Other university, Civil Engineering , Geotechnical Engineering Syllabus

Geotechnical Engineering

Unit 1
Origin and classification: Preview of Geotechnical field problems in Civil Engineering, Soil
formation, transport and deposit, Soil composition, Basic definitions, Weight volume
relationships, Clay minerals, Soil structure, Index properties, sensitivity and thixotropy,
Particle size analysis, Unified and Indian standard soil classification system.

Unit 2
Soil Hydraulics: Stress conditions in soil- total, effective and neutral stresses and relationships.
Permeability - Darcy's Law, hydraulic conductivity, equivalent hydraulic conductivity in
stratified soil.
Seepage, flow nets, seepage calculation from a flow net, flow nets in anisotropic soils, seepage
through earth dam, capillarity, critical hydraulic gradient and quick sand condition, uplift
pressure, piping.

Unit 3
Soil compaction, water content - dry unit weight relationships. Factors controlling compaction.
Field compaction equipment; field compaction control; Proctor needle method.
Consolidation: Primary and secondary consolidation, Terzaghi's one dimensional theory of
consolidation, Consolidation test, Normal and Over Consolidated soils, Over Consolidation
Ratio, determination of coefficient of consolidation.

Unit 4
Stress Distribution in soil: Elastic constants of soils and their determination, Boussinesq equation
for vertical stress, The Westergaard equation, Stress distribution under loaded areas, Concept of
pressure bulb, contact pressure.
Shear Strength: Mohr-Coulomb failure criterion, shear strength parameters and determination;
direct and tri-axial shear test; unconfined compression test; pore pressure, Skempton's pore
pressure coefficients, and Soil liquefaction.

Unit 5
Earth pressure: Classical theories, Coulomb and Rankine's approaches for frictional and c-φ
soils, inclined backfill, Graphical methods of earth pressure determination.
Stability of slopes - finite and infinite slopes, types of slope failure, Culmann’s method &
Method of slices, Stability number & chart, Bishop’s method.