This course is a comprehensive foundation engineering course dealing with retaining structures, shallow foundations, and excavations. Major emphasis will be on the analytical methods and the problem-solving aspects related to retaining structures and shallow foundations. This course provides the participants with an opportunity to apply the design procedures to "real life" challenging geotechnical design projects.
The main objective of this course is to equip the participants with the needed tools to select the best foundation solution for each particular project. After completing the course, participants should be able to design retaining structures and shallow foundations and supervise their construction. The course philosophy is to provide the participants with the information they need to design foundations at the state of the art.
Structural, civil, and geotechnical engineers, consulting engineers, technicians and technologists, public works and construction department employees of federal, provincial, and municipal governments; engineers responsible for large industrial, commercial or institutional facilities who deal with different types of foundations; and foundation construction contractors.
- The 2-day course consists of a series of lectures and workshops.
- Worked examples with numerical references reinforce the lecture content.
- Case studies that illustrate the full range of problems are a feature of the course.
- Workshops conducted under instructor guidance on bearing capacity, shallow foundation design, settlement analysis, and on retaining structures design examples.
4 Lectures
Geotechnical Properties of Soil
- Introduction
- Grain-size distribution
- Atterberg limits
- Effective stress concept
- Shear strength of soils
Consolidation Theory
- Introduction
- The oedometer test
- Consolidation settlement: 1D method
- Settlement by the Skempton–Bjerrum method
- Degree of consolidation
- Terzaghi’s theory of one-dimensional consolidation
Application of Earth Pressure Theory to Retaining Walls
- Design of earth-retaining structures
- Gravity walls
- Embedded walls
- Braced excavations
Retaining Structures Design Workshop
4 Lectures
Shallow Foundations: Ultimate Bearing Capacity
- Introduction
- General concept
- General bearing capacity equation
- Shape, depth, and inclination factors
- Effect of soil compressibility
- Eccentrically loaded foundations
- Combined Foundations
- Worked examples
Special Bearing Capacity Cases
- Bearing capacity of layered soils
- Bearing capacity of foundations on top of a slope
Settlement Analysis for Shallow Foundation
- Stress due to different loaded areas
- Elastic settlement based on the theory of elasticity
- Range of material parameters for computing elastic settlement
- Primary consolidation settlement relationships
- Consolidation settlement - a case history
- Settlement due to secondary consolidation
- Allowable bearing pressure in sand based on settlement consideration
- Presumptive bearing capacity
- Tolerable settlement of buildings
- Worked examples
Shallow Foundation Design Workshop
- Judge when shallow foundations should be considered;
- Recognize the failure modes of shallow foundations;
- Determine the bearing capacity of shallow foundations on soils and rocks;
- Calculate vertical stress distribution below a shallow foundation;
- Find the primary consolidation settlement of shallow foundations on cohesive and non-cohesive soils;
- Describe procedures for construction inspection and performance monitoring of shallow foundations; and
- Use analytical techniques for analysis and design of retaining structures.
Professor of GeoStructural/Geotechnical Engineering, Dalhousie University
Dr. El Naggar is a Professor of GeoStructural/Geotechnical Engineering at Dalhousie University with more than 25 years of experience in civil construction, geotechnical and structural engineering and research in Canada and overseas. He has participated in several geotechnical and structural investigations and is experienced in the analysis and design of foundations and soil-structure interaction (SSI) of buried infrastructure.
Dr. El Naggar and his research team have investigated the SSI effects around buried infrastructure; explored innovative use of tire derived aggregate (TDA) as a buffer zone to create stress arching and reduce demand on rigid culverts, proposed an earth pressure reduction system using geogrid reinforced platform bridging system to reduce stresses on buried utilities, and developed innovative “cellular” precast concrete pipe system. He has also developed a simplified technique to account for the group Effect in pile dynamics; and closed form solutions for the moments and thrusts in jointed and un-jointed composite tunnel lining systems, designed several foundation systems ranging from machine foundations subjected to dynamic loads to raft foundations for underground structure, as well as several tunnels and underground structures in Canada, Europe, Middle East, and the United States. The findings from Dr. El Naggar’s research have been reported in more than 150 technical publications covering both experimental and numerical work in the fields of soil-structure interaction, buried infrastructure, and concrete pipes. Dr. El Naggar’s research work on the seismic performance of corrugated soil metal bridges led to changing the seismic provisions of the new version of the Canadian Highway Bridge Design Code (CHBDC, 2019) to include rigorous dynamic analysis for flexible buried structures in zones of high seismicity. Besides, his work on the modelling of rigid pipes is featured in the CHBDC (2019) as an example of the best practice in the modelling of buried concrete structures.
Dr. El Naggar is the recipient of the 2016–2017 Outstanding Teaching Award from the Faculty of Engineering, Dalhousie University. In addition, he received the 2005–2006 Outstanding Teaching Award from the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Western. Dr. El Naggar won the 2006 L. G. Soderman Award, the 2005 R.M. Quigley Award, and the 2004 Milos Novak Memorial Award. Dr. El Naggar is the current chair of the Buried Structures Committee of the Canadian Society of Civil Engineers (CSCE). He is also a member of the technical committee on buried structures of the Canadian Highway Bridge Design Code (CHBDC).
