The needle penetration index (NPI) test is a non-destructive test that is applicable both in the field and laboratory, and does not require any special sample preparation. This test has been used for the estimation of physico-mechanical properties of soft rocks. In this study, the influence of the clay content on the relation between uniaxial compressive strength (UCS) and the NPI has been investigated

Stress controlled cyclic triaxial tests have been carried out on coastal sand of Digha, West Bengal, India at different frequencies, confining pressures, relative densities and number of loading cycles for determination of influence of these parameters on cyclic strength (expressed in terms of cyclic stress ratio) and initial liquefaction of Digha sand. The test results provide evidence that increasing

The contributions of the current analytical models on the prediction of the stability of the slope subjected to slide head toppling failure mechanisms, have always focused on the idealized geometry comprising regular blocks dipping into the slope face. Besides, the influence of groundwater and stabilizations from the lowermost block of the slope have been overlooked in the available literature. In

This study evaluates the potentials of liquefaction caused by the 2017 moment magnitude 5.4 earthquake in Pohang City, South Korea. We obtain shear wave velocity profiles measured by suspension PS logging tests at the five sites near the epicenter. We also perform downhole tests at three of the five sites. Among the five sites, the surface manifestations (i.e., sand boils) were observed at the three

Aims/hypothesis Pohang Tertiary mudstone presents the issue of acid rock drainage. This study analyzed the capacity of a mixed slag (70% steel slag + 30% blast furnace slag) to neutralize Pohang Tertiary mudstone’s acid rock drainage. Methods Element analysis, acid neutralization capacity (ANC) test, and net acid generation (NAG) test were conducted on Pohang Tertiary mudstone samples and the mixed

Caisson type gravity quay wall is a common structure used in the coastal regions. However, many of the existing quay walls constructed in the past are becoming obsolete. Therefore, the main goal of this study is to enhance the performance of these quay walls by increasing the front water depth. To deepen the water depth, a special grout type is ejected to solidify the rubble mound under the caisson

Soil slides can occur when the water level in a lake or a reservoir is lowered. This may take place in situations when a reservoir is flushed to remove sediments. The current study describes a three-dimensional numerical model used for the simulation of reservoir flushing that includes the slide movements. The geotechnical failure algorithms start with modelling the groundwater levels at the banks

Excavating a tunnel in a deep and saturated ground affects the short- and long-term hydro-mechanical (H-M) response in the ground surrounding the opening. However, the interactions between transient pore pressure behavior and the corresponding deformation and stresses in the ground ahead of and behind the tunnel face are still not well understood. This paper investigates the transient H-M response

The present paper deals with different empirical methods and finite element method of slope stability analysis along National Highway (NH)-7, in Uttarakhand, India. The highway is only path in the hilly terrain of Lesser Himalayan for the public transport and have strategic importance due to militaries possession routes. This route is also significant due to having many holistic places, connecting

The paper presents the numerical study of the bearing capacity behavior of the model footing placed on the top of reinforced embankment slopes made up of Pozzolanic waste materials such as fly ash and ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBFS). The present investigation is aimed at studying the efficacy of the different types of reinforcement (geogrid and rubbergrid) in improving the load bearing

Accurate characteristic of structural surfaces roughness at the relevant scale is very important to understand mechanical properties of rock mass discontinuities. So, a systematic investigation has been carried out to understand the effect of scale on the structural surface roughness by fractal dimension method. Firstly, considering the shortcoming of the projective covering method (PCM), we improved

The current study examines the potential of lignosulfonate to enhance the engineering behavior of two locally available expansive soils. The expansive soils were collected from Vijayawada and Amaravathi, located in the Capital Region of Andhra Pradesh, India. The soils were treated with four different percentages (0.5, 1, 2, and 4) of lignosulfonate and were allowed to interact for 7 and 28 days. A

Aims/hypothesis One of the critical mechanisms determining creep in granular materials is the breakage of soil particles. This study aims at evaluating the time-dependent creep deformation of calcareous sand at low effective stress conditions. Methods K0 creep tests were performed for both calcareous and silica sands at low stresses of 65 and 120 kPa, and the results of creep tests were compared with

Soil particle shape analysis was conducted on two calcareous sands from Dissa and Matmata in Tunisia and one silica sand from Jumunjin in Korea using an image analysis method. This technique uses complex Fourier shape descriptors and image analysis of sand grains SEM photographs to provide accurate quantification of particle morphology and texture. The Fourier descriptors, denoted “Signature Descriptors”

Soil liquefaction which is a disastrous phenomenon induced by the earthquake, is widely investigated in many researches in geotechnical engineering. In this study, a SPT-N based investigation is carried out to assess the susceptibility of liquefaction in Eco-Delta city, located in the southwestern part of Busan city in South Korea. Data from 229 sites are analyzed for the earthquake of 7.5 magnitude

In this study, numerical analyses have been performed for a reasonable gravity-type anchorage design. The emphasis is on evaluating the effect of the passive earth pressure for gravity-type anchorages under pullout loading. Three-dimensional FE analyses were performed for different types of bedrock and embedded depths. Based on this study, it is found that the displacement of the gravity-type anchorage

This paper presents the solution of c-φ soil slope stability problem using the pseudo-dynamic method assuming the log-spiral failure mechanism. The vertical slice analysis methodology is introduced to analyze the stability of the slope under vertical and horizontal seismic loads. The adopted pseudo-dynamic method in the present analysis considers the effect of phase difference and primary and shear

Singularities in the Mohr–Coulomb (MC) yield criterion create numerical difficulties when implemented in the finite element model (FEM). In this research, a two-dimensional (2D) and a three-dimensional (3D) elasto-plastic FEM coupled with isotropic strain hardening–softening or simple strain-softening law incorporating non-associated flow rule including shear band, is used to investigate the effect

In recent years, removal work of existing piles has been increasing, and many pulling-out methods for existing piles are being applied. As for the present situation, there is concern that the physical characteristics of the ground will deteriorate due to the holes that remain after pulling out the existing piles (pullout holes). In addition, the filler to be injected into these pullout holes has not

The stress–strain characteristics of soil under monotonic loading conditions and the dynamic properties of soils under cyclic loading are necessary for foundation engineering, ground response analysis and soil structure interaction studies. In the absence of site/region-specific properties, it is a common practice to use representative parameters based on the index properties of soil and available

Potential reuse of oil-contaminated soils guidance policies are demonstrating ways to reuse these materials in engineering applications. However, the engineering properties of these materials are highly altered after contamination. Alternatively, chemical stabilization treatments can improve oil-contaminated soil properties for its reuse in geotechnical applications. This study investigates the effect

Experimental evidence shows that the strength of granular soils is significantly influenced by inherent cross anisotropy which cannot be properly described by isotropic failure criteria. This paper reviewed laboratory test results of various sands at different fabric directions. Based on the observations, this paper formulates the hypothesis that deposit plane creates a plane of weakness and the anisotropic

Because indentation tests which are used in several engineering fields allow obtaining material strength parameters in a fast, reliable and reproducible manner, the present study was initiated with the aim of finding out whether such tests could also be used in geotechnical engineering. Experimental results are obtained from undrained indentation tests performed with a rigid flat-tipped, cylindrical

In professional activities aimed at seismic site classification, geophysical methods based on measurements of surface waves are often used to measure the shear-wave velocity (Vs), with the MASW survey being one of the most common techniques employed for this purpose. An MASW survey is characterized by an in-field configuration that requires a relatively simple setup; however, several uncertainties

Stone columns have attracted considerable attention as a ground improvement techniques recently. Performance of stone columns, however, depends on confining pressure offered by the surrounding soils. In the case of very soft soils, the lateral confining pressure may be insufficient and this may lead to column bulging failure. Encapsulating the individual stone column enhances the lateral resistance

The safety of road embankments is mainly assessed in the engineering practice by limit equilibrium analyses. Locating the critical slip surface of embankments and calculating the corresponding factor of safety is a crucial task. In this paper, the continuous ant colony optimisation algorithm is used to analyse the stability of slopes with non-circular slip surfaces. To illustrate the proposed procedure

The paper presents the investigation on the model unskirted/skirted footings (plus and the double box) on sand. Skirt depth, sand relative density, footing interface condition and skirted footing type were varied parameters. Skirt depth (Ds) varied in this investigation was from 0.25 B to 1.5 B (B, footing width). The results show that the footing geometry and the skirt increased the bearing capacity

It is widely accepted that both particle shape and mineralogy could have a great effect on the particle strength. However, due to the complexity of nature grains, it is difficult to distinguish the influence of particle shape from mineralogy. This paper shows measurements of the particle shape and mineralogy of carbonate sand, completely decomposed granite, Leighton Buzzard sand and pumice sand. The

Buildings along the flood plain of River Osun, southwest Nigeria, are usually thought of as been a safe haven for residence over the years. But in recent times with vast (increasing) population and growing urbanization, some of the buildings currently experience structural damages not related to constructional designs but rather ground conditions around building foundations. The ground conditions (seepages

The inclusion of sand columns results in enhancing the bearing capacity of clayey soil, increase the rate of consolidation, presentation of liquefaction in loose sandy soils and provide lateral resistance against the horizontal movement. This research aims at investigating the effects of floating columns in clayey soil with silty deposits by developing small scale laboratory models. The effects of

An experimental study has been carried out to improve the bearing capacity of soils by using geotextile. In the present study geojute (gunny bags) is used as geotextile, whereas sand is used as soil media. This research presents the results of laboratory load tests on model square footings supported on reinforced sand beds. A total of 32 load tests are conducted to evaluate the effects of single layer

The understanding of unsaturated soil mechanics principles is of interest to a wide spectrum of geotechnical problems associated with soils above water table and compacted soils. This paper describes the stress state variables and constitutive equations based on the unsaturated soil mechanics principles. In addition, the basic concepts for characterization of unsaturated soils and measurements of matric

Construction of earth structures involves the use of compacted soils. In roads construction quality controls like the bearing capacity of the subgrade, base and subbase layers, CBR values and compaction characteristics are primarily important. In Sweden, it has become interesting to correlate new testing parameters collected by simple tests to the conventional compaction parameters collected from modified

Expanded polystyrene (EPS) geofoam has been increasingly used in geotechnical engineering applications to replace conventional backfill material or to reduce earth pressure on retaining and buried structures. In most of these applications, geofoam blocks are installed in direct contact with different construction material (soil, concrete, steel, wood, etc.). This results in a composite system that

Footings placed on or near a slope, the slope face act as a finite boundary that leads to an inappropriate and inadequate development of the plastic region of failure as the foundation approaches the limit state under the applied loading. Depending upon the position of the footing and steepness of the slope, the above-mentioned phenomena might lead to considerable decrease in the bearing capacity of

The compression behaviour of mixtures of sand with fines derived from decomposed volcanic rocks has been investigated in details. Oedometer tests were carried out on the samples of different degrees of weathering. The data show that no unique normal compression lines can be identified. The soils have medium degree of convergence and the degree of convergence is reducing with increasing fines. An attempt

This paper discusses the stabilization of clayey subgrade when mixed with coir fibres (CF) randomly and fly ash (FA). The tests were carried out on the locally available clay soil with different proportions of randomly mixed CF and FA. The CF and FA proportions used in the study are expressed in percentage by dry weight of soil. The CF and FA proportions used in the present study are 1%, 1.5% and 2%

In this study, a commercially available enzyme which is used popularly to improve sub-grade material for pavements was used as a potential stabilizer to improve soil properties used for earthen construction. As a preliminary study, the interaction of this enzyme with the soil was assessed by evaluating the plasticity and strength characteristics of enzyme treated soil with ageing. From the research

The rock instability of granodiorite mountain rock located within a key route for the Mecca city (Al Haram) and Al-Taif (tourist place) was investigated. In this study eight, highly susceptible sites from 22 km road selected for kinematic and rockfall analysis to avoid rockfall consequences. Based on the field investigation, this mountain road is characterized by nearly vertical cut slopes with highly

Mineralogical, geochemical and geotechnical analyses were carried out to evaluate the contributions of geological and geotechnical properties of subgrade soils to the incidence of failure of the Ipele–Isua road, south-western Nigeria. Field observations showed that the road is in a very poor state of disrepair as major portions of the road alignment have failed. The road alignment is underlain in places

Utilization of fly ash, bottom ash and municipal solid waste in the field of geotechnical engineering necessitates determination of its physical, chemical, morphological and engineering properties. This paper presents detailed physical, chemical and geotechnical characterization of fly ash, bottom ash and municipal solid waste from Telangana State in India. Fly ash and bottom ash samples were collected

Undrained shear strength of a soil at the liquid limit water content can be considered to be around 1.7 kPa according to several researchers. Plasticity index of soils has been defined by one school of thought as a range of water content producing a 100-fold variation in their undrained shear strength. This has led to the redefinition of the plastic limit as the water content at which undrained shear

Reinforced soil retaining walls are widely used for road and railway construction, various types of embankment, housing and industrial development, etc. with good safety and economic efficiency, and the number of studies on reinforced soil retaining walls has steadily increased. However, most research on reinforced soil retaining walls focus on two-dimensional linear parts. The behaviour of curved

Artificial compaction is a commonly practiced ground improvement technique around the world. Yield stress is an important parameter to quantify and analyze the strength and compressibility behavior of the artificially compacted clays; such materials are indeed of practical significance in various projects, e.g., engineered landfills, clay liners, etc. The present study aims to investigate the influence

This paper discusses the effects of a potential leachate leakage from a municipal solid waste landfill, situated at Mavallipura, Bangalore, India, on the surrounding water bodies. The landfill area is spread over an area of about 100 acres that began accepting waste from 2005. MSW was deposited in non-engineered manner that has resulting in steep and unstable slopes, leachate accumulation within the

Municipal solid waste (MSW) landfills have been widely constructed around the world for proper dispose of MSW. Geotechnical properties of MSW are difficult to determine because the heterogeneity, wide variation in particle size distribution and time dependent degradation. Knowledge of geotechnical properties of MSW is essential for the design and operation of landfills. Geotechnical properties of the

The main goal of this study is to substantiate the heterogeneous soil modelling in the laboratory and to examine the effect of spatial variability on the soil consolidation properties. For this purpose, several heterogeneous soil physical models are constructed using nine homogeneous soil clusters, which are prepared by mixing variable proportions of kaolin and bentonite at a specific water content

Geotechnical engineers have long used the lumped factor of safety approach in design of retaining walls. In recent years, uncertainty inherent in soil properties has caught more attentions from researchers, thus reliability analyses are used widely. In short, combining the probabilistic and deterministic analysis is common practice nowadays and failure probability calculated by risk analysis is a kind

This paper investigates the effect of clay content on the shear strength of clay–sand mixtures. Bentonite and Jumunjin sand were mixed to prepare clay–sand mixtures with varying clay contents of 5, 10, 15, 20, 25 and 30%. The shear strength of clay–sand mixture was measured using direct shear tests and angle of repose tests in dry condition. The angle of repose of the clay–sand mixture was measured

The behavior of a slope reinforced by passive piles 15 years ago was studied during removal of some passive piles, additional steeper slope cutting, and reinforcement by soil nails and anchors. Through a comparison of the measured value and numerical analysis results, it was found that the maximum lateral displacement developed at bench No. 4, which was the nearest bench to the additional steep slope

In this study, various rock and cementitious rock-like material specimens with same ratio of length to diameter and different sizes were tested under various deformation controlled loading rate (mm/min) and load controlled rate (kN/s) conditions. According to the results obtained from 93 specimens of 5 different types of rock material and 2 different rock-like materials (cement paste and a concrete

Compaction characteristics of the soil have the great importance for practically achieving the desired strength, permeability and compressibility of soil during the construction. Standard compaction test (SCT) and modified compaction test (MCT) are two very famous laboratory test methods to determine the compaction characteristics of soils worldwide. Modest efforts have been made in the past to correlate

In several field situations, especially in the hilly terrains, the construction of footings on slopes becomes essential. The factor of safety of a slope supporting a loaded footing on the crest is dependent on the position of the footing from the crest edge. Most studies in the past have focused on analysing the bearing capacity and settlement behaviour of a footing resting on a slope crest, but foundations

A large-size direct shear test was conducted to test the interface of dredger fill and concrete. The effect that concrete strength and the density of dredger fill have on the properties of interface is then analyzed. Digital photography was used to record soil particles of dredger fill moving near the interface, and the particle images were analyzed by particle image velocimetry technique. The results

Numerical methods for study effect of parameters on rock behaviour have increased in recent decades. Simulation is an important tool for analysis which the possibility of doing it is not feasible under experimental conditions and the possibility of analysis of thermo-mechanical stress and strain caused by the laser. In this study, the finite element method has been used to study thermal and mechanical

The present investigation is on the behavior of coir geotextile-reinforced sandy soil foundations and to study the effect of different parameters contributing to their performance using laboratory model tests. The parameters investigated in this study included top layer spacing, number of reinforcement layers and vertical spacing between layers. The effect of coir geotextile reinforcement on the vertical

Stability of any structure depends on strength properties of underground soil on which it is constructed. Structures basically transfer all the loads comes on itself directly to the ground. If the underlying soil is not stable enough to support transferred loads then various types of failure occur such as settlement of the structure, cracks and so on. To solve this issue, soil improvement is necessary

Stone columns are an efficient ground improvement technique for treating problematic soils. The confidence in the prediction accuracy of bearing capacity remains unsatisfactory. This paper aims to investigate the bearing capacity of single stone column using three-dimensional numerical analysis. Failure modes were observed and the effect of key parameters such as column’s friction angle, undrained

Geophysical survey involving Schlumberger Vertical Electrical Sounding, 2-D imaging dipole–dipole technique and ground magnetic method were carried out along Ibadan-Ife Highway located in the Precambrian Basement Complex of Southwestern, Nigeria to examine the geological factors responsible for Highway pavement failure. This was with the view to detailing the subsurface geoelectric sequence, mapping

This study examines the effects of slope geometry and Geo-mechanical parameters of tailing dumps at Enyigba mine, Nigeria. Fifty-two slopes were studied, with seven sampled for laboratory analysis. Correlation matrix and principal component analysis were employed in the data interpretations. The mechanical properties of the slope materials were investigated using geotechnical tests such as sieve analysis