Talk:Soil mechanics

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Contents

[edit] Bearing capacity

probabilistic methods in determining the bearing capacity

[edit] Editing

This is one of those very general articles. I am using this as a general template and expanding the subsections. --Zeizmic 15:07, 11 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] More editing

Hi, I want to dramatically edit the soil mechanics page. Any objections if I do the following:

  • Rewrite the introduction.
  • Delete Shear Strength section, and merely link to Shear_strenth, and other relevant topics such as friction, Coefficient_of_friction -the topic as written appears to be covered mostly by these links, and this avoids doubling up.

GeoEng 19:35, 11 March 2007 (UTC)

The intro could definitely use a rewrite as it does not really explain what soil mechanics is as much as who uses it or where it is used. As for dumping sections on shear strength, etc., the usual convention is to pare those down to one paragraph with a link to the main article. A good example of this exists at Civil engineering where each branch has a small description and a link to the "main article." All-in-all, sounds all right; and you know other editors are (almost) always watching... ZueJay (talk) 19:45, 11 March 2007 (UTC)
Indeed, I agree with Zuejay, and welcome to Wikipedia GeoEng. Basar 19:48, 11 March 2007 (UTC)
OK thanks. I'll try not to annoy anyone with my edits. In terms of re-organising the geotech pages, may I suggest using the Burland Triangle (From his Nash lecture: "The Teaching of Soil Mechanics, a personal view", 1987. Proc. 9th Conf. Soil Mech & Found Eng) as a rough guide. It essentially separates Geo-Engineering into three main areas, linked to each other. These are:
  • 1. Ground Profile: Genesis, SI, Ground Description (Minerology; Classification; Ground water; geological processes).
  • 2. Soil Behaviour: Laboratory & Field Testing, Measurement & Observation (Particulate behaviour; effective stress; stress paths; compressibility; Ko, preconsolidation; permeability, consolidation, creep; Drained strength, dilatant & contractant behaviour; excess pwp; undrained strength; critical state framework)
  • 3. Applied Mechanics: Idealisation, conceptual, physical, analytical modelling (Stress, strain, elasticity, plasticity, limit equilibrium, limit analysis, finite element analysis, soil constitutive models)

At the nexus of the three points it has: Practice: (Empiricism "based on well winnowed experience"; Insitu testing; Atterbergs; bearing capacity; earth pressure; geotechnical processes;(other design aspects) etc).

"soil mechanics", whilst retaining links to "Ground Profile" & "Practice" topics, it essentially is better described as covering Soil Behaviour and Applied Mechanics groups. In this sense, I think items relating to "Ground Profile" and "Practice" should be moved to link directly from Geotechnical Engineering (eg. Ground Investigation, Bearing Capacity -comes under Foundation Design, Slope Stability -comes under Slope processes), whilst aspects relating to Soil Behaviour and Applied Mechanics should stay within Soil Mechanics. This is fairly logical, and Geotechnical Engineering already has the more practical (less theoretical) aspects.

I think once the framework is there, we can work on developing each subgroup, gradually becomming more detailed as we (and others) see fit. GeoEng 20:52, 11 March 2007 (UTC)

Some good suggestions here - have moved this over to Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Geotechnical engineering where it can be more readily discussed. I need to reread this and consider it a bit more before voicing a reasonably thought-out opinion. ZueJay (talk) 21:01, 11 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Editing of Shear Strength and Soil Liquefaction

The section of soil liquefaction needs to get incorporated into shear strength. And I agree with the previous comments: the shear strength needs to be simplified and referenced to the main article about it. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 70.74.26.76 (talk • contribs) 03:42, July 20, 2007 (UTC)

Ya, a lot of this article has not been touched in a very long time, including the shear strength section. Feel free to make whatever modifications you see fit. -- Basar (talk · contribs) 03:50, 20 July 2007 (UTC)

I took the liberty to make major changes to the Shear Strength section. The idea of this entry is to address in a logical fashion all the aspects related to shear strength of soils: Definition, importance in soil mechanics, factors affecting shear strength and laboratory tests. A more thorough explanation of shear strength should be done in the Shear Strength article. Please discuss if this changes are valid and how they can be improved.

The Soil Liquefaction section was deleted, and it was just mentioned in the Shear Strength article with a link to the main article. Soil Liquefaction is a particular problem of Shear Strength. Please forgive the major edits. I did not know how to be more subtle on the edits.

Please comment. sanpaz75 00:33, 21 August 2007 (UTC)

The changes seem OK to me. I don't mind major edits. -- Basar (talk · contribs) 01:28, 21 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Re-defining the scope of the Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering articles

This is what I propose: The Soil Mechanics article should deal strictly with the basic theories of Soil Mechanics: Soil Structure, Soil Classification, Shear Strength, Seepage, Consolidation... Topics such as: Soil Liquefaction, Ground Investigation etc. belong to the Geotechnical Engineering article.

I have not decided if Slope Stability, Bearing Capacity and Lateral Earth Pressure should go into the Soils Mechanics article or the Geotechnical Engineering article. I think the former is more appropriate.

Please comment sanpaz75 00:51, 21 August 2007 (UTC)

Yes, I think you are right about the split between soil mechanics and geotechnical engineering. I have tried to follow this distinction too when I was sorting those respective categories: Category:Soil mechanics and Category:Geotechnical engineering. It would seem to me too that slope stability, bearing capacity, and lateral earth pressure would be best in soil mechanics as they don't involve specific design recommendations. I'll try to clean up somethings in this article too to try to help. -- Basar (talk · contribs) 01:26, 21 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Definition of Soil

I have modified the first section of this article titled "Basic Soil Characterisitcs". I based the definition on the book by Mitchell (see references). It explains that the soil has 3 phases, and explains each phase. A short introduction is given on soil mineralogy and soil structure. To continue with the same idea for other section, I suggest opening a new article Soil(engineering), which will expand all this concepts (mineralogy, structure, fabric, composition, interparticle forces etc). Please comment. Sanpaz 05:02, 17 September 2007 (UTC)

Yes, I would like to see those concepts expanded on too. I, however, would prefer to see the topics added to the article soil and the articles on types of soil like clay or sand. I have given my thoughts on the soil talk page, but they are essentially that I think the topic of soil should be integrated with other academic disciplines that deal with soil and because it is the standard way of dealing with this situation on Wikipedia. – Basar (talk · contribs) 05:57, 17 September 2007 (UTC)
Yes, I agree with you that the article soil should have all these concepts integrated. Geology, Pedology, and Geotechnical Engineering certainly use different definitions for the term soil. I think it is important to acknowledge this fact is some clear manner. Creating a Soil(engineering) page would address the specific aspects of soils that matter to civil engineers. Sanpaz 15:52, 17 September 2007 (UTC)