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CH-1
INTRODUCTION
Soil
Mechanics-I 1 2

 To a Pedologist: Soil is the substance existing on

the earth's surface, which grows and develops
plant life.
 To a Geologist: Soil is the material in the relative

What is Soil? thin surface zone within which roots occur, and
all the rest of the crust is grouped under the
term Rock irrespective of its hardness.
 To an Engineer: Soil is the un-aggregated or un-
cemented deposits of mineral and/or organic
particles or fragments covering large portion of
the earth’s crust.

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 Soil is the oldest and most complex

engineering material.
 Coulomb (1773) is credited as the first
person to use mechanics to solve soil BIRTH OF SOIL
problems.
MECHANICS

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 Recorded history tells us that ancient

 From the early 20th century, the rapid
growth of cities, industry and commerce
required numerous building systems.
civilizations flourished along the banks of
rivers, such as the Nile (Egypt) and
(Ethiopia), the Tigris and Euphrates
(Mesopotamia)…
 As of 2008, a total of 138 pyramids have
been discovered in Egypt.

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 To answer these questions, we

need the help of some rational
 These building systems require stable and method and, consequently, soil
economic foundations and new questions mechanics was born.
about soils were asked.  Karl Terzaghi (1883-1963) is the
o what is the state of stress in a soil mass? undisputed father of soil
o How to design safe and economic foundations? mechanics.
o How much would a building settle and what is  The publication of his book
the stability of structures founded on or within
soil?
"Erdbaumechanik" in 1925 laid
the foundation for soil
mechanics and brought
recognition to the importance
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of soils in engineering activities.
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 The first conference of the International Society of
Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering
(ISSMFE) was held at Harvard University in 1936
with Karl Terzaghi presiding.
 The conference was possible due to the conviction
and efforts of Professor Arthur Casagrande of
Harvard University. About 200 individuals
representing 21 countries attended this conference.
 conference covering a wide range of topics, such as
 Effective stress
 Shear strength
 Consolidation
 Swelling clays
 Earthquake and soil liquefaction
 Machine vibration 11
 Two other important milestones between 1948
and 1960 are
(1) the publication of A. W. Skempton’s paper on A
and B pore pressure parameters, which made
effective stress calculations more practical for
various engineering works, and
(2) publication of the book entitled The
Measurement of Soil Properties in the Triaxial
Text by A. W. Bishop and B. J. Henkel (Arnold,
London) in 1957.
 By the early 1950s, computer-aided finite
difference and finite element solutions were
applied to various types of geotechnical
engineering problems. 12
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GEOTECHNICAL LESSONS
FROM PAST FAILURES

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• What do all of these

occurrences have in common? SOIL MECHANICS AND
Soil Related Failures ITS APPLICATION TO
 Geotechnical Engineering FOUNDATIONS

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 Soil mechanics also called Geotechnics or

Geomechanics, is the application of
engineering mechanics to the solution of
problems dealing with soils as a foundation
and a construction material.

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 Soil mechanics is a subset of geotechnical
engineering, which involves the application
of soil mechanics, geology and hydraulics to
the analysis and design of geotechnical
systems such as dams, embankments,
tunnels, canals and waterways, foundations
for bridges, roads, buildings, etc.
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WHY WE STUDY
SOIL MECHANICS?
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 Every application of soil mechanics involves
uncertainty because of the variability of
soils and their compositions.
 Thus, engineering mechanics can provide
only partial solutions to soil problems.
 Experience and approximate calculations
are essential for the successful application
of soil mechanics to practical problems.
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 Virtually every structure is supported by soil
or rock, unless it is floating…or flying.
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o To design and construct foundations for

structures.

 Various reasons to study soil

mechanics include…

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o To use soil as a construction material o To analyze the stability of slopes and causes
and possibilities of landslides.

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o To design and construct earth retaining
structures
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 Geotechnical Engineering is the sub
discipline of Civil Engineering that involves
applications of the principles of Soil
Mechanics and Rock Mechanics to the
design of foundations, retaining structures
and earth structures, evaluation of stability
of natural slopes and man made soil
deposits and related works.
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GEOTECHNICAL
ENGINEERING
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 Geotechnical Engineering includes:
 Soil Mechanics (Soil properties and behavior)
 Soil Dynamics (Dynamic properties of soils,
earthquake engineering, machine foundation)
 Foundation Engineering (Deep and shallow
foundations)
 Rock Mechanics (Rock stability and tunneling)
 Geosynthetics (Soil improvement)
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 The work that geotechnical engineers do is

often invisible once construction is
completed.
 A satisfactory foundation design requires
MARVELS OF CIVIL ENGINEERING: the proper application of soil mechanics
THE HIDDEN TRUTH principles, accumulated experience and
good judgment. The stability and life of any
structure

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 Failures occur because of

 All structures that are founded on earth rely
on our ability to design safe and economic
foundations.
 Structural failures do occur due to different
reasons.
 Some failures have been catastrophic and
caused severe damage to lives and
properties.
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 inadequate site and soil investigations;
 unforeseen soil and water conditions;
 natural hazards;
 poor engineering analysis, design,
construction, and quality control;
 post-construction activities; and usage
outside the design conditions.
 When failures are investigated thoroughly, we
obtain lessons and information that will guide
us to prevent similar types of failures in the
future.
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So do you think learning and
studying soil Mechanics is
Significant to Civil
Engineers?
Formation of soils
The materials that constitute the earth’s
crust are rather arbitrarily divided into two
categories, soil and rock.
Soil is a natural aggregate of mineral grains,
with or without organic constituents that can
be separated by gentle mechanical means.
Whereas rocks is considered to be a natural
aggregate of mineral grains connected by
strong and permanent cohesive forces.

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Formation of soils Formation of soils

Rocks All soils originate, directly or indirectly, from solid
rocks by the process of weathering. The process of
weathering of the rock decreases the cohesive forces
binding the mineral grains and leads to the
disintegration of bigger masses to smaller and
smaller particles. The weathering of the rocks might
be mechanical (disintegration) and/or chemical
(decomposition).
Mechanical weathering is the fragmentation of rock
by physical forces.
Among the many physical forces responsible for the
disintegration of rock, the following may be cited.
 Temperature Changes
 Freezing action of water
 Spreading of roots of plants
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 Abrasion

Formation of soils COMMON SOIL TYPES

 Depending upon the weathered rocks and the different
 When chemical weathering of rocks takes place, original methods of transportation and deposition, different
rock minerals are transformed into new minerals by soils are formed. These soils have been differently
chemical reaction. named. Some of the important soils, so found in general
 The following chemical processes generally occur in practice, are given below
nature 1. Sand, gravel, cobbles and boulders are coarse grained cohesionless
soils
2. Silt is a fine grained soil
 Oxidation 3. Clay is composed of microscopic particles
 Carbonation 4. Black cotton soil is a residual soil containing a high percentage of
 Hydration the clay mineral montomorillonite.
 Leaching 5. Tuff is a fine grained soil composed of very small particles ejected
from volcanoes during its explosion and deposited by wind or water.
 Soils, which are formed by mechanical or chemical 6. Hardpan
weathering, may be classified as residual or transported 7. Peat is composed of fibrous particles of decayed vegetable matter
soils 8. Top soil is surface soil that supports plants
9. Lateritic soil
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10. Loam is a mixture of sand, silt and clay 52
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COMMON SOIL TYPES COMMON SOIL TYPES

cobbles Black
sand and Silt cotton
boulders soil

gravel Clay

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COMMON SOIL TYPES COMMON SOIL TYPES

Tuff Top soil Peat Loam

Lateritic
Hardpan soil

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