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. The hydrogeology section focuses on the occurrence and movement of groundwater in a variety of geologic settings and explains the effect of human activity on that movement. Topics include types of aquifers, properties of porous media, groundwater flow, and pump testing of aquifers.
Prerequisite(s)
- Diploma of Technology or Degree in Engineering, Science or Natural Resources.
Credits
3.0
- 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
At the end of this course, students will be able to:
- Discuss the origin of soils and the relationship to host material.
- Solve basic soil engineering problems using particle size distributions.
- Solve basic soil mechanics problems to determine volume, density, mass, saturation/retention and buoyancy measures using mathematical relationships.
- Analyse groundwater problems based on the fundamentals of groundwater movement in soil.
- Discuss compaction, compressibility, and consolidation of soils within the context of the effects they can have on permeability.
- Outline the fundamentals of soil strength in relation to pore water pressure and effective stress/shear.
- Discuss the fundamentals of groundwater in relation to the hydrologic processes.
- Analyze Darcy's law in relation to the movement of fluids in a porous environment, taking into consideration groundwater movement in unsaturated and saturated porous media.
- Apply the principles of flow nets to groundwater flow by solving hydraulic conductivity problems using flow net analyses.
- Solve basic problems involving the application of radial flow to water wells in groundwater problems within the context of Hvorslev and Bouwer and Rice methods for response testing.
- Calculate hydraulic conductivity using the Hvorslev and Bouwer and Rice methods.
Effective as of Fall 2009
Programs and courses are subject to change without notice. Find out more about BCIT course cancellations.