CIVL 210 { Soil Mechanics I
SAMPLE FINAL EXAM
FOPR 363lCIVL 210 (Section 202)
Final Examination-April 2003
Page 2
Student Name:
Student Number:
SECTION A
5 Questions (1-114Hours)
Marks
Question 1
Sampling of a
...
CIVL 210 { Soil Mechanics I
SAMPLE FINAL EXAM
FOPR 363lCIVL 210 (Section 202)
Final Examination-April 2003
Page 2
Student Name:
Student Number:
SECTION A
5 Questions (1-114Hours)
Marks
Question 1
Sampling of a seabed deposit, 80 m below sea level, shows it to be a uniform sand with a
saturated unit weight of l 8 k ~ l m ~ . Hydrostatic groundwater conditions exist in the sand.
[5] (a) Calculate the effective vertical stress at a depth of lorn below the seabed.
A consolidated-drained (CD) triaxial test (cell pressure = 100kPa,deviator stress at
failure = 200 kPa) yields the Mohr diagram shown in Figure 1.
[5] (b) Determine the angle of shearing resistance of the sand (4).
[5] (c) Calculate the shear strength along a horizontal plane at a depth of 10m below the
seabed.
d c b
Figure 1- Mohr Circle Figure 2 - Seepage Conditions
Question 2
For the condition of 1-D seepage illustrated in Figure 2, and the given datum, calculate:
[9] (a) The pressure head, the elevation head and the total head at point D in the soil.
[6] (b) The effective stress at point E in the soil.
SAMPLE SHORT QUESTIONS:
2
FOPR 363lCIVL 210 (Section 202) Student Name:
Final Examination- April 2003 Student Number:
Page 3
Marks
Question 3
With regard to the undrained shear strength of fine-grained soils:
(61 (a) Explain the term sensitivity.
With regard to the strength of loose, saturated sands:
[9] (b) Explain the groundwater conditions and associated stress regime that result in
quicksand.
Question 4
A concrete dam (Figure 3a), founded on an anisotropic soil, incorporates a 4.6 m cut-off
sheet pile to control seepage. The condition of 2-D seepage yields the transformed flow
net (Figure 3b). The horizontal and vertical permeability are, respectively, 1.6x10-~m/s
and 1x1~ - ~ m / s .
[6] (a) Confirm the scale of the transformed flow net is correct.
[9] (b) Calculate the hydraulic gradient across the zone of horizontal flow beneath the
dam represented by points A and B on the transformed flow net.
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