MODERN SYLLABUS FOR INTRODUCTION TO GEOTECHNICAL ENGINEERING
Anna SHIDLOVSKAYA1; Jean-Louis BRIAUD2
1 National Mineral Resources University; 2 Texas A&M University
Resumo
The field of geotechnical engineering has evolved remarkably over the last 50 years yet in many universities the content of the course usually called introduction to geotechnical engineering may have lagged behind the progress made in research and practice. Topics such as unsaturated soils, geosynthetics, MSE walls, and more are not typically mentioned in an introduction class. Other more basic and older topics are often bypassed while they represent much of the core of the field; this is the case of engineering geology and site investigation. Of course it is not possible to cover all topics in one single course which may have between 30 and 40 hours of instruction but it is also very important to get students excited about the discipline during that first course. There is a need to modify the way we teach the introduction to geotechnical engineering. The goal is to attract or at least not to detract students from our discipline. The authors are proposing a paper which will make recommendations for a syllabus aimed at being exciting through the use of case histories and applications, at being fundamental through the use of mechanics, at being global by outlining the breadth of the field, at being innovative in stressing the importance of progress through research. Supporting documents will be part of the list of references for those who wish to consider the paper for updating such a course. The outline of the course might be as shown below with the underlying emphasis to present the topic from the three phase unsaturated soil point of view and treat the saturated case as a special case. It is assumed that such a course would have a laboratory and field testing component to conduct soil tests as well as a component where students can practice problems bringing practical examples of what was learned in the lectures. 1. What is geotechnical engineering? 2. Role of engineering geology 3. Rocks and rock mechanics 4. Site investigations 5. Grain size and minerals 6. Index tests and classification 7. Effective
Palavras-chave: Introduction; geotechnical; course