95941 - GEOTECHNICAL ENGINEERING FOR LAND PROTECTION

Learning outcomes

The corse aims at applying the principles and the basic concepts of geotechnical engineering to the numerous problems encountered in the land protection. In particular, at the end of the course the student shall: - learn the methods of analysis for the stability of slopes and for the defense of large areas; - know how to identify the main intervention strategies for the mitigation of the hydrogeological risk; - be able to examine the main geotechnical issues related to the execution of infrastructural works for the land protection and to define their design solution. Geotecnica nella difesa del territorio L’insegnamento mira ad applicare i principi ed i concetti della geotecnica alle svariate problematiche poste dalla difesa del territorio. In particolare, al termine del corso lo studente: - conosce i metodi di analisi per la stabilità dei versanti e per la difesa delle grandi aree; - sa individuare le principali strategie di intervento per la mitigazione del rischio idrogeologico; - è in grado di esaminare i principali aspetti geotecnici connessi alla realizzazione delle opere per la protezione del territorio e di definirne una soluzione progettuale.

Course contents

Overview on slope stability. Landslide types and classifications. Causes and factors contributing to slope failures. Geotechnical aspects in landslides.

Type and characteristics of soil deposits. Soil properties and identification tests.

Soil strenght. Review of basic concepts with reference to critical conditions for the stability of slopes. Loading conditions along a slope. Shear behaviour of sands and clays. Undrained shear strenght. Residual strenght. Measurements and choice of strenght parameters.

Geotechnical site investigation. Sampling. Cone penetration test. Standard and cone penetration test. Geophysical tests. Dilatomer tests.

Groundwater conditions. Calculation of pore water pressures in saturated soils with reference to aquifers, aquicludes and perched water table. Brief outline on pore water pressures in unsaturated soils. Types of groundwater flow. Two-dimensional steady flow. In situ measurement of positive pore water pressures and interpretation.

Slope stability. Mode of failure. Factor of safety concept. Limit equilibrium method. Block analysis. Infinite slope analysis. Translational slip. Planar slope analysis. Methods of slices: Ordinary method of slices. Jambu method. Bishop method. Design charts: Taylor; Spencer and Jambu. Pseudostatic methods in seismic analysis.

Overview on mitigation measures.

Worked examples are presented, discussed and solved for any topic.

 

Readings/Bibliography

Lee W. Abramson, Thomas S. Lee, Sunil Sharma, Glenn M. Boyce, Slope Stability and Stabilization Methods, Wiley

Lecture notes available at virtuale.unibo.it

Teaching methods

Lecture notes available at virtuale.unibo.it

Assessment methods

The exam is written. The students are required to solve a set of worked examples.

Teaching tools

Slides, blackboard

Office hours

See the website of Laura Govoni