MAKERERE UNJVERSITY

COLLEGE OF ENGINl~EIHNG, DESIGN, ART AND TECHNOLOGY

SCHOOL OF l~NGINl~ERING

DEPARTMl •:NT O F C IVIL /\ND ENVIRONMENTAL ENG IN EERING

CIV2201: SOJL MECHANICS
FINAL EXAMINATIONS SECOND SE MESTER 2018/2019

DA TE: Monday May I 3th 2019 TIME: 2: 00 - 5.00 pm

INSTRUCTIONS:
[I] This examination paper consists of four (4) questions on seven (7) pages inc ludin g the
appendix.
[2] Answer all question s for full marks.
f3] The weight of each question is indicated.
(4] You may find the appended charts, tables and formulae useful.
[5] Submit all used answer booklets and the question paper.

SECTION A (Answer directly on the question paper)

Question 1 (40 marks)

a) For each of the following twenty (20) questions, indicate true or false . (1 mark each)
(i) Various methods are available to compute stress increment at a point in the ground due
to applied uniform loading. Among the available methods, the dispersion method gives
the most conservative results .......................... .
false
(ii) Saturated pure clay soils do not posses internal angle of friction . ......................... .
(iii) For stratified soil mass, flow is higher in the vertical direction than in the horizontal
direction due to gravity effect. ......................... .
(iv) For a salurale<l day soil, the solids experience the effect of any applied loads long after
application ...........................
(v) The effect of capillary water is to incr'e a·s e the value of effective stress of soil in which it
rises due to the associated negative stress ......................... ..
(vi) Prevention of shear failure is the governing basis for the design of footings .
................... .... ...
(vii) For hi ghly compressible soils, groundwater lowering has a similar effect as changes in
effective stress . ........................ ..
(viii) For any soil, the physical properties are mainly influenced by the distribution of various
particle sizes within the soil mass . ......................... .
Page 1 of7
 ( .1:,,: ) I 11 G co tcc I1111ca
. I ccs1
I ·g11 of · font111
- · gs, 111s
· · 11npor
· tan t to u11< I·c1s
· ·t·.t 11<·1 ,vl1•·tl1c1
" · or nol th e soil is·
over-consolidated. With this come s the necess ity for the field investi gati ons team to
gather all the 111xcssary field inf'nrrn: 1tioll leading lo such conclusion. ......................... .
(x) /\ group of' clay in which th e stn,clurnl blocks have some or the si licon ions in th e
letrahedrn11 suhstitulcd by Aluminium ions is termed illilc . ........................ ..
(xi) In :1 direct shear box test, the shearing area is equal lo applied norma l load transmission
area ...........................
(:,;ii ) It is not necessary lo obtain settlc111e11I or footings in sa nds during design since such soils
have hi gh coerticicnt or permeability ......................... ..
(xiii) Drained conditions of soil means that the soil is free of any water .......................... .
(xiv) The impact of a load transmitted to the ground by a square footing of size equal to B is
the sam e as that transmitted by a circular footing of diameter equal to B .......................... .
(xv) The water content at which a drying soil passes from the plastic state to the next soil state
is termed the liquid limit. ......................... .
(xvi) The following results were determined for a given soi l: Gs = 2.65, total volume was
equal lo specific volume, v = 1.63 and mass of water was 0.5g. The degree of saturation
for the tested soil is 79.4% . ......................... .
(xvii) Angle of natural repose is the measure of the resi stance of soil particles to move
relative to each other within a given soil mass .......................... .
(xviii) Unconfined aquifer is one whereby a pervious layer is sandwiched between two
pervious layers . ......................... .
(xix) At stresses higher than the pre-consolidation pressure, both normally and overly
consolidated soils undergo similar volumetric behaviour. ..........................
(xx) Secondary consolidation is a result of soil grain compression that occurs after primary
consolidation ...........................
b) For each of the following ten (10) questions, circle the most correct option. (2 marks each)
(i) Which of the following is true about normally consolidated clay?
A. It is associated with a pre-consolidation pressure
B. It has a linear relationship between void ratio (normal scale) and effective stress (log scale)
C. The current overburden is not the maximum in its history
D. It is stiffer than an overly consolidated soil
(ii) In a soil deposit of saturated unit weight, Ysat = 20.0kN/m3 and poison ' s ratio, v = 0.5, a
6.0m excavation of a plan area of 2m by 3m resulted in heaving of 50mm. What is the
value of Young's modulus for the excavated soil? Note that w 1-v2)
= qB (-E-
A. 4 .600MPa B. 1.766MPa C. 1.834MPa D. None of them
(iii) A dry soil sample has the following properties: Specific gravity, Gs= 2.7 and void ratio, e
= os;.
What is the value of its air content?
A. 34.6% B. 100% C. 2.89% D. None of them
(iv) Which of the following is not true of the primary application of flow nets?
A. Jt is us~d to q,Janti~::,· s.c;cpage B. It is used to estimate penncability
C. It is used to measure=: up thrust D. None of them

(v) Which of the foilo-.i,;ing is trne of upward flow of water through a soil mass?
Page 2 of 7
 A. Effective sir . . . .
I.>->. css rs increase I b .
UJ)W•1rd n ' . C Y seepage IJrcssurc
' ow nee . . I
C. Effect' . . . u,s \V 1Cll the re is piping
D Fr · ~Ve str ess I S not a ffected
. , fcct1vc stress is 1I . I.
(vi) Whicl1 0 1- . · · · Cl cased liy see page pressure
the lu llowi ng ,1 1I 1 ..
A . Ov ·t · I " n l IH ! I al k el the shear strength of a satu rated sa nd y SPi l?
C l ) 111 l en prcss11r '
c_ )l _, '' l: II. /\ nglc or interna l fr iction
Ol e Water 111·e•·"111·, . I .
( vii) \'! . .,., C I>. Co 1es1on
" he n a so tl niass j • I . I , I · . ..
, .. . · · s n , ll Cl it s vulun, e decreases while the e ff ecti ve stress increases. The
c.Iecrcasc 111 unit v, ,l,11 . . . . 1·1· . .
li e per 111111 111cre.1se 11, c ec t1ve stress 1s ca lled''
A. Co111 prcss iu11 i11dc.",, I' .
• Coe fli e ienl o f vo ll11ne· compress ihili ty
C. Ucgrce ut' co11 sol idat ion I>. Cocl'li cie nl o r consu lida t ion
(viii) 111 a triaxial lest the va l11e o r all round pressure wa s l 50kN/m2 while the axial load was
250N. It' th e si7.c or the spec im en was 38 111111 diam eter by 7(,rnm height , what is the value
o t' dcv iat or stress?
A . 370.35kN/m2 B. 220,347.52kN/m2 C. 88 , 139.0 1kN/m2 o. 220 .3SkN/m2
(i ;,,; ) Water that drai11s from a satu rated so il mass is said to be
A. G ra vity wate r 13. So il wa te r C. Phreat ic water D. Cap ill ary wa ter
(x) Application o f a load on a fully saturated soi l leads to increase in pore water pressure. I f
wate r is allowed to now out, this pressure reduces and vol ume of voids reduces. Th is
process is cal led?
A . Drainage 13. Dissipatio n C. Settlement D. Conso lidation

Question 2 (25 marks)

a) For the uniform loading shown in Figure I , determine the total stress 4.0m be low po int marked
X. Th e bulk density of the soil underlying po int X is 1.95M gm· 3 . (7 marks)
b) In an experiment to describe a given soi l, the fo llowing resu lts in Figure 2 (see append ix) were
obtained by a certain laboratory. When these results were submitted for considerati on, they
were doubted. In an attempt to convince the doubting team the laboratory submitted the raw
data. Your input is being sought to resolve the dispute.
(i) Determine the masses retained on 5.0mm, 2.0mm, 600µm , 425µm and 75 µ m sieve sizes
so that they are compared with the raw data declared by the laboratory team . The total
initial soil mass whose moisture content was 2.5% is 1,230.0g. (10 marks)
(ii) Based on the available information, describe the tested soil. (8 marks)

1<4m >I I
<
4m 4m
>14"-(-x-->1 4m
I~<-->IX
-
&
'

Jm }m
lOm
2
q = 200kN/m·

12m 12m

Figure 1

Page 3 of 7
 Ques tion 3 (17 marks)
-· . . . • . r . . s-sectio n o r concrete dam structure built t
a) h gurc 3 111 tht: appendix 1s a schematic o '' c,os · o
impound water as indic;1ted. k
· · · t· I 0111 the given structure. (3 mar -~)
(1) Draw to scale o f I big square reprcscn 111g •
(ii) Co nstruct 0 11 the di agram in a (i) above the now net. (3 mark.~) . .
... ) I) · I · d y
ctcrn1111c the tota quantity o r seepage per a 11 u der tl1e· dam 0 1ven that the coefficient of
( 111 t:,
6
penrn.:abi lity for the material underlying the dam is 6.4 x I o- m/s . (3 mark\)
(iv) Dctnmine the value or critical hydraulic gradient and hence discuss the possibility of
pipin g. (4 1110rh)
b) Cons ider ;1 site where a material with MDD of I .892Mgm-3 and OMC of I 2 .0¾ has been
compacted in one layer. Jf a sand replacement test performed on the compacted layer gave the
l<.)llowing res ults: Mass of recovered soil from the hole, Ms = 1890g; mass of the sand (loose
den s ity, P~ = I .6Mgm-3 ) used to fill the excavated hole, Mh = 1600g and water content of the
soil recovered from the ho le, w = 5%. Comment on the adequacy of the compacted layer given
that the specified acce ptable degree of compaction is 95% of MOD. (4 marks)

Question 4 (18 marks)

a) In a n experiment to determine the consolidation properties of soil by Foundation Engineering
students of 20 18, the following results in Table I were obtained . The initial sample conditions
vvere as follows: mass of sample= 162g, initial moisture content= 15. 7%, specific gravity
= 2 .63 and sample size was 75mm diameter by 20mm height. After the final load increment,
the sample was unloaded to 6.5kg and allowed adequate time to equilibrate after which the
final water content of the sample was found to be 15.9%.

Table 1: Consolidation test results

Applied mass (kg) 6.75 13.50 27.00 54.00 108.00 216.00 6.75
Deformation (mm) 0.000 0.800 1.650 2.470 3.280 4 .050 2.900
(i) Plot a consolidation curve on an appropriate graph to determine the compression index of
the tested soil. (10 marks)
(ii) Using the results in (i) above, determine the coefficient of volume compressibility over a
stress range of 100kN/m 2 and 300kN/m 2 . (3 marks)
(iii) Based on the observed behaviour in (i) above, comment on the nature (consolidation
level) of the tested soil. (I mark)
b) A strip footing is proposed to be constructed at a depth of_1.5m in a soil whose properties are
such that Cu= 120kN/m-2 , c'=35kN/m-2 , ~u = 0° and~, = 30°. Given that for~= 0, Ne= 5.7; Nq
= J.O and Nr = 0 whereas for~= 30, Ne = 37.2, Nq = 22.5 and Nr = 19.7. Using Terzaghi's
bearing capacity equation (quit = cNc + yDNq + O.S;BNy) and considering long term stability
determine the safe bearing capacity. Assume a factor of safety of 3.0. (4 marks)
 \

APPENDIX
1 2 0 .0
'i

100 .0

---
-
'?f:!.
80 .0
I-
Q) 6 0 .0
C
IT:
4 0 .0

2 0 .0

0 .0
0 .0 01 0 .01 0 .1 1

Sieve Size (mm)

Figure 2

JO .Om

Upper water level

7.0m

Lower water level l .Om

t I .Sm G roun d sur face

8.0m

Figure 3

Page 5 of 7
 II

Fadum's chart based on Steinbrenner's solut.ion

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1.00 10 .00 100.00 1000.00
Pressure {kN/m 2
END

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