Advanced Soil Mechanics

• Describe oedometer, direct shear or triaxial test and be able to perform one of them on clay and/or sand
• Interpret soil behaviour from oedometer, direct shear or triaxial tests or a combination of them to establish design parameters, such as strength and stiffness, and critical state parameters
• Structure, present and discuss laboratory test results in an interpretation report
• Manipulate 3D stress and strain, for example using operator split between volumetric and deviatoric components, as an input in constitutive equations
• Describe qualitatively the expected stress-strain soil behaviour using the Critical State framework
• Describe qualitatively the changes in soil strength and stiffness, based on soil state both in terms of stress and density using the Critical State framework and including the effects of stress history
• Use Critical State framework to predict soil behaviour in terms of soil stress and strain
• Compare predicted and observed behaviour and link the difference to geological processes through sensitivity framework

Laboratory testing. Advanced soil behaviour. Constitutive equations, yield criteria, plasticity theory, strain softening and hardening.

11411/12411, Basic soil mechanics: effective stress, deformation, drained and undrained strength, one-dimensional consolidation

Lectures, laboratory work, group work.

this course is a prerequisite for Advanced geotechnical engineering and Constitutive models and plasticity in soil mechanics