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07-Str-B1: May 2013

Nivaar worked solution (AI-drafted; not reviewed by a licensed engineer)

  1. Question 1 Load Transfer in a Pile Through Weak Soils to a Competent Stratum
  2. Question 2 Practical Limitations of the SPT in Foundation Design
  3. Question 3 Pile Load Tests Alongside the α, β and λ Methods
  4. Question 4 Short-Term Stability of a Clay Earth Dam
  5. Question 5 Settlement as the Governing Design Criterion
  6. Question 6 Factor of Safety of a Two-Layer Slope by the Method of Slices
  7. Question 7 Anchored Sheet Pile Wall by the Free Earth Support Method
  8. Question 8 Stress Increase by the 2:1 Method and Consolidation Settlement
  9. Question 9 Overturning and Sliding Stability of a Cantilever Retaining Wall
  10. Question 10 Bearing and Skin Resistance of a Belled Drilled Pier

Start with Question 1 →

National Examinations — May 2013 — 07-Str-B1 Geotechnical Design. Three-hour, OPEN-BOOK exam; any non-communicating calculator permitted (the candidate must record its make and model). Format: Section A carries five short-answer questions of 7 marks each, of which any FOUR are to be answered; Section B carries the long design questions at 24 marks each, of which any THREE are to be answered. The paper instructs candidates to state any interpretive assumptions and to identify the source of every design chart or assumed value used. Every question in both sections is worked below, because the set is intended as a study resource.

Reference texts: Das, B.M., Principles of Foundation Engineering (9th ed., Cengage) — shallow foundations, consolidation settlement, sheet-pile walls, retaining walls and drilled shafts; Das, B.M., Principles of Geotechnical Engineering (9th ed., Cengage) — method of slices, lateral earth pressure, consolidation theory; Canadian Geotechnical Society, Canadian Foundation Engineering Manual (CFEM, 4th ed., 2006) — Canadian practice for SPT interpretation, pile design, limit-states design and tolerable settlement; Craig, R.F. / Knappett, J.A., Craig's Soil Mechanics (8th ed., CRC Press) — effective stress, shear strength and slope stability; Duncan, J.M., Wright, S.G. & Brandon, T.L., Soil Strength and Slope Stability (2nd ed., Wiley) — choice of strength parameters and factors of safety for short- and long-term analyses.

NOTE 1 — question numbering in the source. The printed paper labels the retaining-wall problem (Figure 4) and the drilled-pier problem (Figure 5) both as "Question 9", while the Section B heading reads "answer any THREE of the following FOUR questions". Section B therefore contains five printed problems under four numbers. They are set out below as Question 9 (retaining wall) and Question 10 (drilled pier) in printed order, so that each can be referred to unambiguously; the marks shown are those printed against each problem.

NOTE 2 — dimensions scaled from Figure 1. Figure 1 is a hand-drawn slope on a 1 m × 1 m grid with no written dimensions other than $R=10$ m. The geometry used in Question 6 was scaled from that grid: slope height 7 m over a 9 m horizontal run, a 3 m thick lower layer, and the centre of the trial circle 1.4 m horizontally beyond the toe and 8.0 m above it. Every one of these values reproduces the drawing to within about 0.2 m (one fifth of a grid square). Check against the original if the paper is used for marking rather than study.