NPTEL Syllabus

Advanced Geotechnical Engineering -

Web course

COURSE OUTLINE

The topics cover

Soil formation; Soil structure; Soil properties; Classification; Clay mineralogy;

NPTEL
Soil compaction; Effective stress; Water in soils – capillarity, shrinkage, swelling;
http://nptel.iitm.ac.in
Flow of water through soils – permeability and seepage; Stresses and
displacements in soil mass; Consolidation theories - 1D and 3D consolidation;
Settlement of compressible soil layers; Methods for accelerating consolidation Civil Engineering
settlements; Shear strength of sands and clays; Triaxial behaviour.

Stress state and analysis of UC, UU, CU, CD, and other special tests; Mohr
circle; Failure theories; Stress paths in triaxial and octahedral plane; Stress
Pre-requisites:
paths during undrained loading – Normally consolidated clays; Stress path
during drained loading – Over consolidated clays; Pore pressure parameters;
Short-term and Long-term stability analysis of slopes; Methods for stability Basic courses in soil mechanics.
analysis of slopes; Methods for enhancing stability of unstable slopes; Arching in
soils, Earth pressure theories; Retaining wall problems; Numerical analysis in Additional Reading:
Geotechnical Engineering; Ground improvement – vibroflotation, stone columns,
geosynthetics. Literature on geotechnical engineering
in relevant journals and handbooks.
COURSE DETAIL
Coordinators:
Dr. Jayasree P. K.
Civil EngineeringCollege of
Sl.No. Topic No. of Engineering, Trivandrum
Hours
Dr. K. Balan
Civil EngineeringCollege of
Engineering, Trivandrum
1 Soil composition and soil structure 5

Soil formation; Types of soils and their characteristics;

Particle sizes and shapes; their impact on engineering
properties; Soil structure; Soil properties; Classification
of soils;Clay mineralogy; Soil-air-water
interaction;Consistency; Soil compaction.

2 Water in soils 5

Capillarity; shrinkage; swelling; Concept of effective

stress; Permeability; Seepage force and effective stress
during seepage; Laplace equations of fluid flow for 1-D,
2-D and 3D seepage, Flow nets, Anisotropic and non‐
homogeneous medium, Confined and Unconfined
seepage.

3 Stresses in soils 6

Stresses due to surface loads – Boussinesq’s and

Westergaard’s theories; Use of Newmarks and
Fellenius charts; Stresses in a layered system;
Distribution of contact stress under footings.

4 Compressibility and Consolidation 6

 Terzagahi’s 1-D consolidation theory; Application in
different boundary conditions; Determination of
Coefficient of consolidation cv; Normally and
Overconsolidated soils; Compression curves;
Secondary consolidation; Radial consolidation;
Settlement of compressible soil layers and Methods for
accelerating consolidation settlements.

5 Shear strength of soils 8

Stress state, Mohr’s circle of analysis and pole,

Principal stress space, Stress paths in p‐q space;
Failure theories; correlation with p‐q space; Stress‐
strain behaviour: Isotropic compression and pressure
dependency, confined compression, large stress
compression, Definition of failure, Interlocking concept
and its interpretations, Drainage conditions.

Triaxial behaviour, stress state and analysis of UC, UU,

CU, CD, and other special tests, Stress paths in triaxial
and octahedral plane; Stress paths during undrained
loading – Normally consolidated clays; Stress path
during drained loading – Over consolidated clays; Pore
pressure parameters, Elastic modulus from triaxial
tests.

6 Stability of Slopes 5

Stability analysis of a slope and finding critical slip

surface; Sudden Draw down condition, effective stress
and total stress analysis; Methods for enhancing
stability of unstable slopes.

7 Arching and earth pressure 3

Arching in soils; earth pressure – active and passive;

Rankine’s and Coulomb’s theories; Graphical
construction; Bulk heads, sheet pile walls, bracing
systems, open excavations.

8 Numerical Analysis in Geotechnical Engineering 3

Theoretical considerations; Geometric idealization;

Methods of analysis; Closed form solutions; Simple
methods; Numerical analysis; Non linear analysis.

9 Ground Improvement 3

Vibroflotation; stone columns; Geosynthetics -

Overview

References:

1. Das, B. M. (2008). Advanced Soil Mechanics. Taylor and Francis Group,

London,Second edition.

2. Kramer, S. L. (2003). Geotechnical Earthquake Engineering. Prentice Hall,

New Jersey, USA.

3. Potts, D., Axelsson, K., Grande, L., Schweiger, H. and Long, M. (2002).
Guidelines for the use of advanced numerical analysis. Thomas Telford,
 London.

4. Terzaghi, K., Peck, R.B. and Mesri, G. (1996). Soil Mechanics in

Engineering Practice. John Wiley and Sons, New York.

5. Hausmann, R.M. (1990).Engineering Principles of Ground Modification.

McGraw Hill Publishing Company, Singapore.

A joint venture by IISc and IITs, funded by MHRD, Govt of India http://nptel.iitm.ac.in