What is Soil Mechanics?
All structures stand on soil. Therefore for a civil engineer, it is essential to know soil mechanics and foundations. Soil mechanics deals with everything related to soil and how to form a structure on that soil.
Different types of soils have different properties and pose different challenges. With the help of soil mechanics, engineers find how to build a particular structure on a type of soil.
If you are unaware of soil mechanics, don’t worry; this blog will help you. This blog will discuss soil mechanics and its importance in engineering.
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Soil Construction MaterialsWhat is Soil Mechanics in Civil Engineering?
Let’s first discuss what soil mechanics is. The term soil mechanics was introduced in a book called Erdbaumechanic by Dr. Karl Terzhagi in 1925. soil mechanics deals with the study of soil and its action against the forces and flow of water.
A civil engineer needs to know how the soil reacts when forced because the foundation of any building is attached to the soil, and if an engineer doesn’t know how soil will react, it may weaken the foundation of the building.
Importance of Soil Mechanics in Civil Engineering.
Here are some importance of soil mechanics in civil engineering.
Foundation
- The structure's load is transferred to the foundation, which transmits it to the soil. This balances and strengthens the building.
Structure Retention
- With soil engineering, one learns how the earth’s pressure works on retaining structures. Without it, the structural integrity of the structure can take a toll.
Slope Stability
- Many times the surface of construction is not a plane but a slope. Soil mechanics provides an engineer with methods so that he can check the stability of the slopes.
Helps in the Construction of Underground Structures.
- Soil mechanics is instrumental in underground construction as engineers need to know the effects of soil on their underground construction. Or whether the site is suitable for such construction or not.
There are many other soil mechanics fundamentals and applications, but there is some core importance of soil mechanics.
Objectives of Soil Mechanics.
When a structure is made, the engineers need to know how soil will react to the structure. There are many types of soil, and all have different properties like different textures, different water-holding capacities, different reactions to an applied force, etc. different types of soils have different types of soil mechanics. therefore, one size-fits all type of design can’t be used during construction in different soil types.
Here an engineer’s practical knowledge paired with the theoretical study of soil mechanics is used best to analyze the design and construction strategy for a building.
There are two types of soil.
Residual Soil
- Formed by the disintegration of rocks.
Transported Soil
- Soil is transported with a medium like water, air, etc
Other types of soil fall under these two categories.
Therefore, for a structure to stand in any type of soil, it is first essential to understand the mechanics of the soil.
Parting Words
This was about soil mechanics. It sure is an essential construction element, which is why it has a vast scope and implementation. Soil is the base of every structure, so it should be studied well.
And it becomes possible due to soil mechanics.
