Kurdistan Region - IRAQ

Ministry of Higher Education &

Scientific Research
Koya University

Course Book
Faculty of Engineering (FENG)

Department of Geotechnical Engineering (DGEN)

Third Year

Course Title
Soil Mechanics
Course Code
SMC5217

Course Module (URL)

https://sites.google.com/a/koyauniversity.org/SMC5217

Dr. Zahraa N. Rasheed

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 Kurdistan Region - IRAQ
Ministry of Higher Education &
Scientific Research
Koya University

Course Name Soil Mechanic

Academic Year 2017-2018
Teacher in Charge Lecturer: Dr. Zahraa N. Rasheed
Faculty/ School/ Department FENG/DGEN
Contact details Email: Zahraa.noori@koyauniversity.org

Coordinator peer reviewers Name Dr. Bestun Jama Nariman

e-mail bestun.shwan@koyauniversity.org

Time Table
Tuesday: 8:30 AM- 11:30 AM (Theoritical)

Tuesday: 11:30 AM- 1:30 PM (Practical group A)

Classes
Tuesday: 1:30 PM- 3:30 PM (Practical group B)

Office hours Thursday: 10:00 – 10:30 AM

Grading
The students are required to do two closed book exams two times during the academic year:
1st Mid-term Exam: 15% (Theoretical)
1st Mid-term Exam: 5% (practical)
2nd Mid-term Exam: 15%
2nd Mid-term Exam: 5% (practical)
Laboratory reports: 10%(5% 1st term+5% 2nd term)
Final Exam: 40%
Final Laboratory Exam: 10%

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 Kurdistan Region - IRAQ
Ministry of Higher Education &
Scientific Research
Koya University

Course Overview
‌
Soil is used as a construction materials in various civil and geotechnical engineering projects, and it supports
structural foundation, thus, civil and geotechnical engineers must study the properties of soil, such as its
origin, grain-size distribution, ability to drain water, compressibility, shear strength, load-bearing capacity, and
so on. Soil mechanics course is designed to identify the truly fundamental and relevant principals of soil
mechanics and to present them clearly and thoroughly. Many examples and problems are included through
the course to illustrate these key principles. This course also strengthen with practical part (soil mechanics
laboratory), in order to give the students ideas and skills to how soil parameters and behavior can be obtained
and reported.

Course Information
Course Title Soil Mechanics
SMC5217
Course Code
Weekly Load 3 hr (2 hr Theoretical + 1 hr Tutorial) + 4hr practical (2 group A +2 group B)
units 6
Text Book Braja M. Das, Principles of Geotechnical Engineering, Fifth, 2002

References:
1. Geotechnical Engineering, Principles and Practice of Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering
construction (SI Units), V.N.S.Murthy, (2005)
2. Soil Mechanics, (SI Units), James Gere. Seventh Edition (2008)
3. Advanced Soil Mechanics, Braja M. Das (2008)
4. SOIL MECHANICS_ Lambe and Whitman (1969)
Course Objectives
1. Describe the nature of soil problems encountered in civil engineering and give an overall preview of the
behavior of soil.
2. Describes the nature of soil, especially the transmission of stresses between soil particles.
3. Studying primarily the dry soil behavior since many aspects of soil behavior can be understood by
considering the interaction of soil without the presence of water.
4. Based on point 1 and 2, treating soils in which the pore water is either stationary or flowing under steady
conditions.
5. Also consideration to the most complex situation in soil mechanics, that wherein pore pressure are
influenced by applied loads and hence the pore water is flowing under transient conditions.
6. In practical part, present testing procedures for making determinations of the soil properties to be used in
the design of civil works projects.

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 Kurdistan Region - IRAQ
Ministry of Higher Education &
Scientific Research
Koya University

Prerequisites by Topics:
• Working knowledge in mechanics of materials is essential. This includes Statics and Strength of
materials.
• Working knowledge in fluid mechanics is desirable but not essential.
• Some knowledge in partial differential equations.
• Some knowledge in infinite series.

Learning Outcomes
• Students learn how to interact professionally among themselves during laboratory sessions.
They will perform tests and collect data. They will share data with other groups and also share
their experiences.
• Students are responsible for submitting professionally-written reports for all laboratory
experiments they conduct.
• Students will present their projects to the class (5-minute presentations).

Relationship to Program Objectives:

1.Students use simple mathematics to derive relationships among soil properties. They use
elementary partial differential equations to solve simple boundary-value flow and consolidation
problems. Statics and Strength of Materials are heavily utilized in this course.
2. Students solve problems related to the theoretical part of this course. Soil Mechanics is a
required course and all civil and geotechnical engineering students are expected to take it.
3. Students will conduct seven geotechnical experiments that are directly related to the
theoretical part of the course. They will be responsible for reducing and plotting data, and
deducing material properties from the plotted data.
4. Student are responsible for writing laboratory reports for each of the seven laboratory
experiments.
5.Laboratory experiments are conducted in groups (5-6 students per group).
6. Triaxial soil tests and consolidation tests are both state-of-the-art experiments.

Class/Laboratory Schedule:
three 50-minute lectures per week and one 2-hour laboratory period per week

Contribution of Course to Meeting the Professional Component:

Students learn the basics of geotechnical engineering in this course. This course will prepare
them for other geotechnical courses such as foundation engineering and soil improvements.
These advanced courses involve a variety of design problems including foundations, retaining
walls, slope stability, foundation on soft soils etc.
Desirable Student Competencies:
• Ability to work in team settings
• Ability to prepare professional laboratory reports
• Ability to use computers and some computer graphics (any computer graphics program for
making simple arithmetic and semi-logarithmic plots)
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 Kurdistan Region - IRAQ
Ministry of Higher Education &
Scientific Research
Koya University

Course Policies:
1. No Cell Phone is allowed during lecture and exam. Must be OFF (not silence or vibrating mode)
2. Be on time to class. Tardy is strongly discouraged
3. Exams and Quizzes are closed book and closed note
4. Homework will be assigned but not collected. If you have any question about the homework you
can discuss it with me at the class or office hours. Before you ask for assistance with your assigned
homework, make sure that you have attempted the problem already
5. The Questions of the common exams are based on the examples, homework problems and the
exercises of the textbook and references given in this course.
6. You should bring calculator to every lecture.

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 Kurdistan Region - IRAQ
Ministry of Higher Education &
Scientific Research
Koya University

Course Schedule:
Weeks Lecture Topics
1,2 Origin of Soil and Grain size
3 Weight Volume Relationship of soil and soil plasticity
4 Weight Volume Relationship of soil and soil plasticity
5 Weight Volume Relationship of soil and soil plasticity
6 Engineering Classification of Soil
7 Engineering Classification of Soil
8 Soil Compaction
9 Soil Compaction
10 Permeability
11 Permeability
12 Permeability
13 Seepage
14 Seepage
15 In Situ Stresses
16 In Situ Stresses
17 Stresses in a soil mass
18 Stresses in a soil mass
19 Stresses in a soil mass
20 Shear strength of soil
21 Shear strength of soil
22 Shear strength of soil
23 Compressibility of Soil
24 Compressibility of soil
25 Compressibility of soil
26 Lateral Earth pressure
27 Lateral Earth pressure
28 Review

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 Kurdistan Region - IRAQ
Ministry of Higher Education &
Scientific Research
Koya University

Subjects Objectives

Subjects Objectives

Explain the geological processes by which soils are

Origin of Soil and Grain size formed, the description of the soil-particle-size limits
and mechanical analysis of soils.

Weight Volume Discuses the three-phase relationships of soil structure

Relationship of soil and soil and their plasticity.
plasticity

A soil classification system is the arrangement of

different soils with similar properties into groups and
subgroups based on their application. Classification
systems provide a common language to briefly express
the general characteristics of soils, which are infinitely
varied, without detailed description. Most of the soil
Engineering Classification
classification systems that have been developed for
of Soil
engineering purposes are based on simple index
properties such as particles size distribution and
plasticity. Although there are several classification
systems now in use, none is totally definitive of any soil
for all possible applications, because of the wide
diversity of soil properties.

As soil compaction important in the construction of

highway embankments, earth dams, and many other
engineering structures. Loose soils must be compacted
Soil Compaction to increase their unit weights so that increasing bearing
capacity of foundations constructed over them. In this
part, the principles of soil compaction in the laboratory
and in the field will be discussed.

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 Kurdistan Region - IRAQ
Ministry of Higher Education &
Scientific Research
Koya University

Soils are assemblage of solid particles with

interconnected voids through which water can flow
from a point of high energy to a point of low energy. The
study of flow of water through pours soil media is
important in soil mechanic. This is necessary for
Permeability and estimating the quantity of underground seepage under
various hydraulic conditions for investigation problems
Seepage involving the pumping of water for underground
constructions and for making stability analysis of earth
dams and earth retaining structures that are subjected
to seepage forces.

Soil are multiphase system. In a given volume of soil, the

solid particles are distributed randomly with voids
spaces between. the void spaces are continuous and are
occupied by water and/or air. To analyze problems such
as compressibility of soils, bearing capacity of
In Situ Stresses
foundations, stability of embankments, and lateral
pressure on earth-retaining structures, we need to know
the nature of the distribution of stress along a given
cross section of the soil, and this is the objective from
this subjects.

Estimation of the net increase of the vertical stress in

Stresses in a soil mass soil that occurs as a result of the construction of a
foundation so that settlement can be calculated.

A stress increase caused by the construction of

foundations or other loads compresses soil layers. The
compression is caused by deformation of soil particles,
relocation of soil particles and expulsion of water on air
Compressibility of soil
from the void spaces. In this section the fundamental
principles for estimating the immediate and
consolidation settlements of soil layers under
superimposed loadings.

The shear strength of a soil mass is the internal

Shear strength of soil resistance per unit area that the soil mass can offer to
resist failure and sliding along any plane inside it. the
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 Kurdistan Region - IRAQ
Ministry of Higher Education &
Scientific Research
Koya University

students must understand the nature of shearing

resistance in order to analyze soil stability problems
such as bearing capacity, slope stability, and lateral
pressure on earth retaining structures.

Retaining structures such as retaining walls, basement

walls, and bulkheads are commonly encountered in
foundation engineering as they support slopes of earth
masses. Proper design and construction of these
Lateral Earth pressure structures require a thorough knowledge of the lateral
forces that act between the retaining structures and the
soil masses being retained. These lateral forces are
caused by lateral earth pressure. This section is devoted
to the study of the various earth pressure theories.

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 Kurdistan Region - IRAQ
Ministry of Higher Education &
Scientific Research
Koya University

Laboratory Exercises:
• Moisture content
• Specific gravity
• Grain size analysis:
 Sieve analysis.
 Hydrometer analysis.
• Atterberg limits:
 Liquid limit.
 Plastic limit.
• Compaction Test:
 Slandered Procter test.
 Modified Procter test.
• Field density:
 Sand replacement method.
 Core cutter method.
• Maximum and minimum densities
• Permeability test:
 Constant head test.
 Falling head test.
• Consolidation test.
• Direct shear test.
• Triaxial test.

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 Kurdistan Region - IRAQ
Ministry of Higher Education &
Scientific Research
Koya University

Student feedback regarding the course

Course:Soil Mech. Date: Sep. 2015 Year: 2016-2017 Teacher: Dr. Zahraa Noori
Department: Geotechnical Eng. Dept. Faculty of Eng. University: Koya

Level
No. Assessment questions More objective notes
(1-5)
Were the aims and message of the course
1
clear?
Were the contents of the course useful?
2 Was it related to the main aims of the
department?
Do you think the course teacher worked
3
hard to prepare the course book?
Did the teacher highlight the core topics and
4
points in an easy-to-understand manner?
Did the teacher arrive and conclude the
5
lectures on time?
Did the teacher behave in a professional
6 ‌
manner during the lecture?
Were the slides that were used clear and
7
comprehensive?
Did the teacher leave any time for questions
8 and answers? Did he/she answer them
satisfactorily?
Did the teacher handle any criticisms or
9
complaints?
10 Were exam procedures clearly explained?
Did the exam questions reflect the topics
11
presented and studied in the course?
Were the reading references new and
12
relevant to the topic?
Total level

Assessment measurement
1- <2 Not Good 2- <3 Average 3- <4 Good 4-5 Very Good

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