Technological University of the Philippines

1000 Ayala Blvd., Ermita, Manila

College of Engineering
Civil Engineering Department

CE410 4B
Soil Mechanics, Lec.

Assignment No. 1
Introduction to Soil Mechanics

SENANIN, DENNIS N.
11-205-101
Date of Submission: June 25, 2015

Engr. Jesus Ray M. Mansayon

Instructor

I.

Soil Mechanics
-An engineering mechanics branch that describes the behavior of soil and studies their
utilization especially for planning the foundations of any structures .Soil mechanics also
studies the mechanical properties of soils which vary according to the soils contents like
air, water and minerals.
- Soil mechanics may be defined as the discipline of engineering science that
studies soils, from theoretical and practical points of view, by means that influence the
way engineers build structures.

Geotechnical Engineering
-A branch of civil engineering that observes the engineering behavior of earth
materials. In this field, the soils chemical properties are examined in order to gather data
that will help as basis for what kind of structures the engineers should design without
exceeding the load capacity the soil can hold. This field ensures the safetyness of the
structures that is going to be constructed against earthquakes or unstable soils.

Foundation Engineering
-A field of engineering that focuses on designing structures that is used in supporting
structures like buildings and bridges. The soils ability to support a structure was examined
by this field of engineering and also designing some transition member to be needed for
adding support to any structures.

II.

Major Periods Of Geotechnical Engineering

a. Early 18th Century
- In this period, the understanding about geotechnical engineering was first known and
through experimentation, this understanding has been improved.
b. Pre-classical Period (1700-1776 A.D)
- This is one of the major periods where the soils slope and mass first being studied
and the different theories about soil began to start.
c. Classical Soil Mechanics I (1776-1856 A.D)
- Around this period, Coulumbs presentation on determining the sliding surface in soil
behind a retaining wall. This period ends at the columbs simplified theory, the
Rankines Theory that studies about earths lateral pressure.
d. Classical Soil Mechanics II (1856-1910)
-French engineer Darcy started to introduce knowledge about the permeability of sand
filters.
e. Modern Soil Mechanics (1910- 1927)
- There are series of experiments about the mechanic behavior of clay. Atterberg
Focused on the consistency of clay soils, Bell focused on lateral pressure and
resistance of clay while terzaghi focused on the consolidation for clays.

III. Origin of Soil

-The soil came from weathering of rocks or the breaking of rocks into smaller pieces.
There are two ways on weathering, through mechanical and chemical process.
In mechanical process, the weathering was caused by the contraction and expansion
rocks because of continuous heat gain and heat loss. The water that flows between
rocks is one of the cause of heat loss and the direct hit from the sun causes the rocks to
experience heat gaining.
While in chemical process, the minerals from the rocks is experiencing chemical
reaction between water and carbon dioxide and these leads to the minerals being
transformed into a new kind of minerals.

IV. Soil and Rock

A. Soil
- It is the mixture of minerals, organic matter, gases and liquids that can support plant
life.
- For engineers, soil is the earth material that can be disaggregated in water by gentle
agitation.
- For geologists, soil is a material in the earths surface zone where the roots are found.
- For pedologists, soil is existing for the development of plant life.
B. Rock
- For Geologists, rocks are solid aggregates of one or more minerals.
- Rocks also contribute on forming the earths crust.
Three major groups of rocks;
(1) Igneous rocks: cooled from a molten state;
(2)Sedimentary rocks: deposited from fluid medium;
e.g., products of weathering of other rocks in water;
(3)Metamorphic rocks: formed from pre-existing rocks
by the action of heat and pressure. apparently, the igneous rock is the one far
more essential and intrinsic since the other two types are relative secondary in origin.

V.

Types Of Soil
A. Residual Soil
-Soil that remains in the formation usually formed from chemical or physical weathering
and eventually covers the parent rocks. Its characteristics depends on its parent rock.
B. Transported Soil
The weathered pieces of rocks that have been carried by several agents like wind and
water and finally breaks down into further small pieces to settle down. They are very
fertile as they consist of minerals from a variety of transported rocks. These are also
known as drifted soils and this category of soil includes all those soils that have been
deposited at places far from the parent rocks after being transported by the geologic
agents. On the basis of the transporting agencies involved, these soils are classified as
follows;

(a) Colluvial soils

Under the influence of gravity material are removed from the mountains and get accumulated at the
base of the steep slopes. The soils thus formed are stony and are never stratified.

(b) Alluvial Soils

These soils are generally confined to river basins and coastal plains and are mainly deposited by
rivers. These are very fertile and supports vegetation.

(c) Glacial Soils

These soils are transported and deposited by glaciers. Boulder clay or till forms good soil at times.

(d) Aeolian soils

The wind-borne sediments, composed chiefly of silt and clay-fractions form scanty but fertile soil at
times. The loess deposits form good examples of aeolian soils.

(e) Lacustrine soils

Materials transported by rivers and glaciers, collected in the lake basins, form soil in due course when
the lakes dry up. They are stratified and are rich in organic matter.

VI. Fields Of Application

A. Foundation Design foundations are designed to convey the weight of the structures
to the ground underneath and around it. The loads from any structure have to be ultimately
transmitted to a soil through the foundation for the structure.
B. Retaining walls -are structures designed to restrain soil to unnatural slopes. They are
used to bound soils between two different elevations often in areas of terrain
possessing undesirable slopes or in areas where the landscape needs to be shaped
severely and engineered for more specific purposes like hillside farming or roadway
overpasses.
C. Slope Stability- encompasses the analysis of static and dynamic stability of slopes of
earth and rock-fill dams, slopes of other types of embankments, excavated slopes, and
natural slopes in soil and soft rock.
D. Earth Dams
a dam built of soil materials (sand, loam, clay, and so on), with a trapezoidal or nearly trapezoid
al cross section. Earthen damsare usually of the fixed type (without the flow of water over the cr
own); they are commonly used in many countries because oftheir simplicity of construction and
maintenance. Six main types of earthen dams are distinguished, depending on the materialsuse
d for the body of the dam and the methods of providing water impermeability.

E. Bearing capacity
The bearing capacity of soil is the average contact stress between a foundation and the soil which
will cause shear failure in the soil. Allowable bearing stress is the bearing capacity divided by a
factor of safety. Sometimes, on soft soil sites, large settlements may occur under loaded
foundations without actual shear failure occurring; in such cases, the allowable bearing stress is
determined with regard to the maximum allowable settlement. It is important during construction
and design stage of a project to evaluate the subgrade strength.