ENCN353-16S2 (C) Semester Two 2016

Geotechnical Engineering

15 points

Details:
Start Date: Monday, 11 July 2016
End Date: Sunday, 13 November 2016
Withdrawal Dates
Last Day to withdraw from this course:
  • Without financial penalty (full fee refund): Friday, 22 July 2016
  • Without academic penalty (including no fee refund): Friday, 7 October 2016

Description

Mohr's circle; time-dependent soil behaviour; settlement; capacity and failure of foundations; field investigations; slope stability; earth pressure theories and retaining structures.

This second course in geomechanics focuses primarily on the analysis of common geo-structures and
foundations. It makes use of the soil mechanics concepts and calculations learned in ENCN 253 and
familiarity with this material is assumed. Generally speaking, the course content has been developed
on the assumption that ideas and understanding, as opposed to codes or rote-learned formulae, are the backbone of successful engineering – our aim is to understand the behaviour of soil, and then put this understanding to work to solve practical engineering problems and make decisions.

Learning Outcomes

  • By the end of this course you should be able to:

  • Analyse the stability of common geotechnical structures and foundations using conventional
    methods,
  • Compare various in situ and lab-based testing methods for different soil types and scenarios,
    and interpret typical soil test data,
  • Describe and analyse the deformation of soil using effective stress-based principles and
    appropriate idealisations of soil behaviour,
  • Describe how we typically design for SLS and ULS for geo-structures, and how to use factors
    of safety.

Prerequisites

Restrictions

ENCI351

Course Coordinator / Lecturer

Jenny Haskell

Lecturers

Gabriele Chiaro and Professor Carlo Lai (Univ of Pavia)

Lab Technician

Siale Faitotonu

Office hours and who to contact

Technical questions: For technical questions related to the course content (lecture material,
homework questions etc.), please speak to the lecturer for the module during their scheduled office
hours or tutorial sessions. In general, technical questions will not be answered by email as there is
potential for confusion. Instead please arrange to speak to the lecturer in person.

Marking queries: Should you wish to discuss the marking of a piece of coursework, please speak to
the lecturer of the relevant module.

Lab-scheduling questions: If you need to swap lab groups due to a clash, please speak to Siale
Faitotonu in the first instance.

Administrative and other queries: Please direct any other administrative questions to the course coordinator, Dr Jennifer Haskell.

Assessment

Assessment Due Date Percentage 
final exam 60%
Homeworks (x4) 20%
Labs (x2) 10%
Tutorials 10%


Exam: A minimum mark of 40% must be achieved in the final exam in order to pass the course. All
modules from the course are examinable.

Special consideration: Students may apply for special consideration if their performance in an
assessment is affected by extenuating circumstances beyond their control. Applications for special
consideration should be submitted via the Examinations Office website within five days of the
assessment. For ENCN353, special consideration is only available for the final exam, and not for
the homeworks, labs or tutorials.

Students prevented by extenuating circumstances from completing the course after the final date for withdrawing, may apply for special consideration for late discontinuation of the course. Applications must be submitted to the Examinations Office within five days of the end of the main examination period for the semester.

Homeworks: Homeworks should be submitted to the box marked ‘ENCN353’, located on the first
floor of the engineering block. Official Department coversheets should be used for all submissions.
Homework submitted without a signed coversheet will be given a mark of zero. You are strongly
encouraged to make a copy of your homeworks prior to submitting them to the boxes. Very
occasionally submitted homeworks go missing and by making a copy you will still be able to compare your work to the model solutions and learn from any mistakes.

All homeworks should be submitted by the due date. Late submissions will not be accepted. If a
student is unable to complete and submit a homework by the due date owing to circumstances beyond their control, they should discuss this with the course coordinator at the earliest opportunity.

Indicative Fees

Domestic fee $901.00

International fee $4,863.00

* All fees are inclusive of NZ GST or any equivalent overseas tax, and do not include any programme level discount or additional course-related expenses.

For further information see Civil and Natural Resources Engineering .

All ENCN353 Occurrences

  • ENCN353-16S2 (C) Semester Two 2016
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