UNIVERSITY OF MAURITIUS

FACULTY OF ENGINEERING
FIRST SEMESTER EXAMINATIONS
DECEMBER 2007
PROGRAMME

BEng (Hons) Civil Engineering Level 3

MODULE NAME

Geotechnical Engineering II

DATE

Monday

17

MODULE CODE

CIVE 3221(5)

December 2007
TIME
NO. OF

9:30 11:30 Hours

7

QUESTIONS SET

INSTRUCTIONS TO CANDIDATES
Answer any FIVE (5) Questions.
Figures 1 and Table 1 are enclosed.
All questions carry equal marks.

DURATION
NO. OF QUESTIONS
TO BE ATTEMPTED

2 Hours
5

Geotechnical Engineering II - CIVE 3221(5)

Answer any FIVE (5) Questions.

All questions carry equal marks.
Question 1
(a)

A 6m high wall with a smooth vertical back retains soil having a unit
weight of 18.5 kN/m3, cu = 30 kN/m2 and u = 0. A uniform surcharge of
30 kN/m2 acts on the surface of the soil behind the wall. Determine the
active thrust acting on the wall.
[10 marks]

(b)

A 6m high wall with a rough vertical back retains soil having a unit weight
of 18.5 kN/m3, c' = 0 and ' = 30. The angle of friction between the soil and
the back of the wall is = 15. Using Coulombs method, calculate the
active thrust acting on the wall for a trial slip surface inclined at angle of
60 to the horizontal.
[10 marks]

Question 2
(a)

Compare the mechanisms involved in achieving stability when the

following methods of retaining soils are used:
(i)
(ii)

masonry gravity wall

cantilever sheet pile wall.
[10 marks]

(b)

A trench with vertical sides was excavated in a saturated clay deposit

having unit weight of 20 kN/m3. The sides of the trench failed when the
excavation reached a depth of 6m. Determine the undrained compressive
strength of the clay.
[10 marks]

Question 3
A saturated soil deposit has unit weight 19 kN/m3 and effective shear strength
parameters c'= 0 and ' = 36. The water table is at ground level. It is proposed to
excavate a 12 m deep slurry trench in the soil and support it with slurry of
density 1.4 Mg/m3. Working from first principles, determine the required depth
of slurry in the trench so that a factor of safety of 1.5 applied to shear strength
parameters is achieved.
[20 marks]

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Geotechnical Engineering II - CIVE 3221(5)

Question 4
A long slope in a soil is inclined at an angle of 15. The soil has saturated unit
weight of 20 kN/m3 and effective shear strength parameters c' = 5 kN/m2 and
' = 30. The water table is expected to rise to the ground surface with seepage
being parallel to the slope. Working from first principles, determine the factor of
safety against shear on a plane parallel to the surface at a depth of 4m.
[20 marks]
Question 5
Figure 1 shows the cross-section of an embankment and a trial slip surface. The
soil a unit weight of 20 kN/m3, c' = 10 kN/m2 and ' = 25. The pore pressure
ratio ru in the embankment may be taken as 0.4. The failed mass has been divided
into 5 slices and the following data were obtained:

Width of slice,

Weight of slice,

b (m)

W (kN)

3.00

99.0

-31.2

3.00

234.0

-1.0

3.00

300.0

16.2

2.00

172.0

46.9

1.35

56.7

76.2

Slice no.

is the angle between the normal force acting on the base of the slice and the
vertical.
Using the above data and Fellenius method of slices, determine the factor of
safety in terms of effective stress for the trial slip surface.
[20 marks]

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Geotechnical Engineering II - CIVE 3221(5)

Question 6
A cutting 18m deep is to be made in a soil with the following properties:
= 20 kN/m3
c' = 13.5 kN/m2
' = 25.
If the cutting is to be designed to a pore pressure ratio of 0.3 and a factor of safety
of 1.3, determine a suitable slope for the side of the cutting.
[20 marks]
Use the Bishop & Morgenstern stability coefficients given in Table 1.

Question 7
(a)

If you make a cut in an existing saturated clay deposit, the factor of safety
against failure of its sides is likely to decrease with time. Give reasons to
explain this phenomenon.
[5 marks]

(b)

Describe TWO types of failure in rock slopes.

(c)

Explain in detail how preloading a soft cohesive soil deposit can cause a
reduction in its compressibility.
[10 marks]

END OF QUESTION PAPER

sg/

Page 3 of 3

[5 marks]

Geotechnical Engineering II - CIVE 3221(5)

Slope

c'/h = 0

c'/h = 0.025

c'/h = 0.050

1H:1V

0.47

0.92

0.83

0.96

1.05

1.03

2H:1V

0.92

1.16

1.35

1.27

1.61

1.33

3H:1V

1.40

1.55

1.87

1.69

2.21

1.89

4H:1V

1.86

1.97

2.42

2.25

2.70

2.28

Table 1. Effective stress stability coefficients when ' = 25

Page 4 of 3