California State Polytechnic University, Pomona

Civil Engineering Department

Syllabus CE 326: Geotechnical Engineering II

Section 04 Mon & Wed 1:30 – 2:45 pm
Winter Quarter 2010
1: Instructor
• Professor William Kitch Phone: 909-869-3147 Email: wakitch@csupomona.edu
• Office: 17-2692 Hours: See homepage or Bb
2: Textbooks
• Coduto, D.P. (1999) Geotechnical Engineering: Principles and Practices, Prentice Hall
3: Prerequisites
• CE 325 and ME 218
4: Communications
This course relies heavily on Blackboard Learning System ™ (Bb) and email to deliver course
material and receive feedback from students. You must become familiar with these tools to
complete this course. Only your official Cal Poly Pomona email address will be used. It is your
responsibility to ensure your Cal Poly email box is working properly.
5: General Course Objectives
The following is a short list of the course objectives. More detailed learning objectives will be
provided for each lesson via Bb.
• An understanding of stresses in soil, and the ability to compute both geostatic and
induced stresses from common loading conditions
• An understanding of the principles of soil strength, the methods of measuring soil
strength, and the application of strength data to engineering analyses
• An introductory understanding of engineering aspects of slope stability analysis and
design
• An understanding of the sources of settlement in soils, and the ability to evaluate and
predict ultimate consolidation and secondary compression settlements
• An understanding of the process of consolidation and the ability to compute consolidation
settlements as a function of time
• An understanding of the geotechnical aspects of structural foundation design, including
the ability to size foundations that satisfy both bearing capacity and settlement criteria
• An understanding of the active, passive and the at-rest earth pressures that can exist
between a structure and the soil with which it is in contact, including the ability to
estimate these pressures.

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Civil Engineering Department

6: Graded Material
6.1: Class Attendance, Participation, and Timeliness
The number one complaint of engineering clients is the timeliness of deliverables (reports,
drawings, specifications, etc). As a professional engineer you will be expected to arrive at
scheduled meetings on time and prepared. Late proposals are not generally accepted. Late
specifications or drawings may cost the engineer a monetary penalty. Professional engineering
standards apply in this course.
You are expected to meet every class meeting on time and prepared. Attendance will be taken.
Arriving late or leaving early will be counted as an absence. Should you find it necessary to
miss a class for any reason, you are expected to notify your instructor as early as the absence is
known—preferably before the absence.
No late work will be accepted. Unless otherwise specified, assignments are due at the beginning
of the class period on the specified due date. Make up of exams will be at the discretion of the
instructor and will be allowed only under the most extraordinary circumstances (e.g.
hospitalization).
6.2: Homework
Homework will be assigned and submitted via Bb. You will have homework nearly every
lesson. The purpose of the homework is twofold: 1) to help you to prepare for class and 2) to
provide feedback to your instructor about what portions of the homework were most difficult and
need extra coverage during class. Homework questions will normally be qualitative in nature
and require little or no computations. They will be graded based on the effort you put into them
not on the correctness of your answers. If you prepare for class you should be able to get perfect
scores on the homework. When computing the course grade, your lowest homework score will
be dropped.
6.3: Problem Sets
Problem sets will be due periodically throughout the quarter. Problems sets will consist of
computational problems and essay questions to enable you to develop the skills needed for the
course. Problem sets shall be prepared in a neat and professional fashion, as if they were
calculations for a real design project. All work must be on engineering paper, except for
computer output, which should be on plain white paper. The handwriting must be neat and clear.
When plots or sketches are required, they may be drawn by hand, so long as they are neat and
clear. A sample computation sheet is attached. Follow the format of that sheet. Problem sets will
be graded on both the correctness of the answers and on the quality of the presentation.
When computing the course grade, your lowest problem set score will be dropped.
6.4: Design Exercise
There will a slope stability design exercise in this class. This exercise will be performed in
groups. Details for the exercise will be distributed later in the quarter.
6.5: Exams
There will be two exams, a mid-term and a final. The mid-term exam will cover the first half of
the course (Chapters 10, 11, & 12). The final exam will cover the second half of the course. Both

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Civil Engineering Department

exams will be closed book. Each student will be allowed to bring a double sided 8 ½” x 11” note
sheet to each exam. The note sheet must be hand written and prepared by the student.
6.6: Grades: Weighting and Letter Grades
The following weighting system will be used in determining final grade for the course

Item Points Percent

Homework: 18 @ 4 points each 72 10%
Problem sets: 6 @ 15 points each 90 12%
Attendance: 3 points per lesson 60 8%
Slope stability exercise 100 14%
Mid-term 200 28%
Final 200 28%
Total 722 100%
The instructor will determine a letter grades for the course using his professional judgment, and
the following standards as described in the University Catalog:
A = superior work D = minimally acceptable work
B = very good work F = unacceptable work
C = adequate work
7: Classroom and University Policies and Student Support
7.1: Student Access
Cal Poly Pomona, as a learning-centered university, is committed to student success. Students
with disabilities are encouraged to contact us privately or the Disability Resource Center
(909.869.3333, Building 9, Room 103) to coordinate course accommodations.
7.2: Academic Assistance
The University provides numerous support services to aid students such as writing tutoring, and
career counseling. The following web site lists places to assist you in the classroom.
http://www.csupomona.edu/~academic/support/
7.3: Academic integrity
The academic integrity you exhibit is assumed to be representative of the integrity you will
exhibit as a professional engineer. Failures of professional integrity may result in revocation of
one’s engineering license. Failures of academic integrity may result in probation or expulsion
from the California State University system.
Academic dishonesty is a serious offence and includes:
1. Plagiarism is a serious offence. Plagiarism is intentionally or knowingly presenting
words, ideas or work of others as one’s own work. Plagiarism includes copying
homework or any other work that is not one’s own. It also includes using work
completed in a previous class for credit in another class.
2. Cheating During Exams – Using unauthorized cheat sheets, copying from another,
looking at another student’s exam, opening books, obtaining advance copies of exams
and having an exam re-graded after making changes.

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3. Use of Unauthorized Study Aids such as cell phones and any other material prohibited by
the instructor.
7.4: Cell Phones and Food
Cell phones are not allowed in classroom during exams. You may bring cell phones to non-
exam class meetings so long as they are silenced and not used during class. Do not bring food to
class. You may bring drinks into class so long as they are in containers that won’t spill.
8: Collaboration and Teamwork
Nearly all worthwhile accomplishments from raising a family to launching the space shuttle are
the work of teams. Civil engineering is no exception. All significant civil engineering projects
are completed by teams.
You will be required to work in teams for the design exercises in this course. You are
encouraged to study in teams and sit with your teammates during class. There will often be
group discussions during class and you should sit near people you enjoy working with. You may
work with others in completing the problem sets for this course. However, it will be critical to
your success in exams that your individually understand all the problems in the problem sets. Do
not substitute copying for good collaborative learning—it will hurt you in the long run. When
you do work in teams on material submitted for a grade you must document the collaboration
that took place. The design projects will have formal reports that will be signed by all team
members. If you receive help on a problem set, you must document the help you received on the
problem set when it is turned in.
There are only two graded items that you cannot receive help on—homework and exams. Doing
the homework individually is critical to your understanding of the material and the exams are
critical to demonstrating your degree of mastery of the material. If you receive assistance on
homework or an exam, you will receive no credit for that work and be subject to disciplinary
action.
9: Instructor Prerogative
This class does not operate under democratic principles. Your instructors may change policies,
procedures, assignments, schedules, grade weighting, or other aspects of this course when he
deems it necessary. You will be notified of any such changes.

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Civil Engineering Department

10: Course Outline

The outline below provides a general overview of the course. Detailed reading and homework
assignments along with updates to this schedule will be provided via Bb.

Assignment
Lsn Date Topic Text Chapter Due
Stress in Soils
1 Mon 1/4 Geostatic Stress 10.1 - 10.4 HW
2 Wed 1/6 Induced & Effective Stress 10.5 - 10.7 & 10.10 HW
3 Mon 1/11 Mohr's Circle of Stress 10.9 HW, PS #1
Compressibility
11.1 - 11.4 exclude pp. 383-
4 Wed 1/13 Soil Stress-Strain Relationships HW
385
Mon 1/18 MLK Holiday
Relating lab data to field
5 Wed 1/20 11.4 – 11.6 HW, PS #2
performance
6 Mon 1/25 1D Settlement Predictions 11.7 HW
7 Wed 1/27 Rate of Consolidation 12.1 & 12.2 through pp. 443 HW, PS #3
Soil Strength
8 Mon 2/1 Mohr-Coulomb Failure Criteria 13.1 - 13.3 HW
9 Wed 2/3 Strength of Sand & Gravel 13.4 & 13.5 pp 485 & 488 HW, PS #4
13.5 through pg. 494,
10 Mon 2/8 Strength of Clays HW
13.5 pp 494-497 13.7
11 Wed 2/10 Mid Term
Mon 2/15 Presidents’ Day Holiday
12 On line Lab Strength Tests 13.8 pp 499- 508 HW
Slope Stability
13 Wed 2/17 Planar Failure Surfaces 14.1 - 14.4 pp 535 HW, PS #5
14 Mon 2/22 Circular Failure Surfaces 14.4, pp 535 - 542 HW
15 Wed 2/24 Method of Slices 14.4, pp 535-544 & 14.5 HW
16 Mon 3/1 Lateral Earth Pressure 16.1 & 16.2 through pg. 596 HW
Shallow Foundations
17 Wed 3/3 Bearing Capacity 17.1-17.3 HW, PS #6
18 Mon 3/8 Settlement on Clay 17.4 pp 630-637 HW
19 Wed 3/10 Settlement on Sand 17.4 pp 638-641 HW
Final Exam: Section 04: 11:30 am - 1:30 pm. Monday Mar 15, 2010

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