Schools & CollegesSchools_%26_Colleges.html
HomeEntry_Page.html
EngineeringEngineering.html
Civil EngineeringCivil_Engineering.html
 
All over the United States — and in other countries as well — are buildings, dams, bridges, railroads and other structures whose successful construction and operation is in some measure due to the work of a University of Michigan laboratory. Located in the basement of the East Engineering Building is the Soil Mechanics Laboratory, little known perhaps to the general public but widely recognized among engineers and scientists for its pioneering contribution to the under standing of soil properties. This Laboratory had its beginning in 1927 when the Civil Engineering Department accepted a request to make a soil analysis for a proposed grade separation in Detroit. Today, the Laboratory is combined with the Highway Testing Laboratory, also located on the campus, and jointly operated by the University and the State Highway Department. An average of twenty research projects are underway regularly in the Soil Mechanics Laboratory, some sponsored by private industry and others by public agencies. The work of the Laboratory is to carry out studies of soils and their ability to bear the weight of buildings, highways, bridges and other large structures. Different types of soils have widely different "bearing characteristics," and the construction engineer needs a thorough knowledge of these characteristics before he plans or begins to erect his structure. Michigan's laboratory has developed a series of standard tests for analyzing soils in the laboratory and also for making certain evaluations in the field. Like all such University research agencies, this Laboratory is related to the instructional program. Experimental data accumulated from the various research projects is used as a basis for practical problems for students in courses in soil mechanics. Contracts for research provide that the University shall have complete freedom of publication and of instructional use of research results. When this Laboratory was established, incidentally, less than a half-dozen schools of engineering in the entire country offered any instruction in soil mechanics. Such instruction is now widely given, and The University of Michigan offers both undergraduate and graduate work in this field. Its graduates, and its faculty and research consultants, are in demand throughout the construction industry. Michigan Alumnus Jan 14 1956, page 204

Soil Mechanics