Presenting an overview of the recent geotechnical history, its paradigms and the role that catastrophes have played in the evolution of knowledge and progress in soil and rock mechanics.

Specific Objectives

Learning and reviewing the key factors in soil and rock mechanics and presenting the case studies that have marked the geotechnical history. The first step to avoid further catastrophes is to know them well.

Dedication

Description and analysis of differential and time-deferred settlements observed in the Cathedral of Mexico City, which was built on soft clay. Analysis of excessive and time-deferred settlements observed during the construction of Kansai International Airport (Japan).

Specific Objectives

Knowing the tilting case of the Cathedral of Mexico. Understanding the effect of the initial state of the land, the sequence of construction of two near or overlapping buildings (both at once, one after the other and one after building and demolishing the other) and logarithmic-linear stress-strain behaviour of soils in the site of both structures. Knowing the case of the differential settlements of Kansai International Airport. Engineering work designated as one of the "Monuments of the Millennia" by the American Society of Civil Engineers. Extending and applying the knowledge of the consolidation theory and the observational method procedure to predict settlements.

Dedication

Description of the famous case of the inclination of the Tower of Pisa, Italy, and the actions undertaken to prevent its collapse. Explanation of the inclination of the tower and defining practical rules to predict problem of leaning instability in structures.

Specific Objectives

Detailed presentation of the famous case of the inclination of the Tower of Pisa. An understanding of the possible causes that cause the inclination of towers or buildings in general. Extending and applying the knowledge on the theories of stress-strain behaviour of soils.

Dedication

Description of the famous case of collapse of a grain elevator built in Transcona (Canada) due to the failure of its foundation. Description of the failure of the caissons build for the new entrance of the Barcelona Harvour, which occurred in 2001 due to the collapse of its foundation. The case is analyzed analytically and the results compared to those obtained numerically with a commercial program.

Specific Objectives

Analysing the case of failure of a grain elevator built in Trancona. Understanding the causes that led to the collapse and the importance of a good geological and geotechnical characterization of the foundation materials. Extending and applying the knowledge on the theorems of the upper bound. Presenting the procedures currently used in dyke construction by placing prefabricated caissons. Technique used in the Barcelona harbour. Reviewing, extending and applying the knowledge on bearing capacity theories, the concepts of safety factor, limit equilibrium theorems and liquefaction phenomenon with analytical and empirical solutions.

Dedication

Description of the famous case of the Vaiont landslide, which occurred in 1963 in North Italy, in one of the reservoir sides of the same name, being the reservoir almost at its maximum level.

Specific Objectives

Applying the knowledge on landslide translational stability, balance equations and safety factor. Clarifying and extending the knowledge on the effect of submerging the foot of a potential landslide with regards to its stability. Reviewing and extending the knowledge on the effect of temperature in a saturated porous medium and applying it to translational landslides. Showing the possible causes of acceleration of translational landslides that may involve a high risk with catastrophic consequences. Understanding practical rules to estimate the potential acceleration of translational landslides. Reviewing and applying the knowledge on programming and numerical calculation to solve differential equation systems.

Dedication

Description and analysis of the collapse of the vault of a tunnel during its excavation and before the support was fully built. Description and analysis of the collapse of La Floresta tunnels face during their excavation and structural solutions applied to continue with its construction.

Specific Objectives

Presenting the causes that may lead to the failure of a tunnel from the vault forming a cavity due to the collapse of the support installed. Presenting and implementing analytical solutions and considering the limit state methods (upper bound theorem). Applying and extending the knowledge on the structural stability of the face of shallow tunnels excavated in soils and possible structural solutions to safely perform the excavation. Reviewing, extending and applying the knowledge on analytical solutions and their deduction, continuous media and structures.

Dedication

Description of the collapse of a compacted embankment due to rainfall. Presentation of the development of an elastoplastic constitutive for unsaturated soils. Evaluation and calculation of the volumetric deformation observed in the field for the analysed case and estimation of the potential collapse.

Specific Objectives

Understanding and extending the concepts of unsaturated soil mechanics and applying them to a case study of collapse of a compacted embankment. Reviewing the fundamental properties of compacted soils and knowing which ones are suited to avoid problems of volumetric collapse due to rainfall.

Dedication

Dedication