LEARNING OUTCOMES

Along the course are illustrated (1) the standardized metods and techniques tipically used in order to recognize and classify both the soils and the rock masses, by soundings and sampling, to mechanically characterize the soils using the standardized tests, performed on-site and/or in laboratory; then (2), are teached the Slope Stability Methods based on the limit equilibrium methods and some hints are given on the subject of rockfalls, the capacity to assess and analize the phenomena associated with the steady-state seepage and, finally, the study of the soil-structure interactions, with particular regard to pre-dimension and verify the main geotechnical structures used in Building Engineering, being these the Shallow Foundations and the Retaining Walls.

AIMS AND LEARNING OUTCOMES

Identification of the proper geotechnical on-site sampling and characterization methods; Competence on the principal standard testing methods for natural soils and rocks, both by on-site and laboratory techniques; Knowledge on the soil-structure interaction behavoiour in general and, most properly, in the practical cases of the shallow foundations and the ret-walls ususally adopted within the field of the Architectural Engineering.

TEACHING METHODS

Lectures (~ 90 h) and solved examples (~ 20 h) in-aula delivered by the teacher; visit to the geotechnical laboratory (~ 1 h for each of, say, 3 ten-students’ groups), in order to see the main and typical testing techniques and methods of soils and rocks; Two written tests (not compulsory – duration of 3 h.rs each) autonomally solved in-aula by the students, usually held at the end of each one of the two accademic semesters (mid-february, end of may).

SYLLABUS/CONTENT

Geological classifications of rocks and soils; Sampling methods and tchniques; On-site acquisition of the phreatic level oscillations (piezometric readings) and the slopes’ displacements (inclinometers’ monitoring); Technical classifications of soils; Constitutive laws and their parameters, as from both laboratory and on-site standard geotechnical tests; Seepage analyses in steady state conditions; The consolidation phenomenon (transient seepage); The Limit Equilibrium concept; The bearing capacity and design of shallow foundations; Hints on the deep foundations’ typologies; Design of rigid retaining walls systems; Hints on the deformable retaining systems; Trench walls’ stability assessment.

RECOMMENDED READING/BIBLIOGRAPHY

Course’s Notes, digitally distributed by the teacher on Students’ flash-USB supports at the Course's beginning

“The Mechanics of Soils and Foundations” by J.H. Atkinson – Routledge