Lecturer: Mirko Corigliano  

Course name: Foundations and earth retaining structures
Course code: 064127
Degree course: Ingegneria per l'Ambiente e il Territorio, Ingegneria Civile
Disciplinary field of science: ICAR/09
L'insegnamento è caratterizzante per: Ingegneria per l'Ambiente e il Territorio, Ingegneria Civile
University credits: CFU 6
Course website: http://www-3.unipv.it/webgeotk/fondazioni.html

Specific course objectives

The aim of the course is the application of geotechnical and structural engineering to design and analysis of foundations and earth retaining structures. The course includes hours of theory and hours dedicated to the solutions of problem of foundations engineering. The subdivision in modules, with the relative hours of Lectures (L) and Practical class (E) is indicated in the following.

Course programme

First module (10L+3E): Soil mechanics. Normal and over consolidated soil. Shear strength resistance of cohesive and cohesiveless soils. Stress path. Steady state flow. Darcy law. Hydrodynamic pressure and critical hydraulic gradient. Heave of bottom of escavation and assessment of safety factor. Shear strength parameters and deformability in drained and undrained conditions. Geotechnical characterization by in-situ and laboratory testing.

Second module (12L+5E): Shallow Foundations. Types of shallow foundations (Plinth, strip foundations, reverse beams, plate and grid of foundations beams). General design criteria. Bearing capacity of shallow foundations for cohesive and cohesiveless soils. Italian building code. Computation of settlements of shallow foundations for cohesive and cohesiveless soils. Induced deformation in the structure and related effects: allowable limit of distorsion. Structural verification. Soil-structure interaction in static conditions (Winkler method). Interaction soil/foundation/structure.

Third module (10L+4E): Deep foundations. Classification of piles (driven and bored piles). Static formulas for the computation of the bearing capacity of single pile due to vertical action (Base and shaft resistance). Negative skin friction. Settlements of deep foundations. Interaction and group effects in static conditions. Horizontal actions on piles. Italian building code. Load test.

Fourth module (6L+2E): Earth retaining structures. Classification of earth retaining structures. Active and passive earth pressure according to the classical Coulomb and Rankine theory. Influence of displacement and friction on the earth pressure. Hydrostatic water pressure and additional pressure due to accidental load. Drainage systems. Seismic earth pressure (Mononobe-Okabe and Wood theory). Stability analysis in drained and undrained conditions. Gravity earth retaining structures. Flexible earth retaining structures. Anchored and cantilever diaphragm wall. Simplified analysis of “Equivalent beam”. Italian building code and Eurocode 7.

Course entry requirements

Soil mechanics, hydraulic, structural mechanics.

Course structure and teaching

Lectures (hours/year in lecture theatre): 38
Practical class (hours/year in lecture theatre): 14
Practicals / Workshops (hours/year in lecture theatre): 0

Suggested reading materials

Lancellotta, R. e Calavera, J. (1999). Fondazioni. McGraw-Hill, 611 pp.

Viggiani, C. (1999). Fondazioni. Hevelius, 568 pp..

Nova, R. (2008). Meccanica delle costruzioni geotecniche. Edizioni Città Studi.

Lancellotta, R. (2004). Geotecnica. Zanichelli, 481 pp.

Fleming, W.G., Weltman, A.J., & Randolph, M.E. (1998). Piling Engineering. Taylor & Francis Inc., 390 pp.

Bowles, J.E. (1995). Foundation Analysis and Design. McGraw-Hill, 1175 pp.

Salgado, R. (2006). The Engineering of Foundations. McGraw-Hill, 928 pp.

Testing and exams

The exam is constituted by a written test of three hours duration which includes theory and exercises, and a check of the exercises assigned during the course.