Materials Laboratory
Materials Laboratory
The paramount importance of understanding soil is acknowledged by all civil engineers. With this in mind 1st year students of Civil Engineering are introduced to important industrial minerals such as kaolin and granular materials of the size of silt and sand in the teaching division of the Soil Mechanics Laboratory, where these materials can be visually observed by naked eye or with the aid of an optical microscope and can be felt by the hand. In this class the emphasis is on the particulate nature of soils.
The implications of the particulate nature of soils for their strength are subsequently examined by the students through a number of simple devices, in line with the videos on the engineering behaviour of soils developed by the renowned geotechnical engineer Prof. Burland (Imperial College). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dePcJyo0g5s
The next topic covered by this laboratory class is soil density. The students calculate the density of an array of sand particles, ρS, and measure the voids in sands placed in volumetric cylinders at various densities. With an understanding that soil is a three phase material that consists of solid particles and voids which are filled with water and air, the final aim of the class is to explore the role of water filling the voids when the soil is loaded one dimensionally.
To this end the deformation of soil under a specific stress is measured in the oedometer and the application of such a measurement to real life structures e.g. Pisa Tower is examined.