INDEX NUMBER

ACCRA TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY

FACULTY OF ENGINEERING
DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL ENGINEERING

END OF FIRST SEMESTER PART-TIME EXAMINATION, 2021/22 ACADEMIC YEAR

COURSE CODE: CVE 203 COURSE TITLE: SOIL MECHANICS

INSTRUCTIONS: ANSWER ALL QUESTIONS IN BOTH SECTIONS
TIME ALLOWED: 2.5 HRS

SECTION A [ 22 marks ]

1. The base rock from which soil is formed is called .....................

2. Which of these is not a type of rock?

a. Igneous
b. Metamorphic
c. Ignoeus
d. Sedimentary

3. Rock structure with all its discontinuities like joints and fractures is called............

4. Slate is an/a ............... rock.

5. An example of a coarse grained soil is.......................

6. Void ratio, e ranges from ………. to……………..

7. For civil engineering soils, the degree of saturation, S ranges from ……… to…………

8. Two laboratory tests for testing shear strength in soils are .................. and.....................

9. Two field tests used to determine the shear strength of soils are ………....... and....................

10. The two shear stress parameters of shear strength of a soil mass are ............ and ....................

Use the data below to answer questions 11 to 15.

A small cylinder having volume of 600 cm3 is pressed into a recently compacted fill of
embankment filling the cylinder. The mass of the soil in the cylinder is 1100 g. The dry mass of
the soil is 910 g. Take the specific gravity of the soil grains as 2.7.

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11. The wet density in gcm-3 is……………

12. The water content is……………..

13. The dry unit weight is ………………

14. The void ratio, e is …………………

15. The degree of saturation is ……………….

16. Consistency of a fine grained soil depends on ………… and…………

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 SECTION B [ 38 marks ]

QUESTION 1 [ 18 marks ]

a. A soil sample has a density of 1910 kg/m3 and a water content of 9.5%. If Gs is 2.70, determine
the following for the soil:
i. its void ratio. [2 marks]
ii. its degree of saturation. [2 marks]
iii. the density and water content if the soil were to be fully saturated at the same void ratio.
[4 Marks]

b. A soil sample taken from a project site had the following parameters: e=0.70, Gs=2.73.
Calculate the following for the soil:
i. its dry unit weight. [2 marks]
ii. its Saturated unit weight. [2 marks]
iii. its buoyant unit weight. [2 marks]
iv. the unit weight and water content at a degree of saturation of 75%. [4 marks]

QUESTION 2 [ 10 marks ]

The results of a standard compaction test are as shown in the Table 2.1 below.

Table 2.1: Soil test results for Standard Compaction test

ω (%) 6.2 8.1 9.8 11.5 12.3 13.2

γ (kN/m3) 15.9 18.7 19.9 20.5 20.4 20.1

a. Plot the dry density-moisture content curve. [5 marks]

b. Determine the maximum dry unit weight and the optimum moisture content (OMC).
[2marks]
c. What is the dry unit weight and moisture range at 98% RC (Relative Compaction).
[2marks]
d. Determine the degree of saturation at the maximum dry moisture density if Gs is 2.70.
[1 mark].

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QUESTION 3 [ 5 marks ]

Table 3.1 below shows the results of a Direct Shear Test.

Table 3.1: Direct Shear Box results

Normal Stress, Failure Shear Stress,

σV (kN / m2) 𝝉𝒇 (kN / m2)
20 34.1
40 57.8
80 142
160 168
320 315

Determine the soil shear strength parameters, c and 𝜙. [ 5 Marks ]

QUESTION 4 [ 5 marks ]

a. Define the term Rock Quality Designation (RQD). [2 marks]

b. A trainee Civil Engineer determines the RQD of a rock sample as 95%. The engineer
concludes using only this information that the rock sample can be classified as a very
competent foundation material for an eight (8) storey apartment building. What is your take on
the engineer’s conclusion? [2 marks]

c. Calculate the RQD of the rock core run in Figure 4.1. [1 mark]

Figure 4.1: Schematic of a rock core run

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 FORMULAR TABLE

MS+MW =M MW = wMS 𝑀 VS = MS 𝑀
𝜌= 𝜌 =
𝑉 Gs𝜌w 𝑉 = VV + VS 𝑉 𝑛= × 100

𝑉 𝛾 𝛾 = GS 𝛾 e = GS𝛾 – 1 S = wGS 𝑒+𝐺

𝑆= × 100 𝛾 = 𝛾 = 𝛾
𝑒= 1+𝑤 1+ e 𝛾 e 1+𝑒
𝑉

𝑎= , 𝑏= D302 V = Va + Vw + Vs
W= WS + WW WW = wWS 𝑊 𝑊
D10 × D60 𝑉 = 𝛾 =
𝛾 𝑉

S=

𝜏 = 𝑐 + 𝜎𝑡𝑎𝑛𝜙

END OF PAPER

P.Y. AGBOTUI, Ph.D

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