SOIL MECHANICS II

EECI 3171

Technical University of Kenya

Department of civil engineering
Dr. Eng. Alphonce A. Owayo.
Course outline

Shear strength and failure: Mohr-Coulomb failure theory, shear

tests, drained and untrained tests, effects of dilatancy, stress paths.
Forces and stress caused by earth bodies: Coulomb, Rankine,
passive and active lateral earth pressure. Retaining walls: tables of
lateral earth pressure. Sheet pile walls: analytical, numerical and
graphical solutions. Blums method, anchor forces. Upper and
lower bound theorems. Bearing capacity of shallow foundations:
Prandtl; Brinch Hansern: Janbu, Bjerrum and Kjaersli. Bearing
capacity of deep foundations: pile foundation, caisson foundation.
Stability of slopes: infinite slope above and under water, slip
circle calculations by methods of Fellenius and Bishop. Site
investigations: Planning vane test, cone penetration test (CPT),
Standard Penetration Test (SPT). Soil improvement techniques:
grouting, Geotextiles.

Nov-Dec 2022 2
Tools required; Calculator, notebook, Textbooks (if you
can get),
Recommended You Tube Channels (Alphonce Owayo
and Efficient engineer). Related software.
The materials (References) we will use;
1. Craig’s soil mechanics 8th Edition. J.A. Knappett
and R.F. Craig. Publishers’ Spon press
2. Elements of soil mechanics 8th edition. G.N Smith &
Ian G.N Smith Publishers Blackwell science
3. Soil mechanics and Foundation Engineering. V.N.S.
Murthy. Publishers Dhanpat Rai & sons
4. Fundamentals of Geotechnical Analysis. I.S. Dunn,
L.R. Anderson, F.W Kiefer. Publishers John Wiley &
Sons
5. Basic and Applied Soil Mechanics. Ranjan Gopal, Rao
A.S.R
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6. Construction and geotechnical methods in foundation
engineering. Robert M. Koerner
Publisher: McGraw-hill inc.
7. Pile Foundation Analysis and Design. H.G. Poulos,
E.H Davis. PUBLISHER: John Wiley and Sons

Grading;
1. Assignments + Attendance 10%
2. CAT 20%
3. Exams 70%
4. Report (optional) 10% (in which case
CAT is 10%)
Total 100%
Pass mark 40% - D.
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