The Basis of Engineering

Geology
• Failures of engineering works in particular, such as that of the Austin Dam in
Texas in 1900 (bowing of the dam under held water pressure) and the St.
Francis Dam in California in 1928 (cotraction and temperature cracks
developed and finally the dam failed), showed that there was often a lack of
appreciation of the importance of geological conditions in engineering
design
• Such failures emphasized the need for expert assessment of geological
conditions on civil engineering sites and there was, by the 1940s, a trend for
civil engineers to employ geologists in an advisory capacity
• Few geologists had sufficient engineering knowledge to understand the
requirements of the engineer and few engineers had more than the most
superficial knowledge of geology
• These liaisons brought a new breed of earth scientist, the ‘engineering
geologist’
• Association of Engineering Geologists (AEG) and International Association
of Engineering Geology (IAEG) was formed for academic and professional
purposes
Austin Dam
St Francis Dam
 Aims of Engineering Geology
• The Association of Engineering Geologists includes in its 2000 Annual Report and
Directory the following statement:
• “Engineering Geology is defined 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 sub-surface 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 ground-water resources are adequately recognised, interpreted
and presented for use in engineering and related practice
• Engineering geology may exist under, or be a part of, other titles, such as “geological
engineering”, “geotechnical engineering”, “earth science engineering”, “environmental
geology”, “engineering geomorphology” and so on
• If the first degree is in geology then the product after the Masters degree will be that
of an engineering geologist; if the first degree is in engineering then the product may
be considered as a geotechnical engineer (some universities award geotechnical
engineering degree to Civil Engineers, Geologists and mining Engineers
simultaneously)
• The philosophy of engineering geology is based
on three simple premises
– All engineering works are built in or on the ground
– The ground will always, in some manner, react to the
construction of the engineering work
– The reaction of the ground (its “engineering behavior”)
to the particular engineering work must be
accommodated by that work
• engineering behavior of the ground could be
expressed by three verbal equations
• material properties + mass fabric = mass properties
• mass properties + environment = the engineering geological matrix
• the engineering geological matrix + changes produced by the
engineering work = the engineering behaviour of the ground
 Material & Mass Fabric
• Materials may be rocks, soils and the fluids or gases
contained within them
• Material properties are the properties which are of
significance in engineering, such as density, shear
strength, deformability etc
• Mass fabric describes the manner in which the materials
are arranged within the mass (in beds, dykes, veins,
sills, etc.) and includes the discontinuities (joints, faults,
etc.) which ramify through the mass
• It is not possible to calculate the reaction of the ground
mass to engineering construction unless it is known how
all the various materials are distributed within the volume
of ground stressed by the construction
• The distribution and orientation of
discontinuities, such as bedding planes,
faults and joints, is equally important. In
the two cases in Fig. below the
discontinuity A could permit sliding
 Mass
• The ground mass can be defined as that volume of ground which will be
influenced by, or will influence, the engineering work
• The ground influenced by the engineering work could be, for example, that
volume of ground stressed by the extra load of a building, a bridge or a dam
• In a tunnel the mass could consist of the volume of ground affected by the
withdrawal of support caused by tunnel excavation and that volume of
ground from which water has been lost by drainage into the tunnel
excavation
• The ground mass influenced by the engineering work is generally very much
larger than the mass in direct contact with the engineering work
• The mass may also be that of an engineering work constructed from
naturally occurring geological materials such as earth and rock fill dams,
breakwaters, bunds and dykes
• In such cases the material properties are those of the construction material
while the mass fabric includes layers and discontinuities incorporated
through engineering design and construction
 Environmental Factors
• The environment includes such features as climate, stress in the ground,
and natural hazards, and can include time
• The principal climatic factors are rainfall (amount, time of occurrence,
intensity etc.), temperature and wind
• Rainfall is of particular importance in that it relates to the moisture content of
materials and mass
• It is well-known that moisture content is one of the factors which determine
the properties of materials and mass
• Particular combinations of moisture content and temperature produce such
special environments as the permafrost condition and the dry hot (or cold)
deserts
• Materials and masses of identical lithological and structural nature may
behave quite differently under the action of an engineering process
depending on the climate in which they exist
• Stresses may be Erosional, gravitational and tectonic
• The Hazards may be earthquakes, volcanoes, manmade, mass wasting,
floods storms
 Dynamic Processes
• It is also important to understand that the processes that modify
landscape and geology are dynamic
• Such water-associated landscape features as beaches, bars, sand
pits, river courses, etc. can be dynamically stable representing a
balance between forces operating at any given time
• What may be a small change, caused by civil engineering
construction, may be reflected at a distant location
• Thus the building of dams on the Ebro river in Spain has reduced
sediment deposition in the Ebro delta with significant consequences
on coastal form, which will eventually influence harbours and
agriculture
• Other changes, such as the ‘greenhouse effect’, may be a cause of
eventual sea level change, with subsequent potentially disastrous
effects
 Time
• With regard to time it is well to remember that all materials, whether
natural or manmade, are subject to weathering and decay in the
progress of time
• Consequently the possible change in geotechnical properties of
material and mass with time must be considered when assessing
engineering behavior of the ground
• The first thoughts of the engineer are generally to consider what
may happen during and shortly after the construction of an
engineering work
• However, consideration must also be given to how the ground may
react throughout the whole planned lifetime of that construction
• Most engineering geologists have seen cut rock slopes that are
stable for a few years after construction but become unstable once
weathering has had the chance to reduce the strength of the
material from which it was made and the discontinuities it contains
• Time may thus be considered to be an environmental parameter
 Analysis
• All the factors leading up to the description of the engineering
geological situation defined in the three equations discussed above
may be established through the process of site investigation
• Thereafter the engineering behavior of the ground with respect to
the proposed engineering work is determined by calculation and
judgment
• If the calculated ground behavior is such that it cannot be
accommodated by the construction process and would damage the
completed work, make construction or maintenance uneconomic, or
in any way impair the feasibility of the project, then the project must
be redesigned or moved to a more suitable location
Essential Definitions
• Both geology and engineering suffer from a confusion of
terminology
• Many learned Societies and professional institutions have set up
committees and working parties to resolve problems of terminology
• Still a rock to a geologist may mean different than an engineering
geologist (pyhyllite some time may be termed as soil by an
engineering geologist and rock by a geologist)
 Training and Professional Development in
Engineering Geology
• The preceding pages have reviewed the facets of engineering and natural
sciences that enter into the content of the discipline of Engineering Geology
• This review provides a guide to the content of the training that is required to
develop a fully rounded engineering geologist
• Some of the basic subjects taught in any training in engineering geology are
presented in Fig below (next slide)
• The engineering geologist might then be unreasonably accused
• By any professionals specialized and expert in one of the subjects listed in
Fig below being ‘a jack of all trades and master of none’
• An engineering geologist is the only one who can at least point out the
problem and once the problem is recognized it is solved, no matter who
solves it
• Most engineering geologists, once employed, find themselves drifting into
one or another field of specialization depending upon the character of the
company employing them so he needs a broad based training and must be
prepared to learn continually
• The engineering geologist must be prepared to learn continually
• It is very possible that the young engineering geologist may find him
or herself at a day’s notice on an aero plane, off to investigate a
possible route for a pipeline through the desert, armed with literature
on the geology of the country of destination, sand dune movement,
pipeline construction and ‘how to survive in a desert’
• Such are the attractions of the profession that requires a bright
shiny and smart person to act accordingly as demanded by the
situation
• Experience counts, and this includes experience gained from others
• Thus, in any company employing more than one engineering
geologist, while they may have separate duties, they are best
retained as a group to learn from each other’s experiences as well
as their own because all of them may be doing totally different jobs
that would be new to the others in the same profession