Advanced Soil Mechanics and Applications to Engineering Practice

Advanced Soil Mechanics and Applications to Engineering Practice Serge Leroueil, Universite Laval, Quebec, Canada D. W Hight, Geotechnical Consulting Group, UK Synthesizing knowledge on the behaviour and characterization of natural soils for practical use The book starts by setting out the basic principles and concepts of soil mechanics that are required to describe and understand the behaviour of soils from small strains to large displacements; limit and critical states and, failure criteria are introduced. Having described the basic behaviour of cohesive and cohesionless soils, the book then considers the influence on these patterns of behaviour of anisotropy, discontinuities, strain rate and time, temperature, microstructure, soil water chemistry and suction. The properties of intact soils and soils in remoulded, reconstituted and destructured conditions are considered before the presentation of typical data for natural soils, ranging from sedimentary clays to sands, silts, gravels, and glacial, remoulded, volcanic and compacted soils.The book analyses the process of sampling of soils and its impact on measured soil behaviour and provides guidance in a toolbox for characterizing soils. The final section of the book provides a series of case histories illustrating the importance of factors such as anisotropy, microstructure, suction and permeability on the performance of engineering structures. Key features: * Includes figures, photographs and case studies. * Examines the implications for practice of the concepts and aspects of soil characterization. The book is a comprehensive reference for geotechnical specialists, including university lecturers, post-graduate and post-doctoral researchers, and practising geotechnical engineers.