SOIL MECHANICS AND FOUNDATION ENGINEERING

SOIL MECHANICS NOTES (FLORIDA UNIVERSITY)

http://www.eng.fsu.edu/~tawfiq/soilmech/lecture.html

SOIL MECHANICS

LECTURE NOTES

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LECTURE # 1

SOIL AND SOIL ENGINEERING

* The term Soil has various meanings, depending upon the general field in which it is being considered.

*To a Pedologist … Soil is the substance existing on the earth’s surface, which grows and develops plant life.

*To a Geologist ….. Soil is the material in the relative thin surface zone within which roots occur, and all the rest of the crust is grouped under the term ROCK irrespective of its hardness.

*To an Engineer …. Soil is the un-aggregated or un-cemented deposits of mineral and/or organic particles or fragments covering large portion of the earth’s crust.

** Soil Mechanics is one of the youngest disciplines of Civil Engineering involving the study of soil, its behavior and application as an engineering material.

*According to Terzaghi (1948): “Soil Mechanics is the application of laws of mechanics and hydraulics to engineering problems dealing with sediments and other unconsolidated accumulations of solid particles produced by the mechanical and chemical disintegration of rocks regardless of whether or not they contain an admixture of organic constituent.”

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SHAMSUL HUSAIN