List of top Civil Structural and Transport Engineering Questions on Soil Mechanics

To provide safety against piping failure, with a factor of safety as 3, what should be the maximum exit gradient for soil with a specific gravity of 2.5 and porosity of 0.35?

The liquid limit (LL), plastic limit (PL) and shrinkage limit (SL) of a cohesive soil satisfy the relation:

In a constant head permeameter, having cross-sectional area of $20 \, \text{cm}^2$, when the flow was taking place under a hydraulic gradient of $0.5$, the amount of water collected is $1200 \, \text{cm}^3$ in $60 \, \text{sec}$. The permeability of the soil is:

If the effective stress strength parameters are $C' = -10 \, \text{kPa}$ and $\phi' = 30^\circ$, the shear strength on a plane, within the saturated soil mass at a point where total normal stress is $300 \, \text{kPa}$ and pore water pressure is $150 \, \text{kPa}$, will be:

From a flow-net, which of the following information can be obtained?

A. Rate of flow
B. Pore water pressure
C. Exit gradient
D. Permeability
Choose the most appropriate answer from the options given below:

Match LIST-I with LIST-II:\[\begin{array}{|c|l|l|} \hline \textbf{LIST-I (Name of Test)} & & \textbf{LIST-II (Used for)} \\ \hline \text{A. Plate load test} & & \text{I. To estimate bearing capacity of granular soil} \\ \hline \text{B. Standard penetration test} & & \text{II. To estimate \textit{in-situ} strength of soft clay} \\ \hline \text{C. Vane shear test} & & \text{III. To identify silt from clay} \\ \hline \text{D. Dilatancy test} & & \text{IV. To estimate bearing capacity for permissible settlement} \\ \hline \end{array}\] Choose the most appropriate match from the options given below:

To have zero active pressure intensity at the top of a wall in a cohesive soil, one should apply a uniform surcharge intensity of: (Where $C =$ cohesion and $\alpha =$ angle of failure plane with major principal plane)

Two footings (one is circular and the other is square) are founded on the surface of a purely cohesionless soil. The diameter of the circular footing is the same as that of the side of the square footing. The ratio between ultimate bearing capacity of circular footing to that of the square footing (using Terzaghi equation) will be:

For an anisotropic soil, permeability in $x$ and $y$ directions are $k_x$ and $k_y$ respectively, in a two-dimensional flow. The effective permeability ($k_{eff}$) for the soil is given by:

The minimum bearing capacity of a soil under a given footing occurs when the groundwater table location is at: