Last modified on June 27, 2009, at 16:22

Geotechnical engineering

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Geotechnical engineering is the field of engineering concerned with earth materials, such as soils and rocks.

Soil mechanics

Soil mechanics is a key area of geotechnical engineering. Soils are made up of solid rock or mineral particles, water, and air. These three are known as the phases of soil. There are a number of standard properties of soil which are used in geotechnical engineering:

  • Unit weight: the weight of a unit volume of soil.
  • Voids ratio: the ratio of the volume of voids (Vv) to the volume of solids (Vs).
    • Porosity: the ratio of the volume of voids (Vv) to the volume of the soil.
  • Shear strength: the shear stress which causes the soil to fail.