Earth Structures Engineering

Earth Structures Engineering

Earth structures engineering involves the analysis, design and construction of structures, such as slopes and dams, that are composed mainly of earth materials, and this is a growth area in geotechnical engineering practice. This growth is due largely to increased involvement in designing various types of earth structures for the resources industries (slopes, impoundment structures, offshore islands, mine backfills), to the development of increas ingly large hydroelectric projects, to the need for more freshwater storage and diversion schemes, and to the need for transportation, communications and other facilities in areas where the natural earth materials are occasionally subject to mass instabilities. Although geotechnical engineering transects traditional disciplinary boundaries of civil, geological and mining engineering, the majority of geotechnical engineers are graduates from civil engineering schools. Here the geotechnical instruction has been concentrated on soil mechanics and foundation engineering because foundation engineering has traditionally been the major component of geotechnical practice. Geotechnical special ists, however, generally have acquired considerable formal or informal training beyond their first engineering degree, and an advanced degree with considerable cross-discipline course content is still considered an advantage for a young engineer entering a career in geotechnical engineering. Practical job experience is, of course, a necessary part of professional development but is readily interpreted and assimilated only if the required background training has been obtained.

Earth Structures Engineering

Earth Structures

One of the plausible perceptions about safe and generally optimal geotechnical structure, leads to the conclusion that its success is supported by four columns. The ?rst column relies on the understanding of natural sciences such as Geology, Engineering Geology and Hydrogeology on one side, and on the understanding of Mechanics, Theory of Elasticity on the other side. The second column relies on the application of existing ?ndings on the behaviour of soils and rocks under different stress-strain states – we are speaking about support from Soil Mechanics and Rock Mechanics. The third column relies on the combination of the theoretical ?ndings with practical technologies during execution of Foundation Engineering and Und- ground Structures (Tunnelling). Finally the fourth column relies on a certain feeling of geological environment which Terzaghi (1959) denotes as “capacity for ju- ment” and he speci?es that “this capacity can be gained only by years of contact with ?eld conditions”. Theauthors are con?dent that the third column relevant to practical application should be strengthened about “Earth Structures”, about application on structures, which belong to the oldest engineering structures utilizing the fundamental str- tural material – soil. At the same time they believe that Earth Structures will est- lish their position in the near future, as it is gaining another interesting ?eld which Earth Structures are also part of, namely the ?eld of Environmental Geotechnics.