Department of Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineering Spring Semester 2018 The University of Texas at Austin CE 375 (Unique No. 14780) CE 375 EARTH SLOPES AND RETAINING STRUCTURES Semester: Spring 2018 Instructor: Dr. Andrew C. Brown Lecture Days: Monday, Wednesday, Friday Office: ECJ 9.102D Lecture Time: 11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. Office Hours: Friday, 12:00 – 1:00 p.m. Location: ECJ 1.324 Email: [email protected] Prerequisite: CE 357 – Geotechnical Engineering or equivalent. COURSE TEXTBOOKS Required: Course Notes – CE 375: Earth Slopes and Retaining Structures – Available at Jenn’s Copy and Binding (North Location, 2518 Guadalupe St.). This packet contains all of the supporting materials for the lectures. Bring these course notes to class each day. These course notes may be supplemented with handouts distributed in class. Recommended: B.M. Das and K. Sobhan: Principles of Geotechnical Engineering – Eighth Edition. Cengage Learning, 2013; ISBN 13: 9781133108665. INTRODUCTION AND COURSE OBJECTIVES This course covers the areas of geotechnical engineering which involve earth slopes and retaining structures. We will cover the various types of earth slopes and retaining walls, methods of analysis, and special features of design. Because most earth slopes and retaining walls involve at least some consideration of soil compaction and water, we will also cover soil compaction, seepage and drainage. First, we will cover compaction. Many earth slopes are constructed of compacted soil, and compaction is usually required for the construction of retaining walls. We will consider how compaction affects various engineering properties, including shear strength, stiffness, compressibility, and permeability. We will also cover selection of compaction criteria, field compaction procedures, and construction control for compacted fills. Finally, we will also briefly cover techniques for in-situ densification of natural soil deposits. Next, we will cover seepage and drainage of water in soil. The coverage of water will differ somewhat from that which you may have been exposed to in courses in hydraulics and water resources because we are interested in the effect of water on stresses, rather than in how much water we can produce from the ground as a resource. We will cover the basic principles of water flow and how water affects stresses. We will also cover techniques that the geotechnical engineer uses to control water. Water is one of the principal causes of failure of earth slopes and retaining walls and is an important consideration in 1 their design. Drainage of water represents one of the principal means that we have to stabilize slopes and retaining walls. The third major topic we will cover is the stability of earth slopes. We will discuss theories of slope stability. Several methods of slope stability analysis will be presented and discussed. One of the most important factors in slope stability is the shear strength of the soil comprising the slope. We will review what you have studied about shear strength in the past, and cover new concepts of shear strength which are important to slope stability and retaining walls as well. The important distinction between "short-term" and "long-term" stability will be discussed, and special design considerations for both short- term and long-term stability will be presented. Earth pressures and the design of retaining walls comprise the fourth major topic covered in this course. We will cover the theories of earth pressures and the principles of retaining wall design. Because the principles involved in both earth pressure and slope stability calculations are similar, earth pressures fit very nicely into this course which also covers slope stability. Also, retaining walls are typically used where an unstable slope would otherwise exist and, thus, many practical examples involve principles of both earth slope stability and retaining wall design. ATTENDANCE AND PARTICIPATION Students are expected to attend all class periods, and attendance may be periodically recorded. Because the textbook will provide only supplementary information, the lectures are the main source of information to be covered in the homework assignments and exams. Those who regularly miss class are inviting scholastic difficulty and, with the approval of the Dean, may be dropped from the course. During class, students are expected to take hand-written notes in the required course packet as lectures are presented. The use of cell phones or other mobile devices is strictly prohibited in class (this includes talking, texting and/or the use of applications). The use of laptops, tablets, or netbooks is not allowed in class, unless explicitly authorized in advance by the instructor. Class participation is strongly encouraged. Do not hesitate to raise questions or suggest your own ideas during class. If some particular lecture topic is confusing or unclear, please ask for clarification. You are encouraged to see me during office hours for help with specific problems. Students who attend all class periods, and exhibit attentive and appropriate behavior throughout the semester, will receive full credit for participation. Multiple absences, unprofessional behavior, and/or the use of prohibited devices during class will adversely affect the class participation score. HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENTS Homework is intended primarily as a means of helping you to learn and understand the course material. Homework will be assigned, graded and recorded, mainly to encourage you to do the homework and help you learn the material. There is a direct correlation between doing your homework and doing well on exams; without doing the homework, you are unlikely to pass this course. CE 375 – Earth Slopes and Retaining Structures 2 Each assignment must be submitted in hard copy form with a cover memorandum. As you will quickly learn after college, most practicing engineers spend more time and effort communicating and presenting their ideas, analyses, and results than they do performing technical calculations. A professional engineer's work entails much more than analysis. Hence, all assignments in this class must be submitted with a cover memorandum that briefly discusses your analysis. The cover memo should be typed, addressed to the instructor, and no more than one page long. The text of your memo should: • Briefly state the purpose of your work (summarize what was requested and what you did). • Describe the data, material properties, and other information used to solve the problem, including any assumptions you may have used. • Review important aspects of the problem and your solution. • Refer to any attached drawings, plots, and other figures, and identify the significant information they contain. • Summarize important results, conclusions, and recommendations. Attach your calculations, plots, and drawings behind the cover memo. Write your cover memo as if you were submitting your results to a professional client. Engineering computation paper is recommended for your calculations (pages torn from a spiral notebook are unacceptable). Data plots and other figures may be drawn with a computer or by hand on graph paper. When needed, neatly draw all sketches and data plots using a straight edge, French curve, compass, etc., and show all relevant labels. When feasible, site plans, schematics, etc. should be drawn to a proportional scale. Failure to submit legible, neat, professional-looking assignments will adversely affect your grade. Above all, present your results clearly and concisely so that someone else, who may be less knowledgeable than you are, can understand and apply your recommendations correctly. EXAMS AND GRADING We will have two one-hour midterm examinations during the semester, and a comprehensive three-hour final examination. The final examination will be given at the time scheduled by The University (Saturday, May 12, 2018, 2:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.). Your final score for this course will be computed using the following weights: Homework 20% First Midterm 20% Second Midterm 20% Final Examination 35% Class Participation 5% Total 100% The plus/minus (+/–) grading system will be used in determining the final course grade. Divisions between letter grade levels, as well as a possible “class curve”, are not pre-determined. In borderline cases, your participation and attendance in class will also be considered. CE 375 – Earth Slopes and Retaining Structures 3 LATE OR MISSED WORK Homework assignments are due at the beginning of the period announced in class and late homework will not be accepted except under unusual circumstances. If there are unusual circumstances which you feel justify turning in late homework, submit the homework with a neatly typed memo explaining why your homework was late and the justification for accepting it. I will then decide whether or not to accept the homework based on your written justification. Exams and homework due in other courses are not an excuse for late homework. Exams will be given at assigned times which will be announced in class. On occasion, students are ill on the day of an examination and are unable to attend. However, no makeup exams will be given for the one hour exams during the semester. Makeup exams take a great deal of time to prepare and, more importantly, it is virtually impossible to prepare a makeup exam that is equivalent to the regular exam. Regardless of how carefully one attempts to prepare a makeup exam, either the student taking the exam or the other students in the class are given an unfair advantage. Instead of a makeup exam, if you miss an hour exam during the semester, you will be graded on the basis of the exams which you have taken as follows: a grade for the exam that you missed will be estimated based on how you did on the exams which you have taken (including the comprehensive final exam) relative to the rest of the class. For example, if you scored twelfth among thirty students on the exams that you took, you will be given a grade for the exam that you missed that would place you approximately twelfth among the students who took the exam that you missed.