Before spending money on practical on-site soil test/ investigation, it is good to find out if these tests/investigations have been carried out in the past by Government agencies. checks may reveal records of previous, close-by soil investigations. Geological data, aerial photographs, historical information and local knowledge of the site area will help a great deal.
Obtaining preliminary data is best gotten from the relevant government agency or establishment. This will ensure that you are using standardized and government recognized data for your preliminary soil investigation.
Preliminary data may not provide all the necessary information you need concerning the soil situation of your site, but it saves you the cost of starting an investigation from the scratch and at the same time providing recognized data for you to work with.
Site Investigation means the various investigations that determine if the site will be suitable for its intended use based on structural, economical and environmental factors. Site Investigation is not limited to preliminary works alone. It is also undertaking to investigate defects, failure or safety of existing works.
Types of site investigation
Investigation of site for new works:
The investigation could involve determination of the overall suitability of the soil for the construction work.
The economical and environmental impact the proposed new works will have on existing infrastructure.
Proper preliminary site investigation will help determine the correct financial implications, material as well as equipment necessary for a successful project.
Investigation of defects or failure of existing works.
This type of investigation may be mandatory to establish cause of failure and provide remedy. For instance, in the case of a building collapse after several years, soil investigation may reveal reduction of the bearing capacity of the soil which may have been caused by changes in level of ground water.
Investigation of the safety of existing works.
When proposed new works are being planned, it will be necessary to assess the impact it will have on existing works or infrastructure. Structurally, situations that may be investigated are;
Will excavation reduce ground support of the existing structure or not?
Will groundwater lowering cause settlement.?
Will disturbed drainage cause flooding or instability to the existing structures?
Environmentally, situations that may be investigated include impact of noise and waste that will be generated by the proposed structure.
This type of investigation is not only limited to preconstruction it is also necessary after construction and during use of the structure.
Investigation as to the suitability and availability of materials for construction.
If the soil material on site is to be used for construction works, support structure or both, then its suitability must be determined.
This is usually done by visual inspection and standardized tests.
Importance of soil investigation in civil engineering
Civil engineering works have some form of foundation which is supported by the ground. The interaction between a civil engineering structure and the ground that holds it is complex. Hence it is appropriate that proper soil study and investigation is carried out before structure is built in it.
It is standard practice to examine any soil on which a structure is intended to be erected in order to determine the following:
The suitability of the soil site for the proposed work.
Adequate and economic foundation design.
Difficulties that may arise during construction.
Situations that may occur after construction.
Rock types
Rock types can be classified by their method of excavation. That is, whether blasting is required, by load bearing or other physical properties.
From a civil engineer’s point of view, A rock is a solid mass composed of soil material in a very stable position of which it’s removal is only possible after blasting, or breaking by compressed air and hydraulic tools or by breaking tools such a wedges or sledge hammer.
Rocks can be placed into 3 basic categories, the are:
Igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic.
Igneous rocks include basalt and granite. They are formed by the solidification of molten material from the hot lower levels of the earth crust which have ascended towards the surface. They have very high bearing capacities about 3 times that of sedimentary rocks and 40 times that of alluvial clays and sand.
Sedimentary rocks includes, Limestone and sandstone.They were formed by stratification and cementation of earth materials over time.Their strength depends on properties such as angle of stratification and cementation as well as behaviour under wet conditions.
Metamorphic rocks are any sedimentary or igneous rock deposits which after consolidation have become changed by heat and pressure. Examples of metamorphic rocks are gneisses, slates, schists.
The most suitable type of rock for civil engineering foundation work is the igneous rock. Sedimentary rocks have lower load bearing capacity due to the presence of soft clay material in their deposits. However, the load bearing capacity of all types of rock is greatly reduced as a result of weathering and earth movements.
This short article describes how to use Adobe illustrator to change a raster image to a vector image
Open illustrator
And go to file then click place, next, select the picture you want to convert to vector image and then import into illustrator.
Next, click on Window, then Image trace.
In the image trace box, click on the check box next to Preview. This will enable you to see changes made when the image is traced.
Set Preset to High Fidelity Photo
Mode to Color
Palette to Full Tone
Finally select the image and click on Expand to convert the traced image to paths.
If successful, You will see that in the layers panel, each element comprising the picture has been placed in its own layer and grouped making the image fully editable.
Have some text already typed into a text box With segoe print font.
Get a picture of a hand holding a pen and scale it appropriately under the text.
Go to animation then animation pane.
select all the text and click the fade animation.
Set the duration to 0.5.
In the animation pane window, go to the handwriting animation event.
Click the down arrow next to the animation event and click effect options. Set Animate text to by letter.
Directly under Animate text, Set to 100% delay between letters then click ok to close the box. Test the animation, the letters should appear one by one.
Now to animating the hand holding a pen.
Multiply the number of letters in the text by the duration of the last animation which is 0.5.
This value will be the duration of the hand animation.
Go to the animation window, then look for and click motion paths, then custom paths.
The cursor will change to a crosshair, zoom into the text, then with your mouse or pen, trace the path of the text from start to finish as if you were writing it.
The path will be recorded. Double click to preview the animation. Change the duration to the value previously calculated for the hand animation.
In the animation pane window click the down arrow next to the hand animation.
Then click effect options and set smooth start and smooth end to 0 sec. then click ok
Test the animation to see changes.
Now the text and hand animation has been made.
Try to position the hand holding pen picture under the text as realistically as possible.
Set the hand holding pen picture to bring to front.
Set the hand holding pen animation to start: with previous above the animation pane.
Test the animation. The hand holding pen should be writing the text smoothly now.
To make the hand holding pen go away after the animation you need an exit animation.
Go to add animation and click fly out
Set the fly out animation to Start: after previous
This experiment will show how you can cause an aluminum can to implode.
Materials needed
tablespoon 🥄 of water.
Empty aluminum soft drink can.
Hot plate (or electric stove burner).
Bowl filled with ice water.
Tongs enough to fit around a can.
Steps
1.Put the water in the empty aluminum can.
2. Heat the can on a hot plate until the water is boiling and steam is escaping from the opening.
3.Place a bowl of ice water next to the hot plate.
4. Carefully use tongs to grab the can. Carefully and quickly flip the can upside down into the bowl of ice water.
The can should implode
Implode a soft drink aluminum can. Explanation
The steam coming from the can is the water vapor escaping as the water is boiling. Not only does the water vapor escape out of the can, it also pushes out any air that was in there before you heated it. When the can is flipped over into the ice water bath, the remaining water vapor cools, condensing back into liquid water. The amount of water vapor left in the can is equal to about one drop of water. Since all the air was pushed out earlier and now there is only one drop of water left in the can, the air pressure on the outside of the can pushes in on it, causing a sudden collapse, or implosion.
