Advanced Soil Mechanics

The course follows the undergraduate course 'Geotechnics' or 'Geotechnical Engineering' to broaden the fundamental concepts for graduate students. It provides the foundation for advanced geotechnical topics such as critical state soil mechanics (one soil mechanical theory), finite element simulation of geotechnical engineering, geoenvironmental engineering, foundation engineering, and others. It deepens the understanding of topics such as soil classification, shear strength of soils, and stress and strain state analysis, etc. which have been briefly introduced in the bachelor level course. Besides, new topics such as soil elasticity, general soil mechanical behaviors, soil plasticity, and the concept of constitutive modeling will also be introduced. The course also incorporates modern developments in geotechnical engineering, particularly reliability-based design, CPT-based interpretation and design methodologies, and data-driven approaches and machine learning techniques that are increasingly used for site characterization, parameter estimation, and predictive modelling. These elements provide students with an updated perspective on contemporary geotechnical practice and research.

Language of instruction: English

BYGG2200 Geotechnics or equivalent

After completing this course, the student will gain the following knowledge, skills, and general competence:

Knowledge

Students have knowledge of:

• • soil aggregate, plasticity, and classification
  • soil mechanical behavior: elasticity, plasticity, and shear strength
  • effective stress and pore water pressure development due to loading
  • stress paths and their relevance for soil behaviour
  • clay sensitivity and anisotropy
  • basic concepts of constitutive modeling and soil state parameters
  • fundamental principles of reliability-based geotechnical design
  • CPT-based soil characterization and interpretation methods
  • basic concepts of data-driven approaches used for geotechnical engineering

Skills

Students can:

• • understand index properties of fine-grained and coarse-grained soils and perform soil classification
  • interpret soil parameters from various types of experimental tests
  • analyse stress and strain states and describe general mechanical behaviour of soils
  • apply basic concepts of soil elasticity, plasticity, and constitutive modelling
  • use CPT data for soil profiling and preliminary geotechnical assessment
  • perform simple reliability-based evaluations using basic probability concepts
  • apply simple data-driven approaches to solve simple geotechnical engineering problems

General competence

Students have:

• • understand general soil mechanical behavior under various loading conditions
  • can interpret typical geotechnical parameters and their relevance for engineering design
  • have basic experience with simple programming to illustrate soil mechanical behaviour
  • can discuss geotechnical problems considering variability, CPT interpretation, and basic data-driven approaches

Lectures, exercises and projects.

The following coursework requirements should be completed and approved in order for the student to take the exam:

• Three written homework assignments

Students who fail to meet the coursework requirements can be given up to one re-submission opportunity before the exam

The exam consists of two parts:

1) Written group (2-5 students) project report, approx. 5000 words, weighted 50%,

2) Oral group (2-5 students) presentation (15-20 min) of the project, followed by individual Q&A (5-10 min), weighted 50%.

All assessment parts must be awarded a pass grade (E or better) for the student to pass the course.

Assessment part 1) can be appealed. Assessment part 2) cannot be appealed.

In the event of a resit or rescheduled exam, oral examination may be used instead. If oral exams are used for resit and rescheduled exams, the result cannot be appealed.

1) and 2) All aids permitted as long as rules for source referencing are followed.

Grade scale A-F

1) One internal examiner

2) One internal examiner and one external or internal examiner

External examiners are used regularly

Chuangxin Lyu