Geotechnical Engineering

One of the most common debates in foundation engineering is whether a foundation beam should be analyzed with soil support or as a suspended beam spanning only between its supports. Neither approach is universally correct; the appropriate choice depends on the beam’s function, the foundation system, and the expected behavior of the supporting soil. Before discussing the analysis, it is important to clarify terminology. Although […] Read More

Critical Unsupported Height in Cohesive Soils: Understanding the Factor 4 and Why Engineers Are Cautious About Cohesion Note for our non-engineer readers: This article contains a few engineering equations. However, the main concepts can still be understood by reading the text alone, so feel free to skip the math if you wish. One of the most interesting concepts in geotechnical engineering is the critical unsupported […] Read More

Deep Piles or Ground Improvement? Temporary Heavy-Load Foundations on Expansive Soil Near Water When engineers must support heavy temporary loads in a confined shoreline area, one common question arises: Should we use deep piles, or a shallow foundation with ground improvement? At first glance, deep piles may appear to be the obvious answer, especially when expansive soils and nearby water are involved. However, real geotechnical […] Read More

Geotechnical engineering is one of the five main branches in civil engineering, which can further be categorized into soil mechanics, foundation engineering, retaining structures and excavations. Geotechnical engineering is a branch that interacts with all other branches, after all, every structure needs foundation system. Geotechnical engineering failures are usually among the costliest to fix, if the fix is possible at all in the first place. […] Read More

The Hidden “Spring” in the Ground: Understanding Residual Stress in Driven Piles When a pile is driven into the ground, it isn’t just a piece of concrete or steel sitting passively in the dirt. It is a massive, pre-loaded system—essentially a giant elastic spring trapped in a “tug-of-war” with the surrounding soil. For decades, engineers often ignored this internal struggle, but modern deep foundation analysis […] Read More

The primary functions of a retaining structure are: Separate an area of low elevation from an adjacent higher elevation area Prevent slope failure or soil movementCreate usable land on sloped terrainSupport excavationsProtect infrastructure such as roads and buildings Retaining structures do this by resisting lateral earth pressure generated by the retained soil or prevent it from collapsing by anchoring into them or reinforcing them. In […] Read More

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 […] 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