University of Alberta Faculty of Engineering Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering CIVE 381 SOIL MECHANICS FINAL EXAMINATION STUDENT NAME: IDE: Time: 2 Hours 2:00 pm — 4:00 pm Friday, December 17, 1999 Examiner: Dr. R. Brachman Question Mark 1 ‘AS es /30 3 Ns 4 120 5 /20 TOTAL /100 NO additional material (notes or texts) are permitted. All answers must be contained on the examination sheets. Use the back of the page if necessary. ; Note that all questions are not of equal value. When answering all the questions, itis very important to provide all the steps leading to the answer. Correct answers without showing calculations will not be given full marks, Formula sheets are provided. TOTAL NUMBER OF PAGES: 11Page 2 of 11 NAME: QUESTION 1 (15 marks; 18 minutes) Granular Drain, 4 D ‘An 8 m high concrete gravity wall retains a medium-dense sand (/-18KN/m’), A free-flowing granular drain was placed behind the wall. Rainfall maintains the ground water table at the surface. The flow net is given below. a) Clearly identify ALL boundary conditions for the flow net. Label the magnitudes of total head for each equipotential. b) Calculate the quantity of seepage collected by the granular ——4——si= _ drain behind the wall. Take k=1%10* m/s. Stiff Clay c) What is the total horizontal force applied on the back of the retaining wall? Take $'=32°. A ° 8mPage 3 of 11 NAME: QUESTION 2 (30 marks; 36 minutes) A 15 m x 20 m rectangular foundation is to be constructed 2 m below the existing ground surface. The soil stratigraphy consists of a 4 m silty-clay layer and a 3 m clayey-silt layer overlying a dense gravel layer. Conditions prior to and after construction are shown below. ‘The average applied pressure from the foundation is 100 kPa. Associated with the new foundation, the top water level is lowered 3 m from its original position close to the ground surface. Piezometric conditions in the gravel layer remain relatively constant. Parameters for the two soil layers are given in the table below. NOTE: You may assume that the clay above the water table remains saturated. Initial Top Woter Level 100 wre 2m 4 _ 4m Layer! New Top +} ie Water Leve Initial Conditions Proposed Building Foundation tse ee ocr ic ic 1 20 272) 36 2x10" 12 0.21 0.02 2 18 270 42 L108 1.0 0.25 : 22 a) _— Calculate the total consolidation settlement beneath the centre of the rectangular foundation. Consider two sub-layers, 3b) Calculate the total flow of groundwater that will be collected by the sump-pump of the foundation. 5c) _ The developer wants the basement to be 2 m deeper than shown above. Can this be constructed safely? If not, what would you do to allow this to proceed safely?Page 5 of 11 NAME: QUESTION 3 (15 marks; 18 minutes) ‘An embankment is to be constructed on a 8 metre thick soft clay deposit. The fill is rapidly placed toa maximum height of 4 m. A thin gravel layer was placed prior to the placement of the fill to permit drainage. 10 a)_—_ What is the magnitude of settlement one-year after construction first began? 5b) Whatis the effective stress at mid-depth in the soft clay layer one year after construction first began? Conditions after construction of embankment. Layer Y= IG KNIm®, G,=2.72, wa4 Th om Soft Clay 6.208, OCR=t Stiff GravelPage 6 of 11 NAME: QUESTION 4 (20 marks; 24 minutes) Two conventional consolidated undrained test with pore pressure measurement were conducted on undisturbed samples of a clay. A back pressure of 100 kPa was used to fully saturate the sample Cell Back Principal Stress Pore Pressure Pressure Pressure -—Diffference at Failure at Failure Test oy Useck (04-05), uy (kPa) (kPa) (kPa) (kPa) 1 189 100 8 139 2 367 100 234 217 5 a) __ Using the graph below, find the Mohr-Coulomb strength parameters for the clay (c’, 6’). oS & S 300F e 200 100 0 4 . L 0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 6, 0' (kPa) 2b) __ What is Skempton’s pore pressure factor A for Test 2? 3c) __Isthis clay normally or over consolidated with respect to the effective cell pressures? Why? 2 e) Sketch the likely total and effective stress paths for Test 2 on the graph above. 3 f)_ Briefly explain why excess pore pressures develop. 5 d)_ the clay was consolidated to ¢, = $00 kPa and then accidentally tested at o, = 400 kPa without any drainage allowed during reduction of cell pressure or subsequent load application, determine the shear strength and the excess pore pressure that would be measured at failure.Page 7 of 11 NAM) QUESTION 5 (20 marks; 24 minutes) The results of field and laboratory tests from a site investigation are summarized in Figure QS on page 8. 2 a) What inference can you make with regard to the geological history of the deposit(s)? 5b) _Explain the large discrepancy between the field vane and laboratory unconfined compression for depths larger than 12 m. Which values provide a better estimate of the true strength of the soil? 3c) __Isthe lowundrained shear strength measured at approximately 16 m due to experimental error or is this real? Provide reasons. 10d) _—_ A wide excavation is to be made at this site, What is the short-term factor of safety of 1V:1H side slopes if the excavation is 13.75 m deep? Sketch the location of the critical failure circle. HINT: You will need to find the centre of the critical circle from only two points. 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