Course Details
Course Information Package
| Course Unit Title | GEOTECHNICAL ENGINEERING IN ARID ENVIRONMENTS | ||||||||
| Course Unit Code | CEG437 | ||||||||
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| Number of ECTS credits allocated | 5 | ||||||||
| Learning Outcomes of the course unit | By the end of the course, the students should be able to:
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| Mode of Delivery | Face-to-face | ||||||||
| Prerequisites | CEG334 | Co-requisites | NONE | ||||||
| Recommended optional program components | NONE | ||||||||
| Course Contents | Introduction: review of assumptions and limitations of saturated soil mechanics, introduction to arid environment phenomena: unsaturated soil, expansive, collapsible and calcareous soils. Principles of unsaturated soil mechanics: physical properties, interfacial equilibrium, capillarity, states of stress. Suction measurement: in situ and laboratory methods of suction measurement: tensiometers, electrical probes, filter paper techniques. Expansive soils: effect of moisture content changes, assessing volume changes, designing soil improvement and foundation design techniques. Collapsible soils: formation and characteristics of collapsible soils, identifying at-risk soils, mitigation measures. Calcareous soils: formation and characteristics of calcareous soils, engineering in calcareous sediments, use as fill material. Geotechnical design: modifications to shear strength criteria, design of shallow foundations, retaining walls and slopes in unsaturated soil. | ||||||||
| Recommended and/or required reading: | |||||||||
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| Planned learning activities and teaching methods | The course will be presented through theoretical lectures in class. The lectures will present to the student the course content and allow for questions. Part of the material will be presented using visual aids. Lecture notes, homework assignments, practice questions, feedback and additional material such as site videos and photographs will be available to students at any time on the e-learning Moodle platform. The learning process will be enhanced with the requirement from the student to solve exercises. These include self-evaluation exercises which will be solved in class. These exercises will not be graded. Exercises will also be given as homework which will be part of their assessment. The instructor will be available to students during office hours or by appointment in order to provide any additional tutoring. | ||||||||
| Assessment methods and criteria |
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| Language of instruction | English | ||||||||
| Work placement(s) | NO | ||||||||
