Soil Behaviour and Critical State Soil Mechanics [Paperback]

David Muir Wood (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0521337828 | ISBN-13: 978-0521337823 | Publication Date: April 26, 1991

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 behavior 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.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"...an interesting book which has fully accomplished its objectives. The text is well written and clearly illustrated. The exercises at the end of each chapter provide a good teaching tool. This book can be recommended as a textbook for advanced courses in geomechanics. As well, it will be very useful as a reference for practicing geotechnical engineers and as a guide for researchers in soil mechanics." Aleksandra M. Vinogradov, Applied Mechanics Review

"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

Book Description

One of the major objectives of this book is to describe the basic ingredients of a family of simple-plastic models of soil behavior and to demonstrate how such models can be used in numerical analyses.

Product Details

• Paperback: 488 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press (April 26, 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0521337828
• ISBN-13: 978-0521337823
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #508,252 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best Book for Critical State Soil Mechanics, January 28, 2003

By 

Gang Wang "laphier2" (Berkeley, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Soil Behaviour and Critical State Soil Mechanics (Paperback)

Let me recommend this book to you, if you are interested in soil mechanics, numerical modelling, and if you try to understand soils well.
Critical states soil mechanics is a popular framework for the recent developement of many soil constitutive models. This book is a step by step exploration of this framework, especially Modified Cam Clay model, both conceptually and numerically. The stress-strain-strength behaviors of cohesive and cohesionless soils under drained or undrained condition can be quantitively determined using this simple model. More sophisticated models in the current research front, for example, MIT S2 model, bounding surface models, are all shadowed within critical state concepts.
Overall, it is a book about a very useful elasto-plastic soil mechanics model. It uses some fundamentals of elasticity and plasticity. You may meet a little bit mathematics there, but that is almost trivial compared with that used in solid mechanics and theory of plasticity.

4.0 out of 5 stars A good but tough book, February 25, 2011

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Yüksel Domanýç - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Soil Behaviour and Critical State Soil Mechanics (Paperback)

This is a judiciously crafted book. It is not bogged down by advanced mathematics of continuum mechanics and plasticity theory. But this should not deceive one into believing that it will be an easy reading throughout. Perhaps the converse is true. Verbal explanation as the basic method instead of mathematics in conveying ideas, surely has its advantages. But it contains lots of difficulties as well. It requires tremendous effort on the part of the author to achieve the understanding of the reader. This care and effort is, understandably, provided rather rarely , especially by the masters. This book also is not an exception in this respect. Surely the author knows very well what he intends to convey. But at many places, the explanations are loose and the wording is not careful enough. Consequently it is highly disputable whether the image of understanding in the readers brain coincides with the authors intention.
In arriving to formulas and results, the intermediate steps are almost always omitted. This might be good to keep the volume at a modest level. But here it is to a degree that one sometimes get the impression and annoyance of coming into face to face with something simply out of hat. Of course also the readers orientation and habits might play the decisive role in this regard. So if you are fond of some logical following and rigor, then you must be well prepared to beat your brains out in reading this book. I have derived and completed every single missing step until reaching "Rowe's stress- dilatancy relation" in chapter 8. And at this point I have given up flat.
All in all, a good but tough book to gain some really useful insight into soil behavior. One of the best in critical soil mechanics where scarcity is prominent. Sincere thanks are due to the author for his painstaking and efforts.

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent, October 10, 2008

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V. Jagodnik "JV" (Croatia) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Soil Behaviour and Critical State Soil Mechanics (Paperback)

This book is excellent. Giving you the basic, and advanced knowledge of soil behavior written in the most simplest way.
Great work.