This book has become, since its first publication in 1986, the standard reference text for practising geotechnical engineers assigning or reviewing static effective stress laboratory tests. This is because the 1st edition of the book presented excellent guidance on almost all aspects of static triaxial and hydraulic cell testing, in alucid well-written manner.
The main objective of the 2nd edition of Volume 3 is to make appropriate amendments to take account of the requirements of BS 1377: 1990 (Parts 1, 6 and 8). This objective appears to have been achieved successfully, whilst retaining the previous edition's clarity and fluency. Other minor changes include updating of references, and some discussion of the appropriate frequency for recalibration of electronic measurement devices, as these are now widely used in commercial laboratories. The most notable aspect of the 2nd edition, however, is that guidance on tests not included in Parts 6 and 8 of BS 1377 has been removed. Head states that he intends to cover the more advanced tests in a separate volume. It is proper that the more advanced tests should be removed from Volume 3, as these tests often require a bespoke approach, tailored to the needs of the individual project. Nevertheless, many geotechnical engineers will feel that the removal of the section on, for example, stress path and Ko testing, leaves a void that needs filling as soon as possible. Therefore, we await publication of the volume on advanced laboratory testing with anticipation.
Teach/me data analysis is an interactive course on CD-Rom covering the statistical analysis of data. The course has been developed in cooperation with the Vienna Institute of Technology, and provides an overall teaching environment, incorporating not only an interactive text book but also a course designer and an examination designer. Whilst the software is available as a single-user edition, it is therefore primarily designed to be used in a school or university environment as the basis for a taught course. The course is presented in a browser, which allows it to be used easily for teaching groups working across networks or the Internet. The interface is therefore generally very intuitive and easy to use. The course itself and the accompanying handbook are both very clearly written, and certainly cover the main methods of data analysis used in engineering. The interactive nature of the course allows the user to directly see the effect of ‘outliers’ on the statistics data set, or the selection of interval size when analysing trends in data.
This conference, organized jointly by India's premier oil company, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Ltd, and the Norwegian Geotechnical Institute under the aegis of the ISSMGE, was held in India on 2–3 December 1999, and covered a very wide range of topics related to offshore and nearshore geotechnics, including
offshore geotechnical engineering, including deepwater problems
laboratory, in situ and field testing and behaviour of soils
model testing applied to various geotechnical problems
soil–structure interaction and foundation design
nearshore geotechnical engineering
marine environmental geotechnics and soil improvement.
There are excellent keynote lectures, which were given by leading geotechnical engineers in the offshore and nearshore fields. The range of subjects addressed in the main body of the conference proceedings is tremendous, including all aspects of geotechnics from site investigation methods and equipment through to field and laboratory testing, to both physical and numerical modelling and then on to design and construction, with case histories from a number of construction programmes. The conference proceedings therefore include papers which should be of interest to those involved in all aspects of offshore and nearshore geotechnical engineering.
This small but compact volume reports the recommendations of the ISSMFE Working Committee ERTC9, and is the result of three years of deliberations by the committee under the active chairmanship of Professor Wittke.
In the first seven chapters, the report illustrates the various design philosophies currently in use throughout Europe for the structural design of tunnel excavation, of the permanent and temporary support, and of the monitoring of tunnels. The second part of the book gives eight case histories to illustrate the design methods used in Denmark, Holland, France, Switzerland, Germany, Italy, Finland and the United Kingdom. The final chapter lists all relevant national standard documents for tunnelling in the participating countries.
As a commentary on the current state of tunnel design in Europe, this is a useful reference work. The case histories, showing the application of the theoretical concepts in national practice, allow ‘live’ comparisons of different tunnelling philosophies, and illustrate the wide diversity of approach to similar geotechnical and tunnel design problems. Professor Erdmann is reported to have once said that the loads on a tunnel lining depend mainly upon the country in which they are calculated. This book tends to confirm that opinion.
This book is the result of an exercise in which researchers from Canada, Japan, Norway and the UK, led by members of TC-30 of ISSMGE, singled out four locations of well-known marine clays worldwide : Louiseville clay in Canada, Ariake clay in Japan, Drammen clay in Norway, and Bothkennar clay in the UK.
To allow valid comparisons to be made between the sites, programmes of in situ testing, sampling and laboratory testing for the soils at the four locations were carried out by the same methods. This book is the proceedings from the International Symposium on the Characterization of Soft Marine Clays held in Yokosuka, Japan, in February 1997, at which the results from this exercise were published. The papers are written by some of the best-known researchers in the field of soft marine clays, and will be of particular interest to those working on developments in areas of the world where these types of marine clays are present, whether in the onshore or offshore locations.
These volumes are the proceedings from the International Symposium on Slope Stability Engineering: Geotechnical and Geo-environmental Aspects held in Japan in November 1999. The symposium was sponsored by the Japanese Geotechnical Society on its 50th anniversary under the auspices of the technical committee on landslides (TC-11) of the International Society for Soil Mechanics and Geo-technical Engineering and the Japan Landslide Society.
The volumes contain 221 papers from around 40 countries. The papers cover a broad range of topics as follows.
Volume 1
Special lecture and keynote lectures.
Goelogical and geotechnical site investigations.
Soil slope stability analyses.
Rock slope stability analyses.
Effects of rainfall and groundwater.
Effects of seismicity.
Volume 2
Design strength parameters.
Slope stability of landfills and waste materials.
Stabilization and remedial works.
Stability of reinforced slopes.
Probabilistic slope stability.
Landslide investigations.
Landslide inventory, landslide hazard zonation and rockfall.
Simulation and analysis of debris flow.
A wide range of topics and some well-written and interesting papers are included. Of particular note are the special and keynote lectures presented by some well-known geotechnical practitioners.
Flow-type failures of slopes based on behaviour of anisotropically consolidated sand—Ishihara, Tsukamoto and Nakayama.
The limit analysis for slopes: theory, methods and applications—Freudland and Scoular.
Stability of geosynthetic reinforced steep slopes—Leshchinsky.
The mechanisms, causes and remediation of cliff instability on the western coast of the Black Sea—Popescu.
Design of slope stabilizing piles—Poulos.
These volumes contain a large amount of valuable and up-to-date information and will be of interest to geotechnical engineers working with or researching slope stability issues.
Discovering a book which has a quality that makes it stand out from the usual is a great pleasure, especially when it is a book dealing with an apparently mundane topic. These two volumes provide that pleasure, both in terms of their content, which is authoritative and comprehensive, and presentation, which makes excellent use of colour throughout.
Volume 1 covers the causes, diagnosis, and remedy of tree root damage to buildings and Volume 2 presents patterns of soil drying in proximity to trees on clay soils. The latter is a research report (beautifully presented) covering three projects involving 60 trees of various species in various soil types. Although both volumes are of value to someone studying this subject in depth, it is the first volume that is of greater value to the practising engineer.
Volume 1 describes the interaction of trees, soils, water, and buildings (Chapters 1–10); the investigation of damage (Chapters 11–16); and remedy and prevention (Chapters 17–20). It deals systematically with all aspects of the problem: the tree; its root system; the soil; seasonal changes in soil moisture content; persistent deficits; the interaction between trees and buildings; and the influence of the weather. The author even finds space to compare the effects of different species and of individual trees and groups, plus other forms of damage by tree roots.
The book goes on to present a strategy for investigating damage covering: site investigations of the building, the soil, and the tree; monitoring building movement; diagnosing and predicting heave and recovery; remedial action after damage; and the prediction and prevention of that damage. Finally, the author discusses the legal framework for work with trees and proposes a revised role for the professions.
Each chapter in the book ends with a detailed case study, drawn from the author's consultancy work, which explains a particular problem, discusses the issues involved, and lists the lessons to be learnt.
The author, who is a research forester and arboriculturist with more than 23 years’ experience, argues for a radical reappraisal of the methods used to investigate and remedy damage. He comments that the relevant Building Research Digests provide no overall analysis of the subject and the Institution of Structural Engineers’ report on Subsidence of low rise buildings has negligible input about trees. His book certainly redresses that situation and, although some of his opinions are controversial, he has undoubtedly made a major contribution to the subject.
This is the proceedings from the 5th International Symposium on Field Measurements in Geomechanics—FMGM99, held in Singapore, 1–3 December 1999. The volume is prefaced with the written versions of four invited lectures that were given by DiBiagio, Sakurai, Dunnicliffe and Bassett. DiBiagio recounts an historical perspective of the development of instrumentation in the twentieth century; a delightful read given its timing. Dunnicliffe presents a step-by-step approach to the planning of monitoring programmes; an update of Chapter 4 in ‘The red book’ (his renowned textbook on the subject of field instrumentation). The papers by Sakurai and Bassett present complementary views on the use of instrumentation and computational analysis in the observational approach to construction. Sakurai stresses the importance of the correct interpretation of field measurements through back-analysis. While Bassett acknowledges the importance of back-analysis, he also illustrates the power of analysis in planning the location of field instruments. These four papers alone justify a browse through this book.
The remaining 93 papers are divided into eight sessions on new technologies and developments, management of instrumentation, deep and shallow foundations, deep excavations and retaining structures, dams and slopes, tunnelling, soil improvement, and soil and rock properties. These contributions are less inspiring than the invited papers.
This short volume contains the proceedings of the 9th International Conference and Field Trip on Landslides, held in the south of England and Bristol between 5 and 6 September 1999. It is a curious volume in that, save for the introduction to the field trip given by Griffiths and Thomas, only one other paper is penned by UK authors, and this about a site in south-east Spain. No other paper refers directly to a UK landslide. As the editors state ‘Great Britain is not a country noted for the severity of its landslides hazard.’ However, they go onto point out that ‘investigations sponsored by the UK Government indicated that within the British landscape in the region of 9,000 landslides have been observed and recorded.’ The idea of a ten-day field trip followed by a conference is certainly appealing (particularly given the British tradition for pub lunches) and one can't help feeling the seven-page introduction does not do justice to the primary event. However, I am sure that the occasion was excellent for old friends to catch up, but I suspect that those interested in this volume will already have it on their shelf.
Essential guides have become an indispensable part of everyday life: either the issues have become so complex that guidance is necessary or there is a need to explain to the uninformed. This latest essential guide is recommended as a good practical guide to piling and embedded retaining walls including description of the potential problems and solutions, based on the many years of experience of the members of the various working parties involved in the drafting of the document.
The Federation of Piling Specialists has taken this opportunity to gather together a wealth of best practice guidance from the industry into one document which goes further than acting as a guide to the ICE specification by including many empirical measures to ensure a competent construction. The occasional comparison with Eurocodes identifies where there is some dispute among practitioners across Europe and errors in the ICE specification are corrected.
Each piling and retaining wall technique is covered in a separate section with some general sections dealing with non-destructive testing, load testing, concrete and support fluid. The reader will note a degree of repetition in the text between the sections; for example, sentences referring to guide walls are repeated in the sections on hard/hard secant pile walls, hard/soft secant pile walls and contiguous pile walls. However, this ensures that the full guidance to each technique is contained within that section.
This guide should be consulted by anyone involved in designing or specifying piling or embedded retaining walls, as an aide-mémoire to those familiar with the subject or as an introduction to the subject and the potential pitfalls for the newcomer.
The conference sessions included tunnelling in difficult ground; tunnelling in urban areas; shotcreting; slopework and site formation; deep excavations, foundations and reclamation; soft ground and other geotechnical hazards.
