65. Determine the
degree of saturation and the air void ratio.
We can't directly calculate the degree of saturation or the air void ratio. First, we need to find the void ratio because
e is needed to find the answers.

The porosity is given; therefore, we can find the void ratio.

(or 58%)

Air void ratio, A = n (1-S ) = 0.41 (1-0.58) = 0.1722

v r (or 17.2%)

(or 17.2%)

Example 2
Determine the dry and bulk density of a soil sample having a porosity of 0.32 and a moisture content of 25% (G = s

2.70)
Example 3
Determine the saturated bulk density of the soil in Example 2, assuming no volume change.
If the soil is saturated then S = 1.0
r

Example 4
Determine the void ratio of a saturated soil sample that has a mass of 178 g before drying and 139 g after drying in
an oven. Assume the specific gravity of the soil solids to be 2.7.

For a saturated soil S = 1

r

Void ratio, e = m × G = 0.28 × 2.7 = 0.756

s