Soil Behaviour and Critical State Soil Mechanics

This book describes the basic ingredients of a family of simple elastic–plastic models of soil behaviour.

David Muir Wood (Author)

9780521337823, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 26 April 1991

488 pages
22.9 x 15.3 x 3.4 cm, 0.77 kg

"A good book for graduate students and faculty interested in learning about the applicability and limitations of critical state soil mechanics in research and in engineering practice." Choice

Soils can rarely be described as ideally elastic or perfectly plastic and yet simple elastic and plastic models form the basis for the most traditional geotechnical engineering calculations. With the advent of cheap powerful computers the possibility of performing analyses based on more realistic models has become widely available. One of the aims of this book is to describe the basic ingredients of a family of simple elastic-plastic models of soil behaviour and to demonstrate how such models can be used in numerical analyses. Such numerical analyses are often regarded as mysterious black boxes but a proper appreciation of their worth requires an understanding of the numerical models on which they are based. Though the models on which this book concentrates are simple, understanding of these will indicate the ways in which more sophisticated models will perform.

Preface
Acknowledgements
List of symbols
1. Introduction: models and soil mechanics
2. Elasticity
3. Plasticity and yielding
4. Elastic-plastic model for soil
5. A particular elastic-plastic model: cam clay
6. Critical states
7. Strength of soils
8. Stress-dilatancy
9. Index properties
10. Stress paths and soil tests
11. Applications of elastic-plastic models
12. Beyond the simple models
References
Index.

Subject Areas: Civil engineering, surveying & building [TN]