Advanced Soil Mechanics, Fifth Edition

Braja M. Das

• Publisher: CRC Press
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN:
  9780815379133
• eBook ISBN:
  9781351215169
• Topic: Technology & Engineering
• Subtopic: Civil Engineering
• Index: Technology & Engineering

Now in its fifth edition, this classic textbook continues to offer a well-tailored resource for beginning graduate students in geotechnical engineering. Further developing the basic concepts from undergraduate study, it provides a solid foundation for advanced study.

This new edition addresses a variety of recent advances in the field and each section is updated. Braja Das particularly expands the content on consolidation, shear strength of soils, and both elastic and consolidation settlements of shallow foundations to accommodate modern developments.

New material includes:

• Recently published correlations of maximum dry density and optimum moisture content of compaction
• Recent methods for determination of preconsolidation pressure
• A new correlation for recompression index
• Different approaches to estimating the degree of consolidation
• A discussion on the relevance of laboratory strength tests to field conditions
• Several new example problems

This text can be followed by advanced courses dedicated to topics such as mechanical and chemical stabilization of soils, geo-environmental engineering, critical state soil mechanics, geosynthetics, rock mechanics, and earthquake engineering. It can also be used as a reference by practical consultants.

Chapter 1

Soil aggregate, plasticity, and classification

1.1 Introduction

Soils are aggregates of mineral particles; and together with air and/or water in the void spaces, they form three-phase systems. A large portion of the earth’s surface is covered by soils, and they are widely used as construction and foundation materials. Soil mechanics is the branch of engineering that deals with the engineering properties of soils and their behavior under stress.

This book is divided into 11 chapters: “Soil Aggregate, Plasticity, and Classification,” “Stresses and Strains: Elastic Equilibrium,” “Stresses and Displacement in a Soil Mass: Two-Dimensional Problems,” “Stresses and Displacement in a Soil Mass: Three-Dimensional Problems,” “Pore Water Pressure due to Undrained Loading,” “Permeability,” “Seepage,” “Consolidation,” “Shear Strength of Soil,” “Elastic Settlement of Shallow Foundations,” and “Consolidation Settlement of Shallow Foundations.” This chapter is a brief overview of some soil properties and their classification. It is assumed that the reader has been previously exposed to a basic soil mechanics course.

1.2 Soil: separate size limits

A naturally occurring soil sample may have particles of various sizes. Over the years, various agencies have tried to develop the size limits of gravel, sand, silt, and clay. Some of these size limits are shown in Table 1.1.

Referring to Table 1.1, it is important to note that some agencies classify clay as particles smaller than 0.005 mm in size, and others classify it as particles smaller than 0.002 mm in size. However, i...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Author
• 1. Soil aggregate, plasticity, and classification
• 2. Stresses and strains: Elastic equilibrium
• 3. Stresses and displacements in a soil mass: Two-dimensional problems
• 4. Stresses and displacements in a soil mass: Three-dimensional problems
• 5. Pore water pressure due to undrained loading
• 6. Permeability
• 7. Seepage
• 8. Consolidation
• 9. Shear strength of soils
• 10. Elastic settlement of shallow foundations
• 11. Consolidation settlement of shallow foundations
• Appendix: Calculation of stress at the interface of a three-layered flexible system
• Index