Although theoretical in character, this book provides a useful source of information for those dealing with practical problems relating to rock and soil mechanics - a discipline which, in the view of the authors, attempts to apply the theory of continuum to the mechanical investigation of rock and soil media. The book is in two separate parts. The first part, embodying the first three chapters, is devoted to a description of the media of interest. Chapter 1 introduces the main argument and discusses the essence of the discipline and its links with other branches of science which are concerned, on the one hand, with technical mechanics and, on the other, with the properties, origins, and formation of rock and soil strata under natural field conditions. Chapter 2 describes mechanical models of bodies useful for the purpose of the discourse and defines the concept of the limit shear resistance of soils and rocks. Chapter 3 gives the actual properties of soils and rocks determined from experiments in laboratories and in situ. Several tests used in geotechnical engineering are described and interconnections between the physical state of rocks and soils and their rheological parameters are considered.The second part of the book considers the applications of various theories which were either first developed for descriptive purposes in continuum mechanics and then adopted in soil and rock mechanics, or were specially developed for the latter discipline. Chapter 4 discusses the application of the theory of linear viscoelasticity in solving problems of stable behaviour of rocks and soils. Chapter 5 covers the use of the groundwater flow theory as applied to several problems connected with water movement in an undeformable soil or rock skeleton. Chapter 6 is a natural expansion of the arguments put forward in the previous chapter. Here the movement of water is regarded as the cause of deformation of the rock or soil skeleton and the consolidation theory developed on this basis is presented in a novel formulation. Some new engineering solutions are also reported. The seventh chapter is devoted to the limit state theory as applied to the study of the mechanical behaviour of soils and rocks. It presents some new solutions and methods which include both static and kinematic aspects of the problem, and some original effective methods for investigating media of limited cohesion. The final chapter gives a systematic account of the mechanics of highly dispersed soils, commonly called clays.

A concise examination of the use of elasticity in solving geotechnical engineering problems.

This handbook is a collection of elasticity solutions. Many of the results presented here cannot be found in textbooks and are available in scientific articles only. Some of them were obtained in the closed form quite recently. The solutions have been thoroughly checked and reduced to a "user friendly" form. Every effort has been made to keep the book free of misprints. The theory of elasticity is a mature field and a large number of solutions are available. We had to make choices in selecting material for this book. The emphasis is made on results relevant to general solid mechanics and materials science applications. Solutions related to structural mechanics (beams, plates, shells, etc.) are left out. The content is limited to the linear elasticity.

Although there are several books in print dealing with elasticity, many focus on specialized topics such as mathematical foundations, anisotropic materials, two-dimensional problems, thermoelasticity, non-linear theory, etc. As such they are not appropriate candidates for a general textbook. This book provides a concise and organized presentation and development of general theory of elasticity. This text is an excellent book teaching guide. Contains exercises for student engagement as well as the integration and use of MATLAB Software Provides development of common solution methodologies and a systematic review of analytical solutions useful in applications of