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CHAPTER 1 GT 1

The document provides an overview of soil basics and geotechnical engineering. It discusses that soil is a complex mix of minerals, air and water that forms the outer layer of Earth's crust. Soil performs critical functions like supporting plant life, modifying the atmosphere, providing habitat and processing nutrients. It then outlines the scope of geotechnical engineering and the process of soil formation through erosion, transportation and deposition. Key terms related to different soil types are also defined.

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40 views20 pages

CHAPTER 1 GT 1

The document provides an overview of soil basics and geotechnical engineering. It discusses that soil is a complex mix of minerals, air and water that forms the outer layer of Earth's crust. Soil performs critical functions like supporting plant life, modifying the atmosphere, providing habitat and processing nutrients. It then outlines the scope of geotechnical engineering and the process of soil formation through erosion, transportation and deposition. Key terms related to different soil types are also defined.

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ÂsÏF MåñSùRï
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© © All Rights Reserved
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CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION
4TH SEM
GEOTECHNICAL ENGINEERING-I
BY VANSHIKA MUCHHARA
SOIL BASICS
 Soil is an amazing substance. A complex mix of minerals, air, water, and countless
microorganisms, soils forms at the surface of land and comes in many types. Put
another way, soil is the thin, outermost layer of Earth’s crust, and like our own body, we
can’t live without soil.

 Why? Soil performs many critical functions in almost any terrestrial ecosystem, whether
a farm, forest, or city.
1. Most of our food comes directly or indirectly from plants anchored in, and nourished
by, soil

2. Soils modify the atmosphere by emitting and absorbing dust and gases, including
carbon dioxide, methane, and water vapour
3. Soils provide habitat for soil organisms--mostly microscopic creatures that
account for most of the life on Earth

4. Soils process and recycle nutrients, including carbon, so that living things can
use them over and over again

5. Soils serve as the foundation for the construction of roadbeds, dams, and
buildings

 Like our body, soil is easy to taken for granted—and to damage.


 The term "soil" can have different meanings, depending upon the field in which it is
considered.

 To a geologist, it is the material in the relative thin zone of the Earth's surface within
which roots occur, and which are formed as the products of past surface processes.
The rest of the crust is grouped under the term "rock".

 To a pedologist, it is the substance existing on the surface, which supports plant life.

 To an engineer, it is a material that can be:


1. built on: foundations of buildings, bridges
2. built in: basements, culverts, tunnels
3. built with: embankments, roads, dams
4. supported: retaining walls
SCOPE OF GEOTECHNICAL ENGINEERING
 Foundations
 Retaining walls
 Stability of slopes
 Underground Structures
 Pavement design
 Earthen Dam
SOIL FORMATION IN GEOLOGICAL CYCLE
 Erosion (Weathering)
 Transportation
 Deposition
 Upheavel
 Physical Weathering
1. Temperature Changes
2. Wedging action of ice
3. Spreading of roots of plants
4. Abrasion

 Chemical Weathering
1. Hydration
2. Carbonation
3. Oxidation
4. Solution
TRANSPORTATION OF SOILS (PART OF SOIL FORMATION)
 WATER TRANSPORTED SOILS :
1. Alluvial Soils : Soils carried and deposited by water
2. Lake Deposits : Soil Particles carried by rivers while entering a lake, deposit all the coarse
particles because of sudden decrease in velocity.
3. Lacustrine Soils : Fine Soil Particles carried by flowing water and deposited in lakes (move to the
centre of lake)
4. Marine Soils : Formed when the flowing water carries soil to ocean or sea

 WIND TRANSPORTED SOILS


 Aeolian Soils : Soils deposited by wind. Eg. Sand dunes, Loess
 GLACIER DEPOSITED SOILS
 Glacial Soil (drift) : Soils carried by ice. Drift is general term used for deposits made
by glaciers. Also called as Till
 Terminal and Ground Moraine : Land on which till has been deposited is called as
Ground Moraine and Landform or Surface formed after a glacier drops the material
is called as Terminal Moraine
 Out Wash : Soil carried by melting water from glacier

 GRAVITY DEPOSITED SOILS


 Colluvial Soils : Soils transported and deposited by gravity. Also known as Talus.
 Colluvial Soil : Soils transported and deposited by gravity are called Colluvial Soil. Eg.
Talus

 Humus : Dark brown, organic amorphous earth of top soil. Consists of decomposed
vegetable matter.

 Loam : Mixture of sand, clay and silt

 Clay : Fine grained soil. Cohesive soil. Particle size less than 0.002 mm

 Black Cotton soil : Possess high swelling and shrinkage properties.

 Moorum : Powdered Rock. Consists of small pieces of disintegrated rock or shale, with
or without boulders
 Sand : Coarse grained soil, particle size between 0.075 mm to 4.75 mm. Soil is
cohesionless and pervious.
 Gravel : Coarse grained soil. Particle size ranges from 4.75 mm to 80 mm.
 Boulders : Rock fragments of large size more than 300 mm in size.

 Organic Soils (Peat) : Formed by growth and subsequent decay of vegetable matter.
 Inorganic soils : Powdered form of rocks.

 Loess : Fine grained air borne deposit characterised by a very uniform grain size and high
void ratio. Particle size ranges between 0.01 to 0.05 mm
 Cohesive Soils : Soils in which adsorbed water and particle attraction such that it deforms
plastically at different water contents are known as cohesive soils or clays.
 Cohesionless soils : Non plastic, no attraction between the soil particles. Eg. Sand.
PHASE RELATIONS
 Soil is not a coherent solid material like steel and concrete, but is a particulate material.
Soils, as they exist in nature, consist of solid particles (mineral grains, rock fragments) with
water and air in the voids between the particles.

 The water and air contents are readily changed by changes in ambient conditions and
location.

 As the relative proportions of the three phases vary in any soil deposit, it is useful to consider
a soil model which will represent these phases distinctly and properly quantify the amount
of each phase.

 A schematic diagram of the three-phase system is shown ( next slide) in terms of weight
and volume symbols respectively for soil solids, water, and air. The weight of air can be
neglected.
THREE PHASE SYSTEM
Soils can be partially saturated (with both air and water present), or be fully saturated
(no air content) or be perfectly dry (no water content).
In a saturated soil or a dry soil, the three-phase system thus reduces to two phases
only, as shown.
 For the purpose of engineering analysis and design, it is necessary to express
relations between the weights and the volumes of the three phases.

 The various relations can be grouped into:


 Volume relations
 Weight relations
 Inter-relations
VOLUME RELATIONS

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