Course Overview
An introduction to soil mechanics and groundwater, including soil origins, types and classifications, phase relationships, compaction, Darcy's law, flow nets, settling pond analysis, soil pressure and soil strength. .
Prerequisite(s)
- Diploma or Degree in Engineering or Science.
Credits
1.0
- Not offered this term
- This course is not offered this term. Notify me to receive email notifications when the course opens for registration next term.
Learning Outcomes
Upon successful completion, the student will be able to:
- Discuss the origin of soils and the relationship to host material.
- Identify soils using the USC soil classification system.
- Describe other soil classification systems.
- Explain particle size distribution and its applications.
- Solve basic soil engineering problems using particle size distributions.
- Differentiate between swelling and shrinking soil types.
- Solve basic soil mechanics problems to determine volume, density, mass, saturation/retention and buoyancy measures using mathematical relationships.
- Describe the fundamentals of groundwater movement in relation to soil processes.
- Identify groundwater considerations in soil engineering problems.
- Analyze for storativity, hydraulic conductivity, transmissivity.
- Solve basic groundwater problems using Darcy's law.
- Explain simple groundwater flow nets.
- Discuss compaction, compressibility and consolidation of soils.
- Explain settlement and liquefaction processes.
- Identify various field methods and equipment in subsurface exploration.
- Describe equipment used in compaction and consolidation for different soil types.
- Explain the effects compaction and consolidation have on permeability.
- Explain the fundamentals of soil strength in relation to pore water pressure and effective stress/shear.
- Solve problems to determine effective stress and pore water pressure under changing groundwater conditions.
- Describe slope stability as it pertains to soil properties.
- Calculate how changes in pore water pressure affect slope stability.
Effective as of Fall 2003
Programs and courses are subject to change without notice. Find out more about BCIT course cancellations.