Advanced Geotechnical Engineering

Emergency provisions: In the case of an emergency that affects the whole course, the Course Coordinator, in consultation with the Dean, may change the nature, weighting and timing of assessments, e.g. tests and examination may be replaced with assignments of the same weight or different weight at a different time and/or date (which, under certain circumstances, may be outside the prescribed course dates).  The ‘Special consideration’ process will also be used for unforeseen circumstances that adversely affect the academic performance of students individually. The usual grounds for this are described in the UC policy ‘Special Consideration Procedures and Guidelines’, and personal circumstances due to a wider emergency event may also qualify.

Special Consideration for Assignments

An extension will be granted for evidence-supported requests. Extensions will typically be for up to one week, but the duration will be considered on a case-by-case basis. Students seeking an extension must contact the course coordinator as soon as possible with evidence of their situation, and preferably before the due date. An extension will not be granted over the study week period.

Special Consideration for Final Exam

Students will be offered an equivalent alternative exam, for evidence-supported requests. This exam will be generally held within a week after the scheduled examination.

Note: All communication associated with the arrangement of equivalent alternative tests/exams will be conducted using official UC email accounts and LEARN. The offer to sit an alternative assessment will come with a list of potential dates/times. Students will have a clearly specified amount of time to respond to the offer to sit the alternative assessment and accept one of the listed dates/times. If the offer is declined or no response is received in the specified time frame, the original assessment mark will be used to compute the course grade

The course consists of three distinct parts: (1) Stress-strain behaviour of soils; (2) Soil and site characterization; (3) Analysis and design of foundations. All topics are discussed in the context of geotechnical analysis and design. Further details on the content are provided below.

(1) Stress-strain behaviour of soils under monotonic loading
- Principles and devices for soil testing in the laboratory
- Characteristics of drained/undrained stress-strain relationships of soils under monotonic loading
- State concept interpretation of soil behaviour under monotonic loading

(2) Cyclic behaviour of soils and soil liquefaction
- Cyclic behaviour of saturated sand
- Liquefaction phenomenon
- Impacts of liquefaction on land and structures

(3) Modelling soil behaviour using results from laboratory and in-situ tests
- Strength and stiffness of soils in geotechnical calculations
- General modelling approaches in geotechnical analysis and design (an example of physical modelling)
- Hyperbolic model for shear stress – shear strain relationships of soils
- Use of Cone Penetration Test (CPT) for soil and site characterization
- Development of design soil profile for geotechnical analysis

(4) Shallow foundations
- Bearing capacity calculations
- Settlement calculations
- Geotechnical design of spread footings and mat foundations
- Working stress design vs. limit state design methods
- Structural design of footings
- Large foundations: rafts and piled rafts

(5) Piles under axial loading
- Philosophy of deep foundations (load transfer mechanism)
- Pile under axial loading: elastic analysis
- Settlement of single piles: evaluation using design charts
- Settlement of pile groups: evaluation by simplified design approaches
- Estimating axial capacity

(5) Piles under lateral loading
- Elastic analysis (closed-form solution)
- Simplified pseudo-static analysis using beam-spring model (numerical analysis)
- Modelling nonlinear soil-pile behaviour