92874 - DESIGN OF FOUNDATIONS AND RETAINING STRUCTURES

Conoscenze e abilità da conseguire

Having successfully completed this module, students will be able to: • understand the different soil-structure mechanisms; • use alternative design strategies for shallow and deep foundations; • evaluate earth pressures on retaining walls; • deal with the different modes of failure of rigid and flexible retaining structures; • understand the basic features and assumptions of some well-established methods of analysis; • carry out analyses using limit equilibrium methods and limit analysis; • understand use and implications of numerical approaches such as FDM and FEM; • carry out geotechnical calculations for the design of foundations and of embedded soil retaining structures.

Contenuti

Requirements

Prior required knowledge is considered to be acquired by the accomplishment of the Geotechnical Engineering course.

Fluent spoken and written English is a necessary pre-requisite: all lectures and tutorials, as well as all study material will be in English.

Course contents

The course aims at developing the students' knowledge of geotechnical engineering. It explores the application of soil mechanics principles to the geotechnical design of foundation systems and retaining walls.

Design of shallow foundations. Bearing capacity of shallow foundations under general loading in homogeneous soil. Solutions for the design in layered soils. Settlement analysis using theoretical approaches and in-situ test interpretations.

Design of pile foundations. Pile types. Axial capacity of single pile. Pile subjected to horizontal loading. Settlement and deformation of piles, use of load-transfer curve methods. Capacity and displacements of pile groups. Pile testing.

Design of retaining structures. Types of earth retaining structures and modes of failure. Limiting earth pressure from limit analysis. Stability analysis of rigid and flexible retaining structures. Mechanical stabilised earth walls.

Geotechnical design using international codes. The geotechnical design of the structures presented in the course are developed in accordance to the typical International Standards.

Testi/Bibliografia

Lecture notes

Knappett, J. & Craig, R. Craig's Soil Mechanics, 9^th edition. CRC Press, 2019.

Bond, A.J., Schuppener, B., Scarpelli, G., & Orr, T.L.L. Eurocode 7: Geotechnical design worked examples. JRC Scientific and policy reports, 2013.

Metodi didattici

The lectures are presented with slides and integrated by board demonstrations. Practical examples, including applications of numerical methods, are illustrated throughout the course. Additionally, the course may feature lectures and seminars by invited foreign professors.

Modalità di verifica e valutazione dell'apprendimento

During the course, the geotechnical design of three structures is presented using a commercial numerical code.

For the final exam, students have two options:

• submit a technical report – Students prepare a report on the three examples discussed in the course, incorporating their own analysis and investigation of each case, and present their findings.
• sustain a written test – Students solve a short exercise, similar to those covered in the course, in a written exam.

After evaluating the technical report / written test, the second part of the final exam assesses the student's theoretical knowledge gained during the course. This involves an open theoretical question, for which the candidate is given 15–20 minutes to prepare before the discussion.

Higher grades will be awarded to students who can demonstrate an organic understanding of the subject, a capacity of presenting the course contents in a clear and concise way and an ability of critically discussing the results achieved. To obtain a passing grade, students are required to show their knowledge of at least the key concepts of the subject, some ability for their critical application and a correct use of technical language. A failing grade will be awarded if the student shows knowledge gaps in key-concepts of the subject, inappropriate use of language, and/or logic failures in the analysis of the subject.

Strumenti a supporto della didattica

The teacher will made available the lecture notes on Virtuale.

Orario di ricevimento

Consulta il sito web di Alessio Mentani