Geotechnical Engineering:
Is the science of investigating the behaviour and monitoring of both the earth and manmade materials, using soil and rock mechanics along with sophisticated instrumentation.
Geology is primarily concerned with the mechanics and history of the earth and rocks of the Earth’s surface over time. Geotechnical Engineers tend to concentrate more on the requirements of manmade structures and predict movement and behaviour under load of earth and manmade fill materials in dams, behind retaining walls, tunnelling, under foundations, mining and mineral exploration.
Most projects start with a geotechnical report for the client’s architect/consulting engineer a long time before the construction work commences. The purpose of the report is to evaluate water table levels, ground physical properties, type of material to use as backfill, foundation requirements. A geotechnical engineer may also be required to estimate failure patterns in fill materials in dams and behind retaining walls or predict the likely hood of encountering water and/or sand or other soil types in construction and tunnelling that could cause problems, endanger lives and increase costs.
Instrumentation is a big part of geotechnical investigation, long and short term investigation of the geophysical properties of areas prior to construction or mining can give valuable data to a geotechnical engineer from which more accurate cost effective decisions can be made. As an example long term seasonable and tidal water table results along with the local soil’s mechanical properties under saturation is a good starting point for foundation design purposes.
Once a project is in progress instrumentation plays a vital role in monitoring behavioural characteristics of materials used in the construction process. Equipment such as peizometers measure the pore water pressure in the ground and embankments, inclinometers measure the stability of slope in dams and embankments, whilst strain gauges can be measuring the strain on structural steel members.
Almost all geotechnical instrumentation can now be installed using wireless telemetry and enabled to be viewed from any web enabled office computer, laptop or smartphone. Fast respons alarms alarms may be preset to alert clients to any impending problems or faults.
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