This course aims to provide students with the basic knowledge required to undertake geotechnical investigations. The topics covered in the course include:

Basics of materials behaviour; stress-strain, failure criteria, stress and strain tensors.
Basic Soil Mechanics; phase relationships, soil classification, effective stress, seepage, consolidation, compaction, retaining structures.
Basic Rock Mechanics rock material behaviour, joints, rock mass strength and deformability.
Applications of geomechanics to simple mining problems involving soil and rock.

On completion of the course, the student should be capable of demonstrating an understanding of:

fundamental principals of soil and rock mechanics.
groundwater flow through porous media.
a comprehensive and well founded knowledge of the field of study.
an ability to solve geomechanical problems from first principles.
an ability to select an appropriate method of analysis.
an ability to recognise the limitations of existing theories.
an ability to interpret the results from material testing.
an ability to distinguish between rock mass and rock material behaviour