Engineering discipline

Geotechnical Engineering

Ground behaviour, bearing, settlement, slopes, piles and the soil parameters that control them.

9 topics in this discipline

Geotechnical Understand a concept

How to go from a soil description to an allowable bearing pressure, and how to tell whether bearing or settlement will actually govern your footing.

Geotechnical Understand a concept

Distinguishing immediate from consolidation settlement, and why the damage limit is usually about differential movement rather than total.

Geotechnical Understand a concept

Splitting pile capacity into shaft friction and end bearing so you can tell whether a longer pile actually helps.

Geotechnical Understand a concept

Converting water content, unit weight and specific gravity into void ratio, saturation and the unit weights every other calculation expects.

Geotechnical Calculate a value

Active versus at-rest pressure, and why a wall that cannot move needs a substantially larger design thrust.

Civil & Structural Calculate a value

The three limit states every retaining wall must satisfy, and which one usually fails first on a narrow base.

Environmental Calculate a value

Sizing infiltration storage and soakaways, and recognising the soils that will not drain.

Civil & Structural Understand a concept

The difference between a screening number and a compliant design, and where professional review genuinely has to enter.

Civil & Structural Understand a concept

The conversions and dimension slips that produce plausible-looking but wrong answers, and how to catch them.