The Effect of Gravity on Soil Strength

In the third video in the Bare Essentials of Soil Mechanics series, Professor John Burland demonstrates how deposition under gravity of soil particles, in lakes and rivers, affects how soils behave. More engineering teaching resources available on expeditionworshed.org
Prof Burland is based at Imperial College London and has worked on hundreds of interesting projects, the most famous of which was stabilising the Leaning Tower of Pisa.
In this video Prof Burland uses an ingenious model to show in slow-motion how soils are laid down in rivers and lakes. He uses his model to show how soils laid down under gravity form column structures within their mass, which makes these soils stronger vertically than horizontally.
Prof Burland then goes on to illustrate how gravity effects the strength of soil at different depths. His experiment shows that the more load a foundation carries, the further it will push into the soil before it reaches equilibrium. The conclusion is that soil strength increases with depth.
Learning outcomes
This video will help learners answer questions such as:
How are soils formed?
How are soils deposited?
Are soils isotropic?
How does gravity effect soil strength?
How does soil strength vary with depth?
How does shear strength vary with depth?
About the Bare Essentials of Soil Mechanics Series
This video is part of the Bare Essentials of Soil Mechanics series, funded by the Ove Arup Foundation, in which Professor John Burland draws on his many years of practice in geotechnical engineering and teaching to provide listeners with what he regards to be the key knowledge that geotechnical engineers need to understand about soil mechanics in engineering practice.
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit creativecommons.org/licenses/b...
Credits
Written and presented by: Prof John Burland, Imperial College, London.
Concept design: www.thinkup.org/
Graphic design:thomasmatthews.com/
Direction/Production: www.ariesfilms.com/
Image credits: coming soon

[@hydrogenperoxide9995]

I'm binge watching your videos right now! There's so much knowledge!

[@Hitngan]

Best Soil Mechanics lecturer on the planet

[@alonsobarrera2997]

I want to thanks for the video, and especially to Professor Burland's pronunciation. I'm from Chile, and I can understand what he's saying.

[@ExpeditionworkshedOrg1]

It's great to hear that the video is useful Alonso!

[@ederquispeisidro2070]

Gracias por impartir el conocimiento. Agradeceré enormemente is es posible subtitularla. Gracias.

[@sooking86]

very helpful video， easy to understand!

[@soorajkumar7459]

Thank you so much professor. 😊

[@shahbazalisangrasi8576]

It's really awesome demonstration.

[@nghiemlytin5733]

Thanks Professor so much.

[@united3689]

Legend of a professor!

[@farhatjaved3874]

Thank you very much. Wonderful stuff.

[@kiton012]

Thank you, Sir

[@modalavalasaupendra1415]

Wonderful .. thank u professor

[@ahmedilyas125]

شكرا بروفيسور

[@khaingnilwin4880]

Thank you very much Sir.

[@lenonoliiveira]

Thank you so much!

[@hani2010]

It is amazing ..
I watched two videos so far and I got a deep explanation that I had not have before ..
Please continue posting such a great videos ..
Thanks so much Prof. Your explanation is super clear ..

[@walidtlili7415]

WooooW Sir Thank you very much !!!!!!

[@Johnny-adamser]

Best professor ever

[@DongjinPark-so2iq]

I love you professor

[@CesarFlores-sk5hb]

Very well explained! :)

[@nname7723]

Very well explained prof.🙌

[@ManjitSingh-kq5il]

whats the name of apparatus created by professor

[@pawanbudhlakoti2283]

Sir, couldn't find a video on flow net

[@ekrammohamed2979]

Thanks so much Professor.

[@sariabusharar2697]

Would you please tell me what the circular disks are made of?

[@sadmansakib5477]

excellent :D

[@buthokhan5701]

Wow this professor explains well. UCLA professors need to hire someone like him.

[@manuelcalavera1020]

+Butho Khan :)

[@Hitngan]

There is no one like Prof Burland

[@manojb1606]

Is there any article written by professor Burland

[@civilengineer3011]

Thanks for video I am grateful for videos, also I'd like to point out that Dear Worthy Professor you Light up on our way and so glad we have for you

[@johnnybow7045]

0:31 such a nice explanation for "I made this thing" :D

[@karimkhan1312]

I HAVE UNDER STOOD U R EXCELENT LECTURE-- AMARJEET ADVOCATE DELHI HIGH COURT

[@bestrong8724]

now i understood terzaghi bearing capacity theory

[@rampathak1784]

👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏

[@harrypratanata3543]

N