Fundamentals Of Soil Behavior

Explains the factors which determine and control the engineering properties of soils--particularly volume change, deformation, strength and permeability. New to this edition: expanded coverage of residual and tropical soils, environmental aspects of soil behavior, material on partly saturated soils, revised treatment of direct or coupled hydraulic, chemical, thermal and electrical flows through soil.

While many introductory texts on soil mechanics are available, most are either lacking in their explanations of soil behavior or provide far too much information without cogent organization. More significantly, few of those texts go beyond memorization of equations and numbers to provide a practical understanding of why and how soil mechanics work.

Soils can rarely be described as ideally elastic or perfectly plastic and yet simple elastic and plastic models form the basis for the most traditional geotechnical engineering calculations. With the advent of cheap powerful computers the possibility of performing analyses based on more realistic models has become widely available. One of the aims of this book is to describe the basic ingredients of a family of simple elastic-plastic models of soil behaviour and to demonstrate how such models can be used in numerical analyses. Such numerical analyses are often regarded as mysterious black boxes but a proper appreciation of their worth requires an understanding of the numerical models on which they are based. Though the models on which this book concentrates are simple, understanding of these will indicate the ways in which more sophisticated models will perform.

This book is the second volume of the proceedings of the 4th GeoShanghai International Conference that was held on May 27 - 30, 2018. The book, entitled “Fundamentals of Soil Behaviours”, presents the recent advances and technology in the understanding and modelling of fundamentals of soil’s behaviours. The subject of this book covers a wide range of topics related to soil behaviours in geotechnical engineering, geoenvironmental engineering and transportation engineering. The state-of-the-art theories, methodologies and findings in the related topics are included. This book may benefit researchers and scientists from the academic fields of soil and rock mechanics, geotechnical engineering, geoenvironmental engineering, transportation engineering, geology, mining and energy, as well as practical engineers from industry. Each of the papers included in this book received at least two positive peer reviews. The editors would like to express their sincerest appreciation to all of the anonymous reviewers all over the world, for their diligent work.

While many introductory texts on soil mechanics are available, most are either lacking in their explanations of soil behavior or provide far too much information without cogent organization. More significantly, few of those texts go beyond memorization of equations and numbers to provide a practical understanding of why and how soil mechanics work. Based on the authors’ more than 25 years of teaching soil mechanics to engineering students, Soil Mechanics Fundamentals presents a comprehensive introduction to soil mechanics, with emphasis on the engineering significance of what soil is, how it behaves, and why it behaves that way. Concise, yet thorough, the text is organized incrementally, with earlier sections serving as the foundation for more advanced topics. Explaining the varied behavior of soils through mathematics, physics and chemistry, the text covers: Engineering behavior of clays Unified and AASHTO soil classification systems Compaction techniques, water flow and effective stress Stress increments in soil mass and settlement problems Mohr’s Circle application to soil mechanics and shear strength Lateral earth pressure and bearing capacity theories Each chapter is accompanied by example and practicing problems that encourage readers to apply learned concepts to applications with a full understanding of soil behavior fundamentals. With this text, engineering professionals as well as students can confidently determine logical and innovative solutions to challenging situations.

Introducing the first integrated coverage of sedimentary and residual soil engineering Despite its prevalence in under-developed parts of the United States and most tropical and sub-tropical countries, residual soil is often characterized as a mere extension of conventional soil mechanics in many textbooks. Now, with the rapid growth of construction in these regions, it is essential to gain a fuller understanding of residual soils and their properties—one that's based on an integrated approach to the study of residual and sedimentary soils. One text puts this understanding well within reach: Fundamentals of Soil Mechanics for Sedimentary and Residual Soils. The first resource to provide equal treatment of both residual and sedimentary soils and their unique engineering properties, this skill-building guide offers: A concise introduction to basic soil mechanics, stress-strain behavior, testing, and design In-depth coverage that spans the full scope of soil engineering, from bearing capacity and foundation design to the stability of slopes A focus on concepts and principles rather than methods, helping you avoid idealized versions of soil behavior and maintain a design approach that is consistent with real soils of the natural world An abundance of worked problems throughout, demonstrating in some cases that conventional design techniques applicable to sedimentary soils are not valid for residual soils Numerous end-of-chapter exercises supported by an online solutions manual Full chapter-ending references Taken together, Fundamentals of Soil Mechanics for Sedimentary and Residual Soils is a comprehensive, balanced soil engineering sourcebook that will prove indispensable for practitioners and students in civil engineering, geotechnical engineering, structural engineering, and geology.