Content

• Material behavior of sand and clay under oedometric and triaxial monotonic loading, under drained and undrained boundary conditions
• Critical states
• Notes on material behavior under cyclic/dynamic loading
• Procedure of an FE simulation and definition of a constitutive model
• Consideration of different features of soils in constitutive models
• Stress, strain, invariants and shear strength criteria
• Simple constitutive models: elasticity, Mohr-Coulomb elastoplasticity
• Calibration of simple constitutive models using laboratory tests

Content

• Basics of design according to EC 7
• Shallow single and strip foundations
• Plate foundations
• Single pile foundations under vertical loading
• Single pile foundations under horizontal loading
• Pile groups under vertical loading
• Pile test loads
• Pile grates
• Drilled-shaft (caisson) foundations
• Ground improvement
• Introduction to GGU-Software

Content

• Introduction to failure mechanisms of various structures
• Calculation methods for the determination of the safety factor
• Slope stability
• Retaining structures
• Construction pits
• Slurry-supported open trenches
• Anchors
• Cofferdams
• Underpinning
• Geogrid-reinforced structures
• Well systems

Content

• FEM in geotechnics and review of the course “Simple constitutive models”
• Introduction to the Hardening Soil (HS) and HS Small model
• Calibration of the HS model using laboratory tests
• Simulation of laboratory tests and optimization of parameters
• Consideration of structures, interactions and boundary conditions
• Consideration of water pressures in Plaxis
• Overview of different calculation types
• Introduction to Finite Element Limit Analysis (FELA)
• Introduction to the Discrete Element Method (DEM)
• Plaxis2D exercises on shallow foundations, retaining walls, consolidation, slope stability and tunneling

Content

Lectures

• Introduction to Critical State Soil Mechanics (CSSM)
• Introduction to the Modified Cam-Clay (MCC) model
• Introduction to Hypoplasticity with Intergranular Strain (IGS)
• Time-dependent behavior of soft clays
• Introduction to Visco-Hypoplasticity
• Introduction to the Sanisand model
• Basics of tensor calculus

Exercises

• Calibration of constitutive models based on laboratory tests
• Introduction to the 1-element FE program IncrementalDriver (ID)
• Simulation of laboratory tests (including oedometer and triaxial tests) with ID using various constitutive models

Content

Soil dynamics: 

• Introduction to soil dynamics
• Seismic waves and wave types
• Laboratory tests and field trials
• Dynamic soil parameters
• Machine foundation
• Dynamic interaction soil-foundation
• Exercise and laboratory visit

Geotechnical Earthquake Engineering:

• Soil liquefaction under seismic action
• Design of embankments against seismic action
• Design of retaining structures against seismic action
• Ground response analysis

Content

• Soft cohesive and organic soils
• Swelling and collapse-prone soils
• Physico-chemical behavior, structure
• Saturated and unsaturated soils
• Slump/settlement flow
• Shrinkage and consolidation behavior, compaction
• Structures on problematic soils
• Laboratory tests to record the above phenomena

Content

• Soil classification tests (water content, grain size distribution, Atterberg limits (plasticity properties), maximum and minimum density, particle density),
• Index tests for bentonite suspensions as support fluid
• Determination of shear strength parameters (direct shear test, triaxial test)
• Determination of compressibility of soils (oedometer test)
• Proctor tests

Content

• Relevant environmental pollutants and their respective industrial sectors
• Advective and diffusive transport of pollutants in porous media
• Methods for soil remediation and containment of pollutants
• Barrier systems for landfills and low-contaminated soils
• Individual project work dealing with specific questions of environmental geotechnics
• Future challenges of environmental geotechnics