ECE 2302 ENGHINEERING GEOLOGY

CAT 2 (Due 11/29/2023)

Submit Answers to Q5 and Q6 for grading. Submit Answers in one plain paper page. No additional
page will be permitted or graded.

1. Answer the following questions on earthquake.

i. What’s an earthquake and howe are they produced?
ii. Briefly described the two broad classes of waves produced during an earthquake
event.
iii. List four geomaterial properties that are used to define the velocity of body
waves.
2. The velocity of S- wave in a rock 50 km below the earth surface is estimated to be 1500
m/s. The rocks possoin’s ratio, =0.3, what would be the velocity of P- wave in the
same rock.
3. Answer the following questions of strength, shear strength and slope stability.
i. What are the two parameters that define shear strength of a soil
ii. How can shear strength of soil be determine in the laboratory.
4. Briefly explain three methods of soil slope protection and rock slope protections
5. Geophysics seismic refraction test for a site is shown in figure below. Both P-wave and
S-wave velocities profile are plotted (Answer the following questions.

S-Wave Velocity, m/s P-Wave Velocity, m/s

00 200 400 600 800 1000
00 500 1000 1500 2000 2500

5 5

10 10

15 15
Depth (m)

Depth (m)

20 20

25 25

30 30

35 35

Geophysics S-wave and P-Wave Profiles

(i) Determine the site class

(ii) At what depth was the rock encountered? Give reason

1
 ECE 2302 ENGHINEERING GEOLOGY
CAT 2 (Due 11/29/2023)
Submit Answers to Q5 and Q6 for grading. Submit Answers in one plain paper page. No additional
page will be permitted or graded.
(iii) What is the poisons ration,  of the site geomaterial for depth between 2 m to 6 m
(iv) Determine the Shear modulus of the material below 12m if the Youngs modulus of
the material is estimated to be 15×106 kPa.
6. Figure 4 shows field investigation results from a site. The soil type consisted of silty
sand encountered from ground surface to a depth of 30 m below ground. The variation
(average) in SPT-N value, percentage fine content and the soil density provided in
Figure 1. Ground water was encountered at a depth of 3 m below the ground surface.
Seismic hazard map for the proposed site indicates a peak ground acceleration to be
assume for design is 0.35g for an earthquake magnitude of Mw=7.5 earthquake.
Determine the factor of safety against seismic induced liquefaction for the zone 5 m
below the ground for earthquake of magnitude Mw =6.5.

3
SPT-N values (kN/m )
Fine content (%)
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 14 16 18 20 22
0 06 8 10 12 14 16 0

5 5 5

10 10 10
Depth (m)

15 15 15
Depth (m)
Depth (m)

20 20 20

25 25 25

30 30 30

35 35 35

Subsurface information from a site