The course deals with soil investigation and analysis and design of shallow footings, single pile and piled foundations and earth retaining structures. Main objectives of the course are intended to be the following: (a) to develop an understanding of fundamental concepts of the mechanics of soils and structures interacting with soils, rather than giving a formula-driven approach; (b) to build a conceptual framework of basic ideas, robust and adaptable enough to manage current and more complex problems a civil engineer is faced with; (c) to illustrate, through real cases, how the application of basic simple ideas can provide acceptable solutions to many classes of geotechnical problems.

To reach the above objectives it is presumed that, in addition to attend lectures in the classroom, students are motivated to do homework, in order to continuously check their capability to apply fundamental concepts and to deal with the analysis and design of foundations. In particular, students are expected to acquire concepts as well as current procedures to assess the ultimate-limit state and the serviceability limit state of shallow and deep foundations and earth retaining structures. As a fundamental prerequisite it is expected that students are able to plan a site investigation and to define a design soil profile with selected soil parameters.

It is presumed that students attending the course have already mastered courses on Soil Mechanics and Structural Mechanics.

1. In situ investigations - Planning site investigation - Boring methods and sampling techniques - Groundwater observations - In situ tests - Defining design soil profile and relevant soil parameters 2. Shallow foundations - Reliability analysis and design methods in geotechnical engineering - Bearing capacity of shallow foundations - Routine methods for settlement prediction - Soil-structure interaction 3. Design and analysis of pile foundations - Bearing capacity and settlement of a single pile - Bearing capacity and settlement of a pile group - Piled rafts - Laterally loaded piles - General analysis of pile groups 4. Earth retaining structures - Design and analysis of cantilever, single and multi- propped walls Homework: A. Planning a preliminary soil exploration program. Soil profiling and characterization based on in situ test data B. Design of foundation beams C. Design of piled foundations D. Design of a multi- propped wall

The contents will be delivered through lectures and class-work. Home-works are set up as well.

Lancellotta R. (1995). Geotechnical Engineering, Balkema, Rotterdam (NL). Lancellotta R. (2009). Geotechnical Engineering 2nd Edition, Taylor & Francis, Abingdon (UK) and New York (USA). Lancellotta R. and Calavera J. (1999). Fondazioni, McGraw-Hill, Milano (IT). Lancellotta R., Costanzo D. and Foti S. (2011). Progettazione Geotecnica secondo l’Eurocodice 7 (UNI EN 1997) e le Norme Tecniche per le Costruzioni (NTC 2008), Hoepli, Milano (IT).

Modalità di esame: Prova orale obbligatoria;

The competences acquired by the students will be evaluated remotely through an oral discussion. In the first part of the exam, the discussion will deal with the solution of exercises that are assigned in advance during the semester. The exercises will include practical applications, such as the bearing capacity calculation and the settlement prediction. Successively, the student will illustrate the homework reports explaining the adopted methods and commenting on the obtained results. The last part of the exam will consist of questions on the theoretical principles that have been presented during the course. During this part of the exam, the discussion may be focused on some exemplar problems, involving shallow foundations, pile foundations and earth retaining structures.

Modalità di esame: Prova orale obbligatoria;

The competences acquired by the students will be evaluated through an oral discussion. In the first part of the exam, the discussion will deal with the solution of exercises that are assigned in advance during the semester. The exercises will include practical applications, such as the bearing capacity calculation and the settlement prediction. Successively, the student will illustrate the homework reports explaining the adopted methods and commenting on the obtained results. The last part of the exam will consist of questions on the theoretical principles that have been presented during the course. During this part of the exam, the discussion may be focused on some exemplar problems, involving shallow foundations, pile foundations and earth retaining structures.