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  • INTRODUCTION OF SOIL MECHANICS
    • GEOTECHNICAL LESSONS FROM FAILURES
    • BASIC GEOLOGY
    • INTRODUCTION OF SOILS INVESTIGATION
    • PHASE RELATIONSHIPS
    • Importance of soil compaction
    • HEAD AND PRESSURE VARIATION IN A FLUID AT REST
    • GEOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS AND PARTICLE SIZES OF SOILS
    • Composition of the Earth’s Crust
    • PHASES OF A SOILS INVESTIGATION
    • PHYSICAL STATES AND INDEX PROPERTIES OF FINE-GRAINED SOILS
    • INTERPRETATION OF PROCTOR TEST RESULTS
    • DARCY’S LAW
    • COMPOSITION OF SOILS
    • SOILS EXPLORATION PROGRAM
    • DETERMINATION OF THE LIQUID, PLASTIC, AND SHRINKAGE LIMITS
    • SOIL CLASSIFICATION SCHEMES
    • FIELD COMPACTION
    • FLOW PARALLEL TO SOIL LAYERS
    • Surface Forces and Adsorbed Water
    • Soil Identifi cation in the Field
    • DETERMINATION OF THE HYDRAULIC CONDUCTIVITY
    • DETERMINATION OF PARTICLE SIZE OF SOILS
    • Soil Sampling
    • Falling-Head Test
    • Particle Size of Fine-Grained Soils
    • Groundwater Conditions
    • Pumping Test to Determine the Hydraulic Conductivity
    • COMPARISON OF COARSE-GRAINED AND FINE-GRAINED SOILS
    • Types of In Situ or Field Tests
    • GROUNDWATER LOWERING BY WELLPOINTS

  • SOIL WATER AND WATER FLOW
    • STRESSES AND STRAINS
    • STRESS AND STRAIN INVARIANTS
    • IDEALIZED STRESS–STRAIN RESPONSE AND YIELDING
    • Hooke’s Law Using Stress and Strain Invariants
    • PLANE STRAIN AND AXIAL SYMMETRIC CONDITIONS
    • STRESS PATHS
    • Axisymmetric Condition
    • Plotting Stress Paths Using Two-Dimensional Stress Parameters
    • ANISOTROPIC, ELASTIC STATES
    • Mohr’s Circle for Stress States
    • Mohr’s Circle for Strain States
    • The Principle of Effective Stress
    • Effective Stresses Due to Geostatic Stress Fields
    • Effects of Capillarity
    • Effects of Seepage
    • LATERAL EARTH PRESSURE AT REST
    • STRESSES IN SOIL FROM SURFACE LOADS
    • Strip Load
    • Uniformly Loaded Rectangular Area
    • Vertical Stress Below Arbitrarily Shaped Areas

  • STRESS DISTRIBUTIONCOMPRESSIBILITY AND SETTLEMENT
    • BASIC CONCEPTS
    • TYPICAL RESPONSE OF SOILS TO SHEARING FORCES
    • BASIC CONCEPTS
    • Consolidation Under a Constant Load—Primary Consolidation
    • Effects of Increasing the Normal Effective Stress
    • Soil Yielding
    • Void Ratio and Settlement Changes Under a Constant Load
    • Effects of Soil Tension
    • Primary Consolidation Parameters
    • Coulomb’s Failure Criterion
    • CALCULATION OF PRIMARY CONSOLIDATION SETTLEMENT
    • Taylor’s Failure Criterion
    • Procedure to Calculate Primary Consolidation Settlement
    • Mohr–Coulomb Failure Criterion
    • ONE-DIMENSIONAL CONSOLIDATION THEORY
    • PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS OF THE FAILURE CRITERIA
    • Solution of Governing Consolidation Equation Using Fourier Series
    • INTERPRETATION OF THE SHEAR STRENGTH OF SOILS
    • Finite Difference Solution of the Governing Consolidation Equation
    • LABORATORY TESTS TO DETERMINE SHEAR STRENGTH PARAMETERS
    • SECONDARY COMPRESSION SETTLEMENT
    • Conventional Triaxial Apparatus
    • Oedometer Test
    • Unconfi ned Compression (UC) Test
    • Determination of the Coeffi cient of Consolidation
    • Consolidated Undrained (CU) Compression Test
    • Determination of the Past Maximum Vertical Effective Stress
    • POREWATER PRESSURE UNDER AXISYMMETRIC UNDRAINED LOADING
    • PRECONSOLIDATION OF SOILS USING WICK DRAINS
    • OTHER LABORATORY DEVICES TO MEASURE SHEAR STRENGTH
    • Hollow-Cylinder Apparatus
    • FIELD TESTS

  • SHEAR STRENGTH
    • ALLOWABLE STRESS AND LOAD AND RESISTANCE FACTOR DESIGN
    • COLLAPSE LOAD USING THE LIMIT EQUILIBRIUM METHOD
    • Prediction of the Behavior of Coarse-Grained Soils Using CSM
    • BEARING CAPACITY EQUATIONS
    • ELEMENTS OF THE CRITICAL STATE MODEL
    • MAT FOUNDATIONS
    • FAILURE STRESSES FROM THE CRITICAL STATE MODEL
    • BEARING CAPACITY OF LAYERED SOILS
    • Undrained Triaxial Test
    • SETTLEMENT CALCULATIONS
    • MODIFICATIONS OF CSM AND THEIR PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS
    • Primary Consolidation Settlement
    • RELATIONSHIPS FROM CSM THAT ARE OF PRACTICAL SIGNIFICANCE
    • DETERMINATION OF BEARING CAPACITY AND SETTLEMENT OF COARSE-GRAINED SOILS
    • Relationships Among the Tension Cutoff, Mean Effective Stress, and Preconsolidation Stress
    • Cone Penetration Test (CPT)
    • Relationships Among Undrained Shear Strength, Critical State Friction Angle, and Preconsolidation Ratio
    • Plate Load Test (PLT)
    • Relationship Between the Normalized Undrained Shear Strength of One-Dimensionally Consolidated or Ko-Consolidated and Isotropically
    • SHALLOW FOUNDATION ANALYSIS USING CSM
    • Relationship Between the Normalized Undrained Shear Strength at Initial Yield and at Critical State for Overconsolidated Fine-Grained Soils Under Triaxial Test Condition
    • Dense, Coarse-Grained Soils
    • Relationship Between Direct Simple Shear Tests and Triaxial Tests
    • Relationship for the Application of Drained and Undrained
    • Relationship Among Excess Porewater Pressure, Preconsolidation Ratio, and Critical State Friction Angle
    • Undrained Shear Strength, Liquidity Index, and Sensitivity
    • SOIL STIFFNESS
    • STRAINS FROM THE CRITICAL STATE MODEL
    • Shear Strains
    • CALCULATED STRESS–STRAIN RESPONSE
    • APPLICATION OF CSM TO CEMENTED SOILS

  • SLOPE STABILITY
    • TYPES OF PILES AND INSTALLATION
    • TWO-DIMENSIONAL FLOW OF WATER THROUGH POROUS MEDIA
    • BASIC CONCEPTS OF LATERAL EARTH PRESSURES
    • SOME CAUSES OF SLOPE FAILURE
    • Pile Installation
    • FLOWNET SKETCHING
    • COULOMB’S EARTH PRESSURE THEORY
    • Construction Activities
    • LOAD CAPACITY OF SINGLE PILES
    • INTERPRETATION OF FLOWNET
    • RANKINE’S LATERAL EARTH PRESSURE FOR A SLOPING BACKFILL AND A SLOPING WALL FACE
    • INFINITE SLOPES
    • PILE LOAD TEST (ASTM D 1143)
    • FLOW THROUGH EARTH DAMS
    • LATERAL EARTH PRESSURES FOR A TOTAL STRESS ANALYSIS
    • ROTATIONAL SLOPE FAILURES
    • METHODS USING STATICS FOR DRIVEN PILES
    • SOIL FILTRATION
    • APPLICATION OF LATERAL EARTH PRESSURES TO RETAINING WALLS
    • METHOD OF SLICES
    • PILE LOAD CAPACITY OF DRIVEN PILES BASED ON SPT AND CPT RESULTS
    • TYPES OF RETAINING WALLS AND MODES OF FAILURE
    • APPLICATION OF THE METHOD OF SLICES
    • LOAD CAPACITY OF DRILLED SHAFTS
    • STABILITY OF RIGID RETAINING WALLS
    • PROCEDURE FOR THE METHOD OF SLICES
    • PILE GROUPS
    • STABILITY OF FLEXIBLE RETAINING WALLS
    • STABILITY OF SLOPES WITH SIMPLE GEOMETRY
    • ELASTIC SETTLEMENT OF PILES
    • Analysis of Sheet Pile Walls in Mixed Soils
    • CONSOLIDATION SETTLEMENT UNDER A PILE GROUP
    • BRACED EXCAVATION
    • SETTLEMENT OF DRILLED SHAFTS
    • MECHANICAL STABILIZED EARTH WALLS
    • PILE-DRIVING FORMULAS AND WAVE EQUATION
    • OTHER TYPES OF RETAINING WALLS
    • LATERALLY LOADED PILES
    • MICROPILES

Branch : Civil Engineering
Subject : Soil Mechanics
Unit : INTRODUCTION OF SOIL MECHANICS

COMPOSITION OF SOILS


Soil Formation:
Soils are formed from the physical and chemical weathering of rocks. Physical weathering involves reduction of size without any change in the original composition of the parent rock. The main agents responsible for this process are exfoliation, unloading, erosion, freezing, and thawing. Chemical weathering
causes both reductions in size and chemical alteration of the original parent rock. The main agents responsible for chemical weathering are hydration, carbonation, and oxidation.

 

Often, chemical and physical weathering take place in concert. Soils that remain at the site of weathering are called residual soils. These soils retain many of the elements that comprise the parent rock. Alluvial soils, also called fl uvial soils, are soils that were transported by rivers and streams. The composition of these soils depends on the environment under which they were transported and is often different from the parent rock. The profi le of alluvial soils usually consists of layers of different soils. Much of our construction activity has been and is occurring in and on alluvial soils. Glacial soils are soils that were transported and deposited by glaciers. Marine soils are soils deposited in a marine environment.

 

Soil Types:
Common descriptive terms such as gravels, sands, silts, and clays are used to identify specifi c textures in soils. We will refer to these soil textures as soil types; that is, sand is one soil type, clay is another. Texture refers to the appearance or feel of a soil. Sands and gravels are grouped together as coarse-grained soils. Clays and silts are fi ne-grained soils. Coarse-grained soils feel gritty and hard. Fine-grained soils feel smooth. The coarseness of soils is determined from knowing the distribution of particle sizes,

 

which is the primary means of classifying coarse-grained soils. To characterize fi ne-grained soils, we need further information on the types of minerals present and their contents. The response of fi ne-grained soils to loads, known as the mechanical behavior, depends on the type of predominant minerals present.


Currently, many soil descriptions and soil types are in usage. A few of these are listed below:

 

  •  Alluvial soils are fi ne sediments that have been eroded from rock and transported by water, and have settled on river and stream beds.
  • Calcareous soil contains calcium carbonate and effervesces when treated with hydrochloric acid.
  • Caliche consists of gravel, sand, and clay cemented together by calcium carbonate.
  • Collovial soils (collovium) are soils found at the base of mountains that have been eroded by the combination of water and gravity.
  •  Eolian soils are sand-sized particles deposited by wind.
  • Expansive soils are clays that undergo large volume changes from cycles of wetting and drying.
  •  Glacial soils are mixed soils consisting of rock debris, sand, silt, clays, and boulders.
  •  Glacial till is a soil that consists mainly of coarse particles.
  •  Glacial clays are soils that were deposited in ancient lakes and subsequently frozen. The thawing of these lakes revealed soil profi les of neatly stratifi ed silt and clay, sometimes called varved clay. The silt layer is light in color and was deposited during summer periods, while the thinner, dark clay layer was deposited during winter periods.
  •  Gypsum is calcium sulfate formed under heat and pressure from sediments in ocean brine.
  •  Lacustrine soils are mostly silts and clays deposited in glacial lake waters.
  •  Lateritic soils are residual soils that are cemented with iron oxides and are found in tropical regions.
  • Loam is a mixture of sand, silt, and clay that may contain organic material.
  •  Loess is a wind-blown, uniform, fi ne-grained soil.
  • Marine soils are sand, silts, and clays deposited in salt or brackish water.
  • Marl (marlstone) is a mud (see defi nition of mud below) cemented by calcium carbonate or lime.
  • Mud is clay and silt mixed with water into a viscous fluid.

 

Clay Minerals:
Minerals are crystalline materials and make up the solids constituent of a soil. The mineral particles of fi ne-grained soils are platy. Minerals are classifi ed according to chemical composition and structure. Most minerals of interest to geotechnical engineers are composed of oxygen and silicon—two of the most abundant elements on earth. Silicates are a group of minerals with a structural unit called the silica tetrahedron. A central silica cation (positively charged ion) is surrounded by four oxygen anions negatively charged ions), one at each corner of the tetrahedron (Figure ). The charge on a single tetrahedron is 24, and to achieve a neutral charge cations must be added or single tetrahedrons must be linked to each other sharing oxygen ions. Silicate minerals are formed by the addition of cations and interactions of tetrahedrons. Silica tetrahedrons combine to form sheets, called silicate sheets or laminae, which are thin layers of silica tetrahedrons in which three oxygen ions are shared between adjacent tetrahedrons (Figure ). Silicate sheets may contain other structural units such as alumina sheets.

 


Alumina sheets are formed by combination of alumina minerals, which consists of an aluminum ion surrounded by six oxygen or hydroxyl atoms in an octahedron (Figure ). The main groups of crystalline materials that make up clays are the minerals kaolinite, illite, and montmorillonite. Kaolinite has a structure that consists of one silica sheet and one alumina sheet bonded together into a layer about 0.72 nm thick and stacked repeatedly (Figure ). The layers are held together by hydrogen bonds. Tightly stacked layers result from numerous hydrogen bonds. Kaolinite is common in clays in humid tropical regions. Illite consists of repeated layers of one alumina sheet sandwiched by two silicate sheets (Figure ). The layers, each of thickness 0.96 nm, are held together by potassium ions.

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