Saturday, September 17, 2016

What You Need To Know About Geotech Engineering And Testing

By Christine Meyer


In engineering, there are many branches. One of them is the geotechnical study which mainly deals with the analyzing how Earth materials behave; mostly known as soil. Studying the earth material is usually under civil engineering, and therefore it connects geotech engineering and testing in it.

In connection to this, this type of soil study is connected to almost all types of this study like mining, construction and many more. Therefore, today, these skills are applied in almost all areas. In reality, most activities usually involve engineering activities that are applied to the ground. However, mans activities do not simply transform these simple earthwork activities into engineering. In the past, these activities were not done with any knowledge about soil study or skills. This practice began gradually and was mostly used at the beginning of the eighteen century.

As a discipline, it is concerned with analyzing soil quality. The soil is made up of many elements such as rocks or minerals, air, and water. Their nature keeps changing over time owing to natural and human forces and occurrences. Therefore the properties as they appear at the time of the study were not so a few years ago. On the same note, they would also change over the coming years. Going by this fact, soil properties should be investigated to determine the suitability of the intended use at the actual time of need. It is not an activity whose old results can be used in the present.

To identify the chemical and non-chemical properties of the soil, the experts will closely examine the surface of the soil and carry out experiments on it. The experiments can be used to identify the risk factor example of constructing on the soil, as well as identify the stability of the soil to withstand both natural and human activities that may damage it. This thus helps determine whether the project is worthwhile.

When you want to determine the soil properties, there are certain processes that you should follow. The experts that do geotechnical study will take up the project as a whole and then take up the process stage by stage progressively. The process will begin from the known to the unknown and is guided by specific qualities that will be established to determine how suitable the ground is for construction.

The whole project is broken into smaller working projects and carried out one after the other before reaching any conclusion. Site visiting is the initial step to have a general view of the area as influenced by the surroundings. The aim is to carry out a risk assessment to humans as would be caused by both natural and human forces and make necessary recommendations regarding the same.

When the geotechnical procedure is carried out correctly, it will be easy to reduce some natural disasters like the earthquakes and mass wasting. When the geotechnical engineer has determined the soil properties, they will be able to prescribe the suitable foundations for the site. The results from the soil survey can also help determine the changes of the initial construction designs.

As a discipline on its own, geotechnical engineering will interrelate other disciplines like history. This is mostly because people will use soil for many things and how it is used will affect the soil properties at a specific time.




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