The course is aimed at providing the basic notions of Soil Mechanics for the assessment of the mechanical behaviour of soils and the soil-structure interaction.

The course purposes are: 1. Assuming the porous medium as a mixture of superposed continua, to learn the stress partition between the phase components (effective stress principle); 2. To learn the difference between fine and coarse grained soils, the meaning of drained and undrained conditions and the relative implications; 3. To understand the soil mechanical behaviour through the critical state theory, to relate effective stress and volume changes, to assimilate key concepts as peak strength, dilatancy and critical state. 4. To set the limit analysis problems within the plasticity theory; 5. To understand the influence of geological history on the mechanical behaviour of natural soils.

The knowledge of the contents of the following courses is recommended: Mathematical Analysis I and II, Geometry and Linear Algebra, Physics I, Rational Mechanics, Hydraulics and Structural Mechanics.

First part: soil description and classification - Origin, index properties and geological history; - Soil phases and their relations; - Soil classification and index properties; - Natural deposits; Second part: the behaviour of the elementary volume - Soil mechanical behaviour; - Effective stress: definition and postulate; - Oedometer test: preconsolidation stress and compressibility. Application to the calculation of one-dimensional settlement; - Stress paths; - Shear strength and stress-strain behavior. Third part: boundary problems: - Porous media seepage; - Seepage under steady state conditions; - Theory of consolidation; - Applications of plasticity theory; - The collapse of soil structures: theorems of plasticity theory, active and passive limiting states of stress. - Coulomb and Rankine theories and practical calculation of earth pressures; - Bearing capacity of shallow footings.

The contents of the course are delivered through lectures and classroom exercises. The classroom exercises are aimed at clarifying, by means of application examples, the topics illustrated during the lectures. The scope of the course is to provide the students with knowledge of the most common laboratory tests for the characterisation of the mechanical behaviour of soils, ability to interpret the laboratory test results, aptitude to formulate boundary value problems, and critical use of the soil mechanical parameters within the most frequently encountered problems in engineering practise (shallow foundations and retaining structures).

The slides of the course (presentations, notes and exercises) are made available on the teaching portal. The reference textbooks of the course are reported here below: Lancellotta, R. (2008). Geotechnical engineering. Routledge, London. Atkinson, J. (2007). The mechanics of soils and foundations. Routledge, London. Lambe, T.W., Whitman, R.V. (1969). Soil mechanics. John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken, New Jersey.

Slides; Libro di testo;

Modalità di esame: Prova scritta (in aula); Prova orale obbligatoria;

Exam: Written test; Compulsory oral exam;

... The final exam consists of a written test and an oral discussion, which cover all the topics presented during the lectures and classroom exercises. The written test is aimed at verifying the ability of the students to apply the theoretical concepts to solve simple problems concerning the analysis of the state of stress and strain, the interpretation of the laboratory and in situ test results, the stability of shallow foundations and retaining structures, and the calculation of the settlement of shallow foundations. The written test consists in solving 4 exercises, within a maximum time of 2 hours. To be admitted to the oral discussion, an overall score of the written test not lower than 15/30 is required (maximum overall score equal to 30/30). During the written test, the use of notes, textbooks and scientific calculators is allowed. The use of smartphones, tablets and laptops is not allowed. The oral discussion lasts about 20 minutes and consists in 3 or 4 questions to each candidate, which can be answered orally or through the execution of short calculations. The oral discussion is aimed at verifying the knowledge of the theoretical principles that govern the mechanical behaviour of soils and the soil-structure interaction. The final mark is determined as an average value of the scores attributed to the written test and the oral discussion.

Gli studenti e le studentesse con disabilità o con Disturbi Specifici di Apprendimento (DSA), oltre alla segnalazione tramite procedura informatizzata, sono invitati a comunicare anche direttamente al/la docente titolare dell'insegnamento, con un preavviso non inferiore ad una settimana dall'avvio della sessione d'esame, gli strumenti compensativi concordati con l'Unità Special Needs, al fine di permettere al/la docente la declinazione più idonea in riferimento alla specifica tipologia di esame.