Soils, rocks and concrete are the principal materials a civil engineer encounters in practice. This book deals with the material analogies, their implications in property characterization, giving attention to similar as well as dissimilar methods in respect of each of these three materials. It provides an integrated, systematic approach for realistic assessment of engineering properties of soils, rocks and concrete. Geotechnical engineers, civil engineers and materials scientists will be interested in this volume.

Until a few years ago, hydropower, road tunneling and mining were the main fields interested in rock mechanics. Now, however, rock mechanics is becoming increasingly important in many more branches - the most significant globally being the disposal of hazardous, especially radiaoctive, waste in deeply located repositories. This has raised a number of new aspects on the mechanical behaviour of large rock masses hosting repositories and of smaller rock elements forming the nearfield of tunnels and boreholes with waste containers. The geological background and above all rock structure form the basis of this book. The structural scheme proposed is referred to explain the scale-dependent behaviour of rock. Thus, the reason for differences in strength and strain properties of different types and volumes of rocks is shown in a very clear fasion, using simple material models and very basic numerical models. The author's academic background in both geology and soil and rock mechanics and his long experience in practical design and construction work has led to an unusually pedagogic way of dealing with the subject. The book is intended for use by consultants in engineering geology and waste disposal and by students of these subjects. However, engineers and geologists with a limited background in stress/strain and fracture theory and computer-based calculation methods will also find the book attractive.

More and more civil engineering constructions are being built on soft soils. As areas with better foundations are used up the necessity to be able to build structures on soft soils increases. The most troublesome of soft soils are organic soils due mainly to their high compressibility (much higher than in mineral soils), and also their very low shear strength. The large diversity of organic soils with respect to their origin as well as their properties make classification, testing, and engineering prediction of behaviour, very difficult. For this reason, engineers try, in general, to avoid constructing on deep layers of organic soils. If forced, by necessity, to do so, they manage with light structures e.g. embankments or low buildings. The authors of this book have been involved in a joint research project on the testing of embankments on organic soils. This was carried out in the North-Western part of Poland by the Swedish Geotechnical Institute and the Department of Geotechnics of Warsaw Agricultural University. The results of their research is presented in this new book and provides a valuable insight into this growing area in the field of engineering geology.

Dynamic Soil-structure interaction is one of the major topics in earthquake engineering and soil dynamics since it is closely related to the safety evaluation of many important engineering projects, such as nuclear power plants, to resist earthquakes. In dealing with the analysis of dynamic soil-structure interactions, one of the most difficult tasks is the modeling of unbounded media. To solve this problem, many numerical methods and techniques have been developed. This book summarizes the most recent developments and applications in the field of dynamic soil-structure interaction, both in China and Switzerland. An excellent book for scientists and engineers in civil engineering, structural engineering, geotechnical engineering and earthquake engineering.

This book covers the field of applied geotechnology related to all aspects of construction in ground, including compacted fill, excavations, ground improvement, foundations, earth retaining systems and geotechnical site characterization. It suits the first year of a graduate course on ground improvement and geoconstruction and will suit practicing engineers, both consultants and contractors. Distinctively it covers the identification of problematic soils and appropriate mitigation measures, and the inspection of ground construction work. It combines the technical and the practical in applied geotechnology.

This is an overview of all the important issues involved in selecting suitable sites, design and construction methods for preparing repositories for hazardous waste in crystalline rock. Most of the examples used refer to radioactive waste - this is a reflection of the experience of the author in this field as well as his belief that the same techniques could be used for isolation of radioactive and other hazardous waste. The focus is on the preparation and performance of multibarrier sytems of rock, waste containers and sealing components in a long-term perspective. Examples are provided from large-scale field experiments conducted in the international Stripa Project (a project to develop and test techniques for isolating highly radioactive waste). This monograph should be of particular interest to environmental geologists, structural geologists and civil engineers.

This book presents some fundamental concepts behind the basic theories and tools of discrete element methods (DEM), its historical development, and its wide scope of applications in geology, geophysics and rock engineering. Unlike almost all books available on the general subject of DEM, this book includes coverage of both explicit and implicit DEM approaches, namely the Distinct Element Methods and Discontinuous Deformation Analysis (DDA) for both rigid and deformable blocks and particle systems, and also the Discrete Fracture Network (DFN) approach for fluid flow and solute transport simulations. The latter is actually also a discrete approach of importance for rock mechanics and rock engineering. In addition, brief introductions to some alternative approaches are also provided, such as percolation theory and Cosserat micromechanics equivalence to particle systems, which often appear hand-in-hand with the DEM in the literature. Fundamentals of the particle mechanics approach using DEM for granular media is also presented. · Presents the fundamental concepts of the discrete models for fractured rocks, including constitutive models of rock fractures and rock masses for stress, deformation and fluid flow · Provides a comprehensive presentation on discrete element methods, including distinct elements, discontinuous deformation analysis, discrete fracture networks, particle mechanics and Cosserat representation of granular media · Features constitutive models of rock fractures and fracture system characterization methods detaiing their significant impacts on the performance and uncertainty of the DEM models