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ENGINEERING GEOLOGICAL MODELS IN SITE INVESTIGATION

Mario Quinta-Ferreira

Abstract

The interpretation and representation of the ground materials distribution and of their properties is a fundamental task in engineering geology practice. Engineering geological models can help to plan and developed the site investigation activities as they constitute an idealization of the ground, quite useful during the office and field tasks. The selection of the site investigation techniques can be more efficient when a ground model is idealized or sketched. The interpretation of the site investigation data must be done assuming a progressive study of the ground and a way to update and improve the model assumed. Geology should always be a basis for the study and understanding of the terrain, as all geology disciplines can be relevant in the interpretation of the terrain characteristics. The experience and expertise of the engineering geologist is also fundamental and unreplaceable in order to integrate the engineering principles and concepts in the design. For a selected site the geology, the geotechnical parameters and the engineering requirements must be addressed to understand and characterize the terrain affected by the engineering structure. The systematization of the engineering geological models is still a matter of development, despite the strong contributions already available in bibliography. This issue has been recently addressed by the IAEG commission 25 who considers two main divisions: conceptual and observational models. The procedures used in the preparation of the geotechnical zoning can be more efficient when a model is used to integrate all the information. A case study on alluvial soils is presented, considering the initial simplified conceptual model, based on the site surface geology, until the observational model based on the data obtained since site investigation until construction.

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DOI resolver: doi.org/10.5593/sgem2017/12/s02.037

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