ENG 301T

Course Title: Engineering Geology III

Engineering Geology III

Instructor: Dr. Souleymane Diop

Department: Council for Geoscience、Pretoria
Lecture #1
Phone number: 012 841 1168
Introduction to Engineering
E-mail: [email protected]
Geology
Lecture: Friday or Thursday, 13:30-15:30
Grading: Assignments: 20%;
Dr. S. Diop (Ph.D., Pr. Nat. Sc., MSAIEG)
Written Test 1: 40%;
Written Test 2: 40%. Tshwane University of Technology, Pretoria
August 5, 2011
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COURSE OUTLINE

1. Concept of engineering geology study.

2.Objectives of engineering geology study
3.Geologic hazards and adverse geologic
conditions.
4.Suggestion and approaches to remediation
and solution of geologic problems.
5. Summary

Concept of engineering geology study

What is Engineering Geology?
“Engineering Geology” is defined by the Association of
Engineering Geologists as the discipline of applying
geologic data, techniques, and principles to the study
both of a) naturally occurring rock and soil materials, and
surface and subsurface fluids, and b) the interaction of
introduced materials and processes with the geologic
environment, so that geologic factors affecting the
planning, design, construction, operation, and
maintenance of engineering structures (fixed works) and
the development, protection, and remediation of
groundwater resources, are adequately recognized,
interpreted, and presented for use in engineering and
related practice.

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 Attaining the Aims Engineering Behaviour of the Ground

Behind every discipline there must be a basic To determine the engineering behaviour of the
philosophy or a way in which that discipline approaches ground the engineering properties of the ground
its problems. The philosophy of engineering geology is mass and the proposed design of the engineering
based on three simple premises. These are: work must be known.

1.All engineering works are built in or on the ground. These two streams of data must be brought
together and processed in order to determine, by
2. The ground will always, in some manner, react to the calculation, the engineering behaviour of the
construction of the engineering work. ground.

3. The reaction of the ground (its ”engineering It is of vital importance that the acquisition and
behaviour”) to the particular engineering work must be processing of data is done systematically to
accommodated by that work. ensure that no significant factors are omitted
from the analysis.

The sequence of operations to be followed to arrive at Materials and Mass Fabric

the engineering behaviour of the ground could be
The terms used in the 3 verbal equations require some
expressed by three verbal equations. These were:
explanation.
•Materials may be rocks, soils and the fluids or gases
Material Properties + Mass Fabric contained within them.
= Mass Properties •Material properties are the properties which are of
significance in engineering, such as density, shear strength,
Mass Properties + Environment deformability and so forth.
•Mass fabric describes the manner in which the materials
= Engineering Geological Matrix are arranged within the mass (in beds, dykes, veins, sills,
etc.) and includes the discontinuities (joints, faults, etc.)
Engineering Geological Matrix which ramify through the mass.
+ Changes produced by the engineering •It is not possible to calculate the reaction of the ground
mass to engineering construction unless it is known how all
work the various materials are distributed within the volume of
= Engineering Behaviour of the ground ground stressed by the construction.

The importance of the distribution of materials in the The building at the top left sits on compressible clay of
groundmass relative to the position of the structure uniform thickness overlying effectively incompressible rock;
deformation of the clay and settlement of the structure into
the ground is uniform.

Under the building in the centre the clay is not of uniform

thickness. Settlement in this case is differential, being larger
over the greatest thickness of clay. The building will tilt, and
may crack, but may not suffer great damage.

In the top right drawing where the clay thickens towards

both ends of the building with rock nearest to the ground
surface under the centre, differential settlement may produce
disastrous results effectively breaking the back of the
building.

This simple example shows the importance of understanding

8/5/2011 the subsurface distribution of materials.

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 The Importance of distribution and orientation of
discontinuities

What Skills or Characteristics do an Who Employs Engineering Geologists?

Engineering Geologist Need?
Engineering geologists are employed by all
•Willingness; aspects of the engineering industry,
including:
•Enthusiasm to learn new skills; •Consulting Engineers
•Environmental specialists
•Sense of humour! •Client organizations
Without the former you will never develop into an •Land-use planners
experienced and well rounded engineering geologist. •Public policy makers
•Property owners
Without the latter you will never survive the cold,
wet, muddy days on site. •Specialist companies (banks, estate, etc.)

Some of the major activities of Engineering Geologists

include the following:
•The investigation and development of surface and
groundwater resources; groundwater basin
management; protection and remediation of
•The investigation of foundations for all types of groundwater resources subject to toxic and other
major structures, such as dams, bridges, power chemical degradation of quality of groundwater
plants, pumping plants, airports, large buildings, resources.
and towers.
•The evaluation of geologic hazards such as
•The evaluation of geologic conditions along tunnel, landslides, faults and earthquakes, subsidence,
pipeline, canal, railway, and highway routes. expansive and collapsible soils, expansive bedrock,
•The exploration and development of sources of cavernous rock, and liquefaction.
rock, soil and sediment for use as construction •Evaluation of geologic conditions (including
material. groundwater) affecting residential, commercial, and
industrial land use and development.

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 Mine pit
•Construction geology, including slope stability, Power plant
dewatering, subdrains, grouting considerations,
and excavatability.
Building
•Safe sitting and geologic design considerations
for waste management and disposal facilities and
to assist in establishing the bases for remedial
actions for mitigation of related environmental
threats from unengineered and uncontrolled waste Sewage treatment Dam
disposal.
•Engineering Geologists participate in land use
planning, environmental impact report research,
mined land reclamation, timber harvest planning,
and insurance and forensic investigations.

Problems may occur during the running of these Vajont Dam Disaster
engineering works: (9th October 1963, Italy)
•The deficiency of sub ground
strength to maintain the
building foundation;
•Instability of slope to produce
rockfall or landslide;
•Leakage of pollutants due to
the underestimate rock
permeability;
•malfunction due to ill-
considered environmental 262 metres high, 27 metres thick at
the base and 3.4 metres at the top
impacts (e.g. climatic change,
heavy rainfall/flood, drought, Upward view of Vajont
etc.) on the engineering works; Dam

What should a engineering geologist consider during

different phases of construction?

Phases: location, design, construction, running

(or maintenance)
•Flood from the rockslide at the left shoulder of the
dam
•Volume of the landslide:3×108m3
Feasibility, preliminary design, final design,
•Speed of the slide: 28m/s (equals to 100 km/h)
construction and post construction
•5×107m3 of water in reservoir was squeezed out to be
flood
•About 3000 downstream people lost their lives

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 Investigation Phases •Construction
• Feasibility
Instrumentation is installed to monitor changing
Identify potentially hazardous or unfavorable groundwater levels; stability and movements of slopes
conditions such as active faults, unstable slopes, and retaining structures; settlements of fills,
sinkholes, and deep deposits of weak soils that would embankments and foundations; ground subsidence and
cause construction to be risky or over costly. deformations and stresses underground.
• Preliminary design • Post construction
Comprehensive determination of the distribution of the Provide an early warning system for potentially
geologic materials and their engineering characteristics, troublesome conditions, and to provide data to advance
and the evaluation of hazardous or constraining the state of art and reduce the degree of conservatism
conditions. in future projects.
• Final design
Produce supplementary data, usually from additional
undisturbed samples for lab tests or full-scale load
tests, to confirm or improve design criteria.

Geologic hazards and adverse geologic B. Adverse geologic conditions

conditions
A. Geologic hazards 1) Soft soil/ground
1) Seismic or earthquake hazard induced by active fault 2)Discontinuity – fracture, fault,
or volcanic activity unconformity/disconformity
2)Landslide, mudslide and rockfall. Which are the weakness of any engineering
3)Avalanche- debris flow, mudflow. foundation materials

4)Ground subsidence due to groundwater over-withdraw,

cave collapse, sinkhole collapse, and tectonic
movement.
5)Volcanic hazards – volcanic eruption, pyroclastic
flows/debris flows, gas emission, etc.

Example 1: Fault and fault types Example 1: Fault and fault types (cont.)

Fault
types Rift Valley lakes
African Rift Valley

In this case, an engineering geologist should provide :

a. The situation of active faults and potential impact on
engineering works.
b. The possibility and magnitude of seismic activities in
the lifespan of the engineering works

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Example 2: Landslide and slope stability Example 2 (cont.)
Factors that affect slope instability include:
1. Natural factors – lithologies, structure, and geomorphology,
A landslide is a geologic rainfall, snow melting, earthquake, flood, etc.
2. Artificial factors: excavation, slope loading, improper draining,
phenomenon which blasting, etc.
include a wide range of
rock falls, deep failure exc
ava
tion Frontal collapse
of slopes and shallow du e to
r oad

mudslides.
ide
dsl
Lan

Slope instability occurs

when the gravity’s
action on the slope go
beyond the limit of In this case, an engineering geologist should provide :
• Proper evaluation of the slide instability based on investigations.
equilibrium. • Remediation approaches to improve the slope stability based on
evaluation.

Example 2 (cont.) Subjects included in engineering geological

training courses

•Two key factors impact on the stability of the slope are:

•1) slope foot excavation and
•2) building load on the slope should be carefully
considered when evaluating the slope stability.

Summary Engineering geology represents a vital link between

the two more conventional fields of engineering
Engineering geology is an interdisciplinary field in (which is concerned with putting scientific
which pertinent studies in geology and other knowledge to practical use) and geology (which is
geosciences areas are applied toward the solution concerned with the physical nature and history of
of problems involved in engineering works and the Earth).
resources uses.
Engineering geology provides a means to appreciate
Engineering geology deals with two types of earth and identify geologic features that could have short
materials: rocks and soils. Both materials are used and long term consequences to the overall
in themselves as raw sources for construction performance of engineering structures and projects.
materials (aggregates, construction stones,
decorative stones, etc.). They can also be used as It is also a study of how we are affected by
foundation materials to support foundations for geological phenomena, and how we can affect the
various structures. environment and trigger geologic processes.