Core and elective courses

Soil Mechanics II (Semester 5)

Application of elastic continuum theory: stresses and strains in soil masses under external loading. Plane-strain and axis-symmetric loading. The St. Venant principle. Horizontal earth pressures under different loading conditions. Rankine and Coulomb methods. Gravity retaining walls. The role of elastic deformations. Limit equilibrium methods in soil mechanics. Slope stability under drained and undrained conditions. Ultimate load of foundation (bearing capacity). Ground water flow in one dimension. Evolution in time of excess pore water pressures and consolidation of a clay layer due to vertical external loading.

Foundarions (Semester 6)

General principles of foundation design. Shallow foundations: Bearing capacity of foundations under central, eccentric and inclined loading. Principles of calculation of foundation settlement. Models of the soil reaction, contact pressures, settlements of foundations in cohesive and cohesionless soils, allowable deformations. Design of shallow foundations: spread and combined footings, strip foundations, mat foundations. Deep foundations: Construction considerations. Methods of deriving pile capacity for driven and bored piles in cohesive and cohesionless soils. Settlement of single piles. Axial capacity and settlement of piles in groups. Negative shaft friction, lateral loading of piles. Foundation design to Eurocode EC-7.

Computational Geotechnics (Semester 8)

Continuum Mechanics in Computational Geotechnics. Simple numerical methods: Slope stability and Stabilization with the method of slices. Introduction to the finite element and finite difference methods for the solution of boundary value problems in Geotechnical Engineering. Finite Difference Analysis of the nonlinear response of piles to lateral loading. Inverse analysis and optimization methods in the design of pile foundations. Constitutive models of soil behaviour. Application of the Finite Element method in engineering practice. Simulation of laboratory tests, bearing capacity and settlement of foundations, groundwater flow, deep excavations and retaining structures, tunneling, static soil-structure interaction.

Soil-structure interaction (Semester 9)

The concept of soil–foundation–structure interaction. Εxamples of applications to foundations, retaining systems, underground sturctures. The rigid foundation on elastic continuum. Seismic soil–structure interaction. Beams and plates on soil under external loading. Foundations subjected to concentrated soil deformation. Piles under lateral and axial loading. Tunnel–soil interaction.