Comprehensive Workshop on Soil Engineering-Fundamentals and Applications

This course is designed so that participants can better understand soil behavior and learn from specialists about soil problems and their solutions.

Course Outline

After participating in this course, you will be able to:

• apply your comprehensive understanding of soil behaviour and many of the basic concepts of soil engineering thereby increasing your
   effectiveness on your projects where earthworks and foundations are involved
• design slope stability, pavement sub-grades, and the use of geo-synthetics with appropriate consideration of the importance of water
   in soils, soil settlement and frost action
• demonstrate your newly acquired skills if you are working in a support capacity in geotechnical engineering practice
• distinguish between the strength of soils when either impacted by water or not
• act knowledgeably to optimize mechanical stabilization, earthwork and compaction
• follow the subsurface investigation procedures that you learn in the course

Description

Most engineers with responsibility for construction work need an understanding of different soils and how they behave.  The depth of the required understanding need not be equal to that of geotechnical engineers who must use rigorous mathematics, extensive experience, theory and research in design.  However, to be effective, the non-geotechnical engineers do need a comprehensive understanding of basic concepts to gain confidence in dealing with a variety of soils and geotechnical related problems that they encounter on engineering projects.  This course is designed so that participants can better understand soil behaviour and learn from specialists about soil problems and their solutions.

Objective

To enhance participants’ skills to know what to look for and correctly interpret geotechnical reports and gain enhanced awareness of unsafe field conditions that can cause problems and extra costs during construction.

Who Should Attend

Civil, municipal, structural and construction engineers, consulting engineers, plans review personnel in municipalities, public works professionals, plant engineers, who are involved with structures, infrastructure or equipment foundations, architects, technicians and specialists, geologists and earth scientists, environmental engineers who want to understand soil, and sales personnel who have equipment or products to solve soils problems.  The course will be of great value both for those who are new to soils as well as to those who have experience with soils.

Special Feature
You will receive a binder chock full of course notes that you will find very useful on your projects.

Program Outline

Day I

8:00      Registration and Coffee

8:30      Welcome, Introduction, Workshop Preview, Learning Outcomes and the Assessment Method

8:45      Basic Soil Engineering Concepts
            • Nature of soils
            • Particle size distribution
            • Soil classification
            • Stresses in soil
            • Shallow foundations

10:00    Refreshments and Networking

10:20    Water in Soils
            • Permeability and capillary flow 
            • Groundwater flow in soils
            • Controlling groundwater in construction
            • Effective drainage and the use of filters

11:20    Soil Strengths 
            • Measurement of soil strength
            • Water in soils
            • How do soils support loads
            • How do soils fail in practice

12:30    Lunch

1:30      Settlement and Slope Stability 
            • Settlement: causes of settlements, allowable amounts of settlement
            • Slope instability: slope failure types and causes, determination of slope stability and safety, groundwater effects, 
               slope stabilization techniques

3:00      Refreshments and Networking

3:20      Lateral Earth Pressure on Walls and Underground Structures 
            • Lateral earth pressure
            • Shear strength
            • Earth pressure coefficients
            • Retaining walls
            • Excavation support

4:30      Adjournment

Day II

8:30      Modification of Soils in Place
            • Why do we modify/improve soils?
            • Compaction
            • Laboratory test procedures
            • Specifications for construction
            • Additional modification techniques

9:30      Earthworks
            • Changing grades in construction
            • Working in trenches
            • Safety in trenches
            • Practical details of construction

10:30    Refreshments and Networking

10:45    Soil Identification Workshop
            • Field identification of soil samples

12:00    Lunch

1:00      Pavements, Sub-grades And Frost
            • Drainage of pavements
            • Geo-synthetics in construction
            • Erosion control
            • Frost action on sub-grades

2:00      Subsurface Investigations
            • Planning and methods of investigations
            • How much and what specific information is required?
            • Understanding and interpreting geotechnical reports

3:00      Refreshments and Networking

3:15      Soil Engineering Horror Stories
            • Real life examples of soil problems

4:15      Questions and Answers - Feedback to Participants on Achievement of Learning Outcomes

4:30      Concluding Remarks and Final Adjournment

Faculty

Bahram Gharabaghi
Dr. Bahram Gharabaghi’s research has primarily been focused on watershed scale water quality models to improve the accuracy of calculations of these management tools for protection of source waters from further degradation and to develop effective strategies for improvement of the quality of impaired water bodies in Ontario. He has more than ten years of experience in research and development in hydrologic modelling and non-point source pollution control in Canada and internationally. He has conducted studies for several large-scale mining projects around the world, including the Goro project in New Caledonia, the Alto Chicama project in Peru, and the Voisey’s Bay project in Labrador, Canada. Dr. Gharabaghi is currently leading several research projects in collaboration with Conservation Authorities, Ministry of Environment, Ministry of Natural Resources, and Ministry of Agriculture.

Additional Details

Pre-Requisites

Certificates offered

1.2 CEU / 12 PDH

Cancellation Policy

To withdraw from a course, you must send a request, in writing, with the official receipt to our office. Fifteen or more business days in advance: full refund less $50.00 administration charge. Five to fifteen business days in advance: non-refundable credit of equal value for any future EPIC seminar within one year. Credits are transferable within your organization. In case of an unexpected event occurring after this time, you may send someone else to take your place without any additional cost.

Map & Reviews

EPIC Educational Program Innovations Center
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Would have liked more interactive problem solving.

Reviewed by Allen A. 2011