Eight chapters plus a fully worked exam problem, built on Das’s Fundamentals of Geotechnical Engineering and the course lectures. Every chapter opens with why the topic matters before any equation appears, then layers the technical detail on top.
The CEE 240 groundwork everything else rests on — phase relations, classification, and the effective stress principle that explains why soil strength changes when the water table moves.
How deep to bore and how far apart, what sampling does to the soil, and the SPT with every correction applied in order — plus CPT and vane shear.
Failure modes, Terzaghi and Meyerhof’s general bearing capacity equation, shape and depth factors, eccentric loading, and what groundwater does to the answer.
Immediate, primary consolidation and secondary compression; normally versus overconsolidated clay, and the time-rate problem that decides when a building stops moving.
Why a wall’s pressure is not a fixed number — at-rest, active and passive states, Rankine and Coulomb theory, the tension crack, and groundwater.
Wall types and preliminary sizing, then the three stability checks — overturning, sliding and bearing — run as one live calculation.
Infinite slopes with and without seepage, Taylor’s stability number, and the method of slices — Ordinary and Bishop — with a searchable failure circle.
End bearing and skin friction, critical depth, the α method for clay, pile groups and negative skin friction, and pile settlement.