Just curious, is it realistically possible to have organic particles that are finer then the No. 200 sieve? If one were to run a minus 200 wash sieve on a sample of predominately fine sand with apparent organic particles that are also quite fine, could someone make the case that some of those...
Sound like you've had quite the career f-d! I'm looking into some universities that offer geotechnical master's programs but that also allow to you take several electives in the geo-science fields. Thanks for sharing a bit of your story!
OP - The article I linked to below pretty much sums up what the others have said.
https://fl-nzgs-media.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2017/11/NZGS_Symposium_20_Hind1.pdf
MTNClimber - I appreciate the genuine response and will definitely consider my decision carefully. I do my best to understand the local geology here in the Northeast given the available resources. As you mentioned, it pales in complexity to other areas of the world - especially in terms of...
Are there any geotechnical engineers here who also practice (or have practiced) as an "engineering geologist" or geologist? If so, how did it affect your professional career?
I have a master's degree in geotechnical engineering but I am just as equally interested in geology, hydrogeology, etc...
Ron - That certainly seems like a good and fair approach for all parties and I would prefer to see more projects I work on done that way. One question though; how do you go about verifying the quanities/volumes that are actually dealt with during construction? For overexcavation or rock...
I appreciate everyone’s advice and 100% agree with Ron. I have seen a few cases where the fill has been there for so long and is denser than the actual native soils beneath it. But the position many engineers I know take is that you cannot explore every square foot of a site, and if you know...
GeoEnvGuy, I agree with you. If the engineer drills 10 borings in the footprint of a proposed building and unsuitable bearing soils requiring overexcavation are encountered in each boring to variable dpeths, in my opinion it should not be the contractors responsibility to interpret the...
Is it not understood that since the terms are lump sum, and no unit price is provided for over-excavation, that the contractor should be making his own estimate based on the boring and test pit logs (which show undocumented fill depths and elevations at those locations) and including that in his...
I practice in an area where there a few native sites being developed. Most sites are covered with a decent thickness of non-engineered fill ranging from practically trash to soils that require an experienced eye to discern whether it is made ground or not. Since such materials are "undocumented"...
Thank you all for your suggestions. I'm a bit of an organizational freak and the fact that many geotechnical topics overlap does not help. I'll slowly chip away it and see where I get. Thanks again!
I've accumulated a lot of PDFs over the years (research papers, field manuals, design manuals, etc.) related to various topics in geotechnical engineering such as soil and rock mechanics, shallow and deep foundation design, slope stability, and ground improvement, to name a few. I started saving...
Hopefully I am posting in the correct location. Is anyone familiar with design of grouted riprap for dam spillways or revetments based on expected overtopping flow velocities? I am trying to determine if there would be a considerable reduction in stone size and layer thickness between loose...
fattdad - We did one 24-hour load hold in the virgin compression range for the sole purpose of getting a decent C-alpha value, which was still reported as zero. We used Geotesting Express, which seems to be a pretty reliable lab. I have also seen you reference the "expanded layer" technique in...
Thank you both for your replies. I'll begin with using the lowest and highest Cv values reported from the lab data and seeing how much of a difference it makes; if this difference in time rate is negligible, this discussion is probably moot.
fattdad: in regards to secondary compression, the...
I am attempting to estimate the time rate of primary consolidation for a particular soil profile due to placement of a large area fill load.
We drilled several SPT borings at the site and determined that the subsurface profile generally consists of 10 feet of existing fill (mostly granular...
Should the migration of soil fines into non-grouted compacted stone columns be considered during design if the stone columns are expected to penetrate fill comprised of sand with less than 15% fines and terminate at the top of a dense native sand stratum? The stone columns will be constructed...
Thanks f-d, I have looked into that method based on some of your other posts: but, unfortunately I have already completed the tests and the procedure I used was not in accordance with the Fairfax method. Would any of Hvorslev's equations apply to the procedure/boundary conditions of my tests?
