CEE 346 – Geotechnical Engineering I, 3 credits (2-1)

 

South Dakota School of Mines and Technology

Fall 2009

WF 12:00-12:50 PM

MEP 253

 

Instructor:

Dr. Sangchul Bang

Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering

CM 238

Official Office Hours: MWF 11:00-12:00 noon

Tel) 394-2440

E-mail: Sangchul.bang@sdsmt.edu

 

Course Description: Composition, structure, index, and engineering properties of soils; soil classification systems; introduction to soil engineering problems involving stability, settlement, seepage, consolidation, and compaction; and laboratory work on the determination of index and engineering properties of soils.  Computer-aided graphics and word processing required for lab reports.  This course is cross-listed with MINE 346/346L.

 

Prerequisites: EM 321

 

Instructional Methods: Two hours of classroom lecture and one three hour laboratory session per week.

 

Course Requirements:

Textbooks: Das, B. M.; Principles of Geotechnical Engineering, Brooks Cole, Sixth Ed.; Das, B. M.; Soil Mechanics Laboratory Manual, Oxford University Press, Sixth Ed.

Class Attendance Policy: Students are expected to attend all classroom lectures and laboratory sessions.

Cheating and plagiarism Policy: Any type of cheating or plagiarism will result in a failing grade.

Make-up Policy: There will be no make-up exam/lab session.  If you have to miss any laboratory session, you must in advance ask the instructor to temporarily reassign you to one of the other sessions.

 

Course Goals:

This course is designed to provide:

  1. Juniors in Civil Engineering, Geological Engineering, and Mining Engineering with a basic working knowledge of soil mechanics;
  2. The building blocks required to calculate settlement of structures;
  3. Knowledge of laboratory procedures by working on laboratory teams and to interpret and present the data in written laboratory report form.

 

Expectations:

Students should know how to use spreadsheets and Mathcad, be familiar with stresses, strains and Young’s modulus, know how to work with Mohr’s circle, be familiar with differentiation and integration, and should have been introduced to basic differential equations.

 

Evaluation Procedures:

  1. Number of tests: three 50 minute exams and 1 two hour final exam
    1. Hourly exams: Oct. 6, Nov. 3, Dec. 8, all Tuesday 11 AM in CB 205 E&W.
    2. Final exam: 10 -11:50 AM on Dec. 18 (Fri)
  2. Grading system:
    1. one hour exams, each 20 % = 60 %
    2. Homework = 5 %
    3. Final exam = 25 %
    4. Lab participation and reports = 10 %

 

Requirements for Homework:

Problems will be assigned on each Friday and are due on following Friday.  The following format is in effect for homework problems:

  1. Write on one side of the sheet only.
  2. Staple the assignment together at the upper left corner.
  3. Homework must be done in a neat and orderly format.  Sloppy work will not be graded.

 

Class Schedule and Topics: Chapters 1-4 and 6-11 will be covered.

  1. Soil composition and properties
  2. Soil index properties
  3. Soil classification systems
  4. Permeability and flow of water through soils
  5. Effective stress and stress distribution
  6. Consolidation and settlement analysis
  7. Shear strength of soils
  8. Tests

 

Estimated Contents:

Engineering topics: 3 credits or 100 %

 

Laboratory Experiment Schedule (tentative):

  1. Introduction, lab tour
  2. Water content and specific gravity
  3. Sieve analysis
  4. Hydrometer analysis
  5. Liquid limit and plastic limit
  6. Unconfined compression test
  7. Permeability
  8. Quick sand tank, seepage (demonstration)
  9. Compaction
  10. Consolidation (demonstration)
  11. Vacuum triaxial test (demonstration)
  12. Direct shear test
  13. Triaxial test (demonstration)

 

Lab Reports:

  1. Experiment 2
  2. Experiments 3 and 4 combined
  3. Experiment 5
  4. Experiment 6 and 7
  5. Experiment 9
  6. Experiment 12

 

Note:

Students with special needs or requiring special accommodations should contact the instructor and/or the campus ADA coordinator, Jolie McCoy, at 394-1924 at the earliest opportunity.

 

Freedom in learning: Students are responsible for learning the content of any course of study in which they are enrolled. Under Board of Regents and University policy, student academic performance shall be evaluated solely on an academic basis and students should be free to take reasoned exception to the data or views offered in any course of study. Students who believe that an academic evaluation is unrelated to academic standards but is related instead to judgment of their personal opinion or conduct should contact the dean of the college which offers the class to initiate a review of the evaluation.