NPTEL Syllabus

Site Characterization and instrumentation

- Web course
COURSE OUTLINE
By and large geotechnical engineering solutions are site and environment
specific. Adoption of canned solutions without due consideration of the
subsurface and environmental conditions is known to be disastrous.
For instance, in attempting to assess pathways of contaminant transport it is
essential to delineate the permeable zones across the entire area as well as an
exhaustive knowledge on the interplay between the hydrometeorological
conditions and the hydraulic conductivity of the seepage pathways.
Such tasks are best accomplished by insitu testing, field instrumentation. This
graduate course attempts to provide a working knowledge on the common and
emerging insitu testing procedures, their applicability, advantages and
limitations, and acquisition and interpretation of data.
Also will be discussed instrumentation and monitoring strategy in geotechnical
and geoenvironmental projects, and acquisition and interpretation of monitoring
data.

COURSE DETAIL
Module
No.

1.

Topic

Introduction:

No. of
Hours

Drilling:

Auger boring (hollow and solid stem auger boring);

drill bits; wash boring; percussion and air rotary
drilling; mud rotary drilling; single double and triple
barrel core drilling; wire line drilling tools.

3.

Soil Sampling:

Sampler geometry and soil disturbance, split spoon

sampler, thick walled sampler, thin walled sampler,
large diameter sampler; block sampling of plastic
soils; undisturbed sampling non plastic soils
(sampling by ground freezing and gel permeation).

4.

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Civil Engineering
Pre-requisites:
1. This is a masters level course.
The student is expected to have
completed the undergraduate
courses on soil mechanics and
foundation engineering and
engineering geology.
Additional Reading:

Scope and objectives.

2.

NPTEL

Standard Penetration Testing Procedure, stress

normalization, energy calibration, minor corrections

2. McGregor, J.A., and Duncan, J.M.

1998. Performance and use of the
standard penetration test in
geotechnical engineering
practice. Rep., Center for
Geotechnical Practice and
Research (CGPR), Virginia
Polytechnic Institute and State
University, USA.
3. US Army Corps of Engineers.
1995. Instrumentation of
embankments dams and levees.
Engineer Manual 1110-2-1908.
Additional references will be provided
at the end of each module.
Hyperlinks:
1. www.geotechnique.info.

Insitu testing:
Field vane shear testing Procedure; applicability;
data interpretation.

1. Mayne, P.W., Christopher, B.R.,

and DeJong, J. 2001. Manual on
subsurface investigations. Pub.
FHWA-NHI-01-031, US Federal
Highway Administration,
Washington, DC, USA.

2. www.cpt-robertson.com.
3. www.usace.army.mil/library.
4. www.geoengineer.org/booksinvestigation.html.

5.

(rod length, liner, sampler diameter),advantages and

limitations; data interpretation;applications (bearing
capacity assessment, liquefaction).

Dynamic and Dutch Cone Penetration Testing

Procedures, advantages and limitations, data
interpretation.

Dynamic and Dutch Cone Penetration Testing

Procedures, advantages and limitations, data
interpretation.

Pre- and Self- boring pressuremeter testing

Procedures: Advantages and limitations; analysis of
selfboring pressuremeter data for plastic and non
plastic soils.

Dilatometer testing Procedures; advantages and

limitations; data interpretation.

Coordinators:
Dr. Debasis Roy
Department of Civil EngineeringIIT
Kharagpur

Non intrusive testing Seismic reflection survey;

seismic refraction survey; spectral analysis of surface
wave and multi channel analysis of surface waves;
electromagnetic profiling; airborne electromagnetic
prospecting.

Groundwater monitoring:

Groundwater sampling; piezometers; piezometer lag

time; monitoring well installation; borehole
permeability testing; pumping in and pumping out
testing; data interpretation.

6.

Geotechnical instrumentations:

Settlement gages (mechanical, magnetic, electronic);

Inclinometer.

References:
1. Clayton, C.R.I., Matthews, M.C., and Simons, N.E. 1995. Site Investigation.
Blackwell Science. 2nd Ed.
2. Schnaid, F. 2009. In situ testing in geomechanics. Taylor & Francis.
3. Lunne, T., Robertson, P.K., and Powell, J.J.M. 1997. Cone penetration
testing in geotechnical practice. Spon Press.
4. Dunnicliff, J. 1998. Geotechnical instrumentation for monitoring field
performance. Wiley Interscience.
A joint venture by IISc and IITs, funded by MHRD, Govt of India

http://nptel.iitm.ac.in