Abstract
In geotechnical engineering education, small physical scale models can be used to provide hands-on activities that improve student understanding of soil mechanics concepts. The goal of this work is to design three scale models to cover the concepts of two-dimensional seepage, soil bearing failure, and lateral earth pressures for use in the undergraduate geotechnical engineering curriculum at California State University, Sacramento. The sheet pile wall has already been designed and constructed to study two-dimensional seepage analysis. A primary component of this study is to develop a set of guidelines for completing the sheet pile experiment. Additionally, numerical analyses will be conducted to evaluate if such analysis can capture the observed response from the scale model. Based on the experience gained in developing and implementing this model, a conceptual design for two other small-scale physical models, a spread footing and a retaining wall, are proposed for future use at CSUS