Paper format. Professional Engineers Ontario /
Engineers Canada National Examinations, May 2016 — 98-Civ-B3 Geotechnical Design.
Three hours, OPEN BOOK, any non-communicating calculator. Section A carries five
discussion questions of 7 marks each (answer any four); Section B carries four design
questions of 24 marks each (answer any three); the examinable total is
4 × 7 + 3 × 24 = 100 marks. All nine questions are worked below, because
the set is a study resource rather than a timed attempt.
Reference texts (98-Civ-B3 / 16-Civ-B3 Geotechnical Design).
- B. M. Das, Principles of Foundation Engineering, 9th ed. — subsurface
exploration (Ch. 2), bearing capacity of shallow foundations (Ch. 3), settlement of
shallow foundations including Schmertmann's method (Ch. 5), retaining walls (Ch. 8),
pile foundations (Ch. 11).
- B. M. Das, Principles of Geotechnical Engineering, 9th ed. — shear
strength (Ch. 12), lateral earth pressure (Ch. 13), slope stability including the
planar-surface analysis (Ch. 15).
- Canadian Geotechnical Society, Canadian Foundation Engineering Manual
(CFEM), 4th ed. — the governing Canadian practice document for site investigation,
in-situ testing, bearing resistance, deep foundations and earth-retaining structures.
- R. F. Craig, Craig's Soil Mechanics, 9th ed. — effective stress,
undrained versus drained behaviour, earth pressure and slope stability.
- D. P. Coduto, Foundation Design: Principles and Practices, 3rd ed. —
CPT correlations and settlement of shallow foundations on sand.
- M. J. Tomlinson & J. Woodward, Pile Design and Construction Practice,
6th ed. — shaft adhesion in clay and driven displacement piles in sand.
Sources of design charts and assumed values (page-1 Note 6). Note 6
requires the candidate to identify the source of every design chart used and of every
value assumed where the paper gives none. They are named at the point of use and
collected here:
- Strain-influence diagram and the C₁, C₂ correction factors
(Q6) — Schmertmann, Hartman and Brown (1978), as tabulated in Das,
Principles of Foundation Engineering, 9th ed., Section 5.6.
- Rankine active coefficient for an inclined backfill (Q7) — Das,
Principles of Geotechnical Engineering, 9th ed., Eq. (13.35).
- Bearing-capacity factors N₢, Nᵤ, Nγ and the depth and load-
inclination factors (Q7) — Vesic / Meyerhof as tabulated in Das,
Principles of Foundation Engineering, 9th ed., Tables 3.3 and 3.4, applied to a
retaining-wall base in Section 8.6.
- Meyerhof bearing-capacity factor Nᵤ* for a driven pile point and the
limiting point resistance (Q8) — Das, 9th ed., Section 11.9 and its interpolated
Nᵤ* table; Nᵤ* = 143 at φ′ = 35°.
- Adhesion factor α against cu/p₀ (Q8) — Das, 9th ed.,
Table 11.6 (after Terzaghi, Peck and Mesri); α = 0.68 at cu/p₀ = 0.5.
- Earth-pressure coefficient K and interface friction angle δ′ for a
driven high-displacement pile (Q8) — Das, 9th ed., Section 11.11:
K ≈ 1.4K₀ and δ′ ≈ 0.8φ′ are assumed, and the
critical-depth rule L′ = 15D is Das Eq. (11.42).
- Unit weight of water γᵣ = 9.81 kN/m³ and
g = 9.81 m/s² throughout; atmospheric pressure p₀ = 100 kPa.
Section A — discussion questions (7 marks each)
