Brief history of soil mechanics

Chronological representation of the main events on the origin and evolution of Soil
Mechanics to the present day.
Highlight key dates,
Precursors and father OF SOIL MECHANICS

HISTORY OF SOIL MECHANICS

Science created in 1925 by the engineer Kart von Terzaghi that involves the laws of
natural sciences and physics in problems related to the charges in the superficial layer
of the Earth's crust. Soil mechanics is a very important science, since all buildings are
built on land, in fact, this same element is used to build dikes, embankments, etc. That
is why the stability and behavior of the terrain must be studied and analyzed to
determine what type of load it can support.

If the limits that the soil can withstand a load One of the most used and most studied
terms by engineers is rock and soil, which are clearly differentiated from each other.

Rock is any material that has high resistance, and soil is a natural compound made up
of mineral corpuscles that are separated by mechanical means, either by manual
pressure or by stirring in water. A great way to distinguish a rock from the soil is to put
these two elements in a glass of water and start shaking them vigorously, the rock will
remain intact while the soil will disintegrate quickly.

Soil mechanics has been developed at the beginning of the 20th century. The need for
analysis of soil behavior arose in many countries, often as a result of spectacular
accidents such as landslides and foundation failures.

In the Netherlands the slide of a railway embankment near Weesp in 1918 gave rise to
the first systematic investigation in the field of soil mechanics, by a special
commission created by the government. Many of the basic principles of soil
mechanics were well known at the time, but their combination with an engineering
discipline had not yet been completed.

The first important contributions to soil mechanics are due to Coulomb, who published
an important treatise on the failure of soils in 1776, and Rankine, who published a
paper on possible stress states in soils in 1857.

In 1856 Darcy published his famous work on the permeability of soils for the water
supply of the city of Dijon. The principles of continuous mechanics, including statics
and strength of materials, also known in the 19th century, due to the work of Newton,
Cauchy, Navier and Boussinesq. The union of all these foundations for a coherent
discipline had to wait until the 20th century.

It is worth mentioning that the committee investigating the disaster near Weesp
concluded that the water levels on the railway embankment increased due to constant
rain, and that the strength of the retaining wall was insufficient to withstand these high
waters. pressures.
Important pioneering contributions to the development of soil mechanics were made
by Karl Terzaghi, who, among many other things, has described how to deal with the
influence of pore water pressures on soil behavior. This is an essential element of soil
mechanics theory. Mistakes in this regard often lead to major disasters, such as the
landslides near Weesp, Aberfan, Wales, and the Teton Valley Dam disaster.

In the Netherlands, much pioneering work has been done by Keverling Buisman,
especially on clay deformation rates.

A stimulating factor has been the creation of the Delft Soil Mechanics Laboratory in
1934, now known as Deltares. In many countries around the world there are similar
institutes and consulting companies that specialize in soil mechanics. They usually
also deal with Foundation Engineering, which deals with the application of the
principle of soil mechanics to the design and construction of foundations in
engineering practice.

Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering together often denoted as Geotechnics.

A well-known consulting company in this field is Fugro, headquartered in
Leidschendam, with branches all over the world.

The international organization in the field of geotechnics is the International Society of

Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering, the ISSMGE, which organizes
conferences and stimulates the development of geotechnics through the creation of
international study groups and by standardization. In most countries the International
Society has a national society. In the Netherlands, this is the Geotechnics Department
of the Royal Netherlands Institution of Engineers (KIVI), with about 800 members.

Important progress in soil mechanics

1773. Charles Augustin de Coulomb formulated the "wedge theory" to determine earth
pressures and frictional cohesive soils. He was born on June 14, 1736 in France and
died in Paris on August 23, 1806. He was a physicist and military engineer who
mathematically described the law of attraction between charges.

Thomas Telford. His research led him to develop a type of pavement. What today in
the evolution of these pavements we can create roads that last for long seasons. He
was born on August 9, 1757 in Lengón, Scotland and died on September 2, 1834.

1840. Poncelet developed a graphical solution for the wedge of Coulomb theory.
Jean Victor Poncelet. He was born on July 1, 1788 in Metz and died on December 22,
1876 in Paris. He was a French mathematician and engineer, who in 1840 developed
a graphical method for the direct determination of the failure surface and the active
and passive earth pressures.
1856. William John Macquorn Rankine developed theories about the behavior of
sand.
He was born on July 5, 1820 and died on December 24, 1872, all of this in Scotland.
He was an engineer and physicist whose greatest contribution was to
thermodynamics.
1856. Henry Darcy determined formulas for the impermeability of sand. He was born
on June 10, 1803 in Dijon, France, and died on January 3, 1858 while traveling to
Paris. In 1855 and 1856 he conducted experiments with which he was able to
establish Darcy's law for flows in sands. The law establishes a relationship between
the flow, the area, the permeability of the sand, and the hydraulic head and also the
length of the flow.
1857. Airy worked on slope stability.
1885. Boussinesq developed formulas for stress distribution in a loading zone.
1908. Richardson developed flow networks as a graphical solution for the analysis of
seepage

History of soil mechanics

Origin and evolution of soil mechanics.
Since ancient times, man has used soil as a construction material. From living in
caves to the ancient pyramid constructions in Egypt. History tells us that ancient
civilizations flourished along the Nile River, the Euphrates, and the Huang Ho. The
ancient Greek civilization used insulated footings and wooden foundations to build
structures around 2700 BC One of the most famous examples of the problems related
to the bearing capacity of the soil in the construction of structures before the 18th
century is the Tower of Pisa in Italy, recent research showed that a weak clay layer
exists.

Preclassical period (1700-1776).

In 1717, a French royal engineer, Henri Gautier (1660-1737), studied the natural
slope, what we know today as the angle of repose. In 1729, Bernhard Forest of
Belidor published a theory for the lateral pressure of the earth on retaining walls.
François Gadroy observed the existence of sliding planes in the ground like a fault.
This study was later summarized by JJ Mayniel in 1808.

Classical soil mechanics-phase II (1856-1910).

In 1856, Henri Philibert Daspard Darcy published a study on the permeability of sand
filters. A notable fact in this period was by John Clibborn and John Stuart regarding
the flow of water through sand and lifting pressure.

Modern soil mechanics (1910-1927).

In 1908, Albert Mauritz defined life-size clay fractions. Arthur Langley worked on the
design and construction of the outer dock at Rosyth Dockyard, basing his work on
relationships of lateral pressure and strength in the clay. Wolmar Fellenius, developed
the stability analysis of saturated clay tracks. Karl Terzaghi developed the theory of
clay consolidation that we know today. Their study covered a period of five years and
five different clay soils were used.

In 1925 the book Erdbaumechanik Terzaghi was published. Karl Terzaghi, father of
soil mechanics. He was born on October 2, 1883 in Prague, in 1904 he graduated in
mechanical engineering.

End of an era. Pioneers: Karl Terzaghi, Arthur Casagrande, Donald W. Taylor and
Ralph Peck. Ralph took courses with Arthur at Harvard on a new topic called Soil
Mechanics. His main projects were: Rapid transit systems in Chicago. Known as the
godfather of soil mechanics, he was directly responsible for a series of tunnels and
earthen dams that pushed the limits of what was possible.

YEAR DEVELOPMENTSOURCE
1779. Coulomb invented the compressed air caisson
1802. Berigny invented alluvial injection with clay and hydraulic lime
1802. Rennie used steam in piling machine
1811. Telford applied preload to reduce settlement in clay
1827. Telford introduced the idea of the clay core in dams.
1830. Cochrane used the box with the air valve
1835. Steel-jacketed piles in England
1839. First pile load test in the USA
1841. Triger studied the effects of compressed air on health
1843. Naysmyth invented the steam pile driver (Scotland)
1846. Clarke, Freeman and Varley used compressed air pile drivers in England
1852.Michoux studied soil freezing
1860. Keller (Germany) is founded
Keller. 1865. Treatment of wooden piles with creosote in the USA
1866. Jacob: dams with 3:1 slopes for upstream and 2:1 for downstream slopes
1867. Hawkesley introduced cement injection for rock dams
1867. Vulcan developed its steam pile driver in the USA
1883. Stephenson applied groundwater withdrawal by means of wells
1888. Formula Engineering News for Driven Piles
1893. Large hand-excavated caissons in Chicago
1893. Mckiernan-Terry built the double-action pile driver (USA)
1893. Raymond used cast-in-situ piles in the USA
1896. Hennebique used precast piles in France
1908. Raymond used precast piles in the USA
1908. Bethlehem introduced steel H piles in the USA
1908. Frankignoul invented the Franki pile in Belgium
1910. First static test of pillars in Chicago
1913. ASCE created the Foundations Committee
1926. Delmag invented the explosion hammer (benzol mixture)

FROM A MENTAL MAP IN A SUCCESSION OF IDEAS, THE EVOLUTION OF

GEOTECHNICAL ENGINEERING IS DESCRIBED, INCLUDING OUTSTANDING
ASPECTS THAT HAVE EVOLVED INTO A BRANCH OF GREAT IMPORTANCE
TOWARDS THE END OF THE 20TH CENTURY, ENVIRONMENTAL
GEOTECHNICAL ENGINEERING AND GEOTECHNOLOGY.

OUTSTANDING MILESTONES IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF GEOTECHNICAL

ENGINEERING
Before 1940 - Karl Terzaghi
After the Second World War: the political and social demands for:
The new structures and facilities
Protecting and improving the environment
New resources
Mitigating the risks of natural disasters

SOIL MECHANICS AND FOUNDATION ENGINEERING EDUCATION IN 1949

Scope of the field limited mainly to:
Soil Classification
Capillarity and flow
Stress analysis by elasticity theory
Settlement consolidation and analysis
Cut resistance
Slope stability
Lateral pressures
Portant capacity
Shallow and deep foundations
Broad emphasis on saturated clays and sands
DEVELOPMENTS BETWEEN 1950 - 1960
Slope stability
Cut resistance
Soil structure, causes of sensitivity in clays
Properties of compacted clays
Pavement design
Soil stabilization
transient load
DEVELOPMENTS BETWEEN 1960-1970
Pore pressure, analysis under effective stress
Physico-chemical phenomena
Rock Mechanics
Computer applications
Finite element analysis
Soil-structure interaction
Soil Dynamics
Liquefaction
Earth dams and rockfills (breakwaters)
Projects on the high seas, frozen regions and lunar
DEVELOPMENTS BETWEEN 1970-1980
Constitutive models
On-site testing
expansive soils
Soil Dynamics
Centrifugal Tests
Partially saturated soils
Seismic geotechnical engineering
Underground construction

DEVELOPMENTS BETWEEN 1980-1990

Risk and reliability
Groundwater and geohydrology
Geoenvironmental engineering
Geosynthetics
reinforced earth
Soil improvement
DEVELOPMENTS BETWEEN 1990-2000
Waste containers
Site rehabilitation
Seismic risk mitigation
Land reclamation
Infrastructure
Geophysical applications
GIS geographic information systems

MOST SIGNIFICANT CONTRIBUTIONS OF RESEARCH IN THE UNITED KINGDOM

BETWEEN 1950 - 2000
Critical State Soil Mechanics
Minor deformations and non-linear stiffness
Triaxial tests under effective stresses
Numerical analysis
Centrifugal modeling
Structure and factory effects
Residual stresses in OC soils
Partially saturated soils
Analysis of effective efforts on slopes and retaining structures
Field measurements at the BRE (Building Research Establishment)

SITUATION IN THE 21ST CENTURY

FIELD OF GEOTECHNOLOGY

Geotechnical Engineering
Geology and geological engineering
Geophysics
Geochemistry
Geohydrology
Seismology
Civil Engineering
Mining and mineral engineering
petroleum engineering
Information science and technology

PROJECTS AND PROBLEMS

Foundations for all types of structures

Transportation infrastructure (roads, airports, railways, ports and subways)
Land recovery
Seismic safety - seismic risk mitigation
Resource Recovery
Energy
Conservation and restoration of ancient structures
Disposal and disposal of waste
Site rehabilitation and environmental improvement
Soil and rocks as construction materials
Ocean depths, frozen regions, outer space
Protection from natural threats and risk reduction (slides, tornadoes, hurricanes,
tsunamis, floods, expansive soils, etc.)

NEW TECHNOLOGIES AND MATERIALS

reinforced ground
Deep soil mix
Jet grouting
Compaction Grouting
Geosynthetics
Micro-piles
Micro-tunnels
Geocomposites
Geophysical methods

INVASIVITY OF MEASUREMENTS (in descending order of invasiveness)

Measurement
Method
Satellites, aircraft
Helicopter
walk on ground
Disturbance, <1m
Disturbance, <100 m
Remote sensing, photographs
Remote sensing, electromagnetism, magnetism
Magnetism, gravity, GPR, conductivity
Seismic, resistivity, sampling: geochemical, biological, soil
Penetrometers; drilling and sampling, downhole measurements, tomography

APPLICATIONS OF NON-INVASIVE METHODS

Subsoil characterization for:

- Waste disposal, containment, recovery
- Infrastructure construction
Location of:
- Cavities
- Natural resources
- Underground services
- Buried landmines and unexploded ordnance

Monitoring to:
- Ground movements
- Decay of infrastructure

Archaeological or forensic investigations

Search and rescue

NEW REALITIES IN ENGINEERING AND CONSTRUCTION PRACTICE

Public participation
Legal and regulatory matters
Health and security
Decision and risk analysis
Replacing the practice of design-bid-build with that of design-build
Questionable cost/benefit ratio
Distressed economies
Poorly defined objectives

SOME KNOWLEDGE NEEDS

Liquefaction and predicting its consequences

Improved land evaluation
Deformation prediction
Working with difficult terrain
Bearing capacity of foundations
Enhanced Site Characterization
Constitutive models (always!)

TOPICS WHICH HAS BEEN RECENTLY DEVELOPED INTO

Piles and bored piles

Geotechnical seismic and liquefaction engineering
Constitutive behavior, mechanics
Soil improvement and stabilization
Properties and behavior
Micro-mechanics
Transport of pollutants
Stability
Geosynthetics
Lateral pressures, excavations
Others

SOME NEW FRONTIERS OF GEOTECHNICAL ENGINEERING

Micro-mechanics
Nanotechnology
Biological processes
"Seeing into the earth"
Smart materials
Self-monitoring and correction systems

KEY QUESTIONS

What is soil?
How does it respond to different stimuli?
Why is it answered this way?
How do we relate the answers to these questions to the problem or project at hand?

Fundamental Mechanical Properties

Volume change
Stress-strain
Endurance
Hydraulic conductivity (and its changes over time)

MOST IMPORTANT UNSOLVED PROBLEMS

Commercialization of services
Reduce the gap between "state of practice" and "state of knowledge" - rapid transfer
of the best results from research to practice
Seismic behavior of earth structures
Displacements of earth structures during and after construction
Characterization and design of materials between soil and rock
Effects of weather altered soils
Improved site characterization
How to generalize and simplify the discipline

HIGH PAYMENT RESEARCH IN 2010

Faster, cheaper, and more reliable on-site testing

Rapid site evaluation/characterization/investigation methods
Cheaper, easier-to-use high-level analysis methods
New and better land improvement technologies
How to apply GIS and the WWW to maximize the value of our collective knowledge
base
21st Century Implementation of the Observational Method - real-time integration of
observations, test data, analysis and design during construction

Karl Von Terzaghi. In 1925 he published "Erdbaumechanik", where he laid the

foundations and starting point for Soil Mechanics. At the age of ten, Terzaghi was sent
to a military boarding school. There he developed an interest in astronomy and
geography. In 1900, Terzaghi entered the Technical University of Graz to study
mechanical engineering. In a short time he produced his first academic work, the
subject of which is the geology of the terraces in southern Styria (Austria). The first
professional years. The firm was increasingly involved in the relatively new field of
hydroelectric power generation, and Karl became involved in the geological problems
the company faced. During six months in Russia, he developed some new graphic
methods for the design of industrial tanks, which he presented as the thesis for his
doctorate at the university. Practical experience on projects in Croatia and Russia,
coupled with a growing interest in geology, exposed Terzaghi to gaps in knowledge of
the geological conditions underlying construction projects and the engineering
consequences resulting from these conditions. At the Istanbul Technical University
he began a happy, very productive time, in which he began his lifelong work of
providing the true understanding in engineering, of soil as an engineering material
whose properties can be measured in a standardized way. He set up a laboratory and
using rudimentary equipment, began his revolution. His measurements and analysis of
the stresses on retaining walls were first published in English in 1919, and he was
quickly recognized as an important new contribution to the scientific understanding of
the fundamental behavior of soils. He studied various experimental and quantitative
aspects of the permeability of soils to water, and was able to carry out some theories
to explain the observations. There he began his research work on the behavior of
soils, settlement in clays and failure due to tubing in sands under dams. He invented
all new apparatus for measurement, and spent many long working days making the
measurements himself. In 1924, he published much of this work in his Opus Magnum,
Erdbaumechanik, in German, which revolutionized the field with great success, Civil
Engineering receiving a strong boost as an era of research by eminent scientists
began, in different geological settings in the world, which allowed the construction of
large bridges, skyscrapers, ports, tunnels and dams, where the low resistance of the
soils had made it almost impossible in the past. The book contains the fundamental
differential equation for the consolidation process associated with the compression of
clay, an equation analogous to the diffusion equation that governs the time-dependent
flow of heat in solids. The book also contains effective stress theory to explain the
behavior of soils under loads. From 1925 to 1929, Terzaghi worked at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he initiated the first American program
in soil mechanics and ensured that this science was considered an important subject
in civil engineering. His teaching workload was now relatively light, so he continued
his experimental research, and was especially interested in the problems of foundation
settlement and grouting. Terzaghi in America chaired and gave a plenary lecture at
the First International Conference on Soil Mechanics at Harvard University in 1936. It
was through the inspiration and guidance of Terzaghi, developed over the previous
quarter century, that papers were presented at the Conference, covering a wide range
of topics, such as shear strength, effective stress, situ, the Dutch cone penetrometer,
centrifugation tests, consolidation settlement, elastic stress distribution, preload for soil
improvement, frost action, expansive clays, arch theory of pressure the earth, soil
dynamics, and earthquakes. For the next quarter of a century, Terzaghi was the
guiding spirit of the development of soil mechanics and geotechnical engineering
throughout the world; he was the guiding spirit of soil mechanics; he was the center of
research and application throughout the world. world. His speech was titled "Soil
Mechanics - A new chapter in Engineering Sciences." In it he proclaimed that most
foundation failures that occurred were no longer "acts of God. Engineering Practice' by
Terzaghi Thus his theory on Hydrodynamic Effective Stresses and Consolidation in a
steady or constant flow regime could be spread throughout the world, translated into
several languages. He made notable contributions to knowledge in the fields of soil
mechanics, subsurface and earthworks engineering, and underground earthworks and
construction. Terzaghi not only initiated soil mechanics but until his death exerted a
profound influence on this science and, two days before his death, he was still working
diligently on a scientific article. Terzaghi's writings provide important knowledge on
many topics, especially the theory of consolidation, the design and construction of
foundations, the calculation of cofferdams, and the mechanism of slope sliding.
Perhaps Terzaghi's most important contribution to soil mechanics was his way of
treating the problems that arise in it, in accordance with the methodology that he
taught and knew how to put into practice.
 Bibliography:

Fundamentals of Geotechnical Engineering - fourth edition. Braja M. You give

History of soil mechanics. Written by: Arqhys Construction. Obtained from the website:
https://www.arqhys.com/construccion/mecanica-suelos-construccion.html.
https://www.scribd.com/doc/97896984/HISTORIA-DE-LA-MECANICA-DE-SUELOS
http://geotecnia-sor.blogspot.com/2012/01/historia-de-la-geotecnia-precursores-de.html