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.

Contains state-of-the-art papers covering fundamental areas of soft ground mechanical behavior, geochemistry, and links between the two. In addition, there are several papers on state-of-the-art practice, historical overviews, and case studies in soft ground construction.

This book is mainly intended to meet the needs of undergraduate students of Civil Engineering. In preparing the first edition of this book, I had two principal aims: firstly to provide the student with a description of soil behavior-and of the effects of the clay minerals and the soil water on such behavior-which was rather more detailed than is usual in an elementary text, and secondly to encourage him to look critically at the traditional methods of analysis and design. The latter point is important, since all such methods require certain simplifying assumptions without which no solution is generally possible. Serious errors in design are seldom the result of failure to understand the methods as such. They more usually arise from a failure to study and understand the geology of the site, or from attempts to apply analytical methods to problems for which the implicit assumptions make them unsuitable. In the design of foundations and earth structures, more than in most branches of engineering, the engineer must be continually exercising his judgment in making decisions. The analytical methods cannot relieve him of this responsibility but properly used, they should ensure that his judgment is based on sound knowledge and not on blind intuition. I hope that the book will prove to be of use to students when their courses are over, and help to bridge the awkward gap between theory and practice.

The improved, new edition of the classic book on the physical properties of soil Fundamentals of Soil Behavior, Third Edition is the thoroughly updated, expanded, and revised edition of this highly distinguished publication in geotechnical engineering. Filled with useful tables and graphs illustrating correlations among composition, classification, state, and static and dynamic properties, this Third Edition continues the tradition of providing the latest information on the physical properties of soil and the fundamentals of its behavior over time. Students and busy professionals will connect with this new edition's timesaving, streamlined format and its greater emphasis on practical exercise problems involving advanced concepts of soil behavior. Other must-read features of this Third Edition include: New, expanded material on micro-mechanical behavior at the particulate level and its influences on engineering properties at the macro-scale A new chapter on time effects on soil deformation at different stress and strain levels New coverage of such important topics as environmental geotechnics, biological influences on soil behavior, soil fracturing, the effects of time, and geochemical problems Sets of questions and problems at the end of each chapter, a feature not available in prior editions Fundamentals of Soil Behavior, Third Edition is an essential text for graduate students and researchers as well as a peerless reference for geotechnical, environmental, and civil engineers and geologists.

"This introductory course on soil mechanics presents the key concepts of stress, stiffness, seepage, consolidation, and strength within a one-dimensional framework. Consideration of the mechanical behaviour of soils requires us to consider density alongside stresses, thus permitting the unification of deformation and strength characteristics. Soils are described in a way which can be integrated with concurrent teaching of the properties of other engineering materials. The book includes a model of the shearing of soil and some examples of soil-structure interaction which are capable of theoretical analysis using one-dimensional governing equations. The text contains many worked examples, and exercises are given for private study at the end of all chapters. Some suggestions for laboratory demonstrations that could accompany such an introductory course are sprinkled through the book." --Book Jacket.