Geotechnical Engineering

To understand what liquefaction is, we must first understand shear stress in soils, which in turn means, the strength of soil… Load carrying capacity of any material arises from its shear strength. Soils, rocks, which carry our structures are no exception to this rule. The greater a foundation material has shear strength, the better it can support our structures with less settlement. Shear strength is a result of how well the particles of a material stick to each other, and, the resistance they provide when they are made to slide over each other. In other words, Shear strength = The resistance provided particles sticking to each other + The resistance […] Read More

In this post we will try to summarize design of shallow foundations and highlight some critical points. Read More

In this post we will look at various aspects of un-anchored retaining structures analysis and design. The anchored systems will be covered in hopefully another post. Read More

In this post we will cover various good practices to follow during subsurface investigation, which forms the basis when preparing geotechnical reports. Read More

Grouting is one of the most common ground improvement methods, which can be applied in various ways for different situations. In this post we will look at grouting methods, try to explain when to chose which method and certain common issues that may be encountered. Read More

It is not possible to describe or even summarize foundation design principles in a single post. So first of all, we refer the readers to other posts we made in Geotechnical engineering and foundations. Below we did not distinguish shallow or deep foundations. We will only list some major points to consider below: Bearing capacity Settlement, such as elastic settlement for all soils and primary and secondary consolidation settlement for clays Potential for deep seated failure, when a weak layer can be present beneath a stronger layer Frost heave cycle The soil parameters are reliable to the degree of the reliability of tests to determine them. The engineer must use […] Read More

After the construction of a house is complete, many times homeowners experience various problems due to poor design or poor construction practices or both. Differential Settlement of foundations is one of the most frequent of these. It can cause so many unpleasant effects such as small hairline cracks on the plaster, door frames getting out of place and doors not closing, beams cracking…  In extreme cases, it can bring the structure to the point of imminent collapse. Differential settlement can happen in any type of structure, and not just houses. How can this be prevented? Both design and construction practices are important, in order to prevent differential settlement of foundations. […] Read More