Soil mechanics in engineering practice / Механика грунтов в инженерной практике

Soil Mechanics in Engineering Practice, Third Edition, is divided into the following three parts: 
I. Physical Properties of Soils. 
11. Theoretical Soil Mechanics. 
111. Problems of Design and Construction. 
Part I deals with the physical and mechanical properties of homogeneous specimens of undisturbed and remolded soils. It discusses those properties which serve as convenient criteria for distinguishing between different soils and provides instructions for describing soils adequately. It also deals with those soil properties that have a direct bearing on the behavior of soil masses during and after construction operations. Part I also deals with the techniques for securing information about the soil conditions at the chosen site by boring, sounding, sampling, and testing. In spite of the great amount of time and labor involved in such exploratory work, the results commonly leave much room for interpretation.

Part I1 provides the reader with an elementary howledge of the theories required for solving problems involving the stability or bearing capacity of soils or the interaction between soil and water. All these theories are based on radically simplifying assumptions regarding the mechanical and hydraulic properties of the soils. Nevertheless, when properly applied, the results obtained by means of these approximate procedures are accurate enough for most practical purposes.

Part I11 deals with the application of our present knowledge of soil behavior and of the theories of soil mechanics to design and construction in the field of foundation and 
earthwork engineering. The physical properties of soils could be discussed quite properly in a general study of the engineering properties of materials, and the theories of soil mechanics constitute a part of the general subject of theoretical mechanics. However, design and construction in the field of foundation and earthwork engineering, which constitutes the third part of this book, is essentially an independent subject in its own right, because it involves methods of reasoning and procedure that have no counterpart in other fields of structural engineering. In all other fields, the engineer is concerned with the effect of forces on structures made of manufactured products such as steel and concrete or carefully selected natural materials such as timber or stone. Since the properties of these materials can be determined reliably, the problems associated with design can almost always be solved by the direct application of theory or the results of model tests. <...>