This book contains the proceedings of the International Symposium on Problematic Soils held at Tohoku, Sendai, Japan in October 1998. The Symposium was organized under the auspices of the Japanese Geotechnical Society working in cooperation with TC15 of the International Society for Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering—the Technical Committee on Peat and Organic Soils. Volume 1 contains the papers accepted for publication, a total of 173, with the size of the volume reaching 779 pages.
The papers themselves are grouped into five sections as follows: (a) Peat and Organic Soils, (b) Volcanic Soils, (c) Expansive and Collapsible Soils, (d) Decomposed Soils, (e) Other Soils. The breakdown of papers in each section is as follows: (a) 29, (b) 26, (c) 32, (d) 30, (e) 56.
Given the fact that the Symposium was organized in cooperation with TC15, it is no surprise to see that the first section of the book relates to Peat and Organic Soils. The papers cover many aspects; for example, basic engineering properties, the determination of parameters, the influence of ageing and finite element analysis using a Cam–Clay model. Some case histories are also included, for example ‘The design of a water-way and a pipeline on peaty ground’ and ‘The effects of a peat layer on damage to sewer pipes during earthquakes’.
The second section on Volcanic Soils contains a similar range of papers covering a comprehensive range of aspects of the problem. Engineering properties and laboratory testing are again covered, with subjects such as site investigation and soil improvement now also dealt with. Dynamic and static soil behaviour again feature in this section.
The third section on ‘Expansive and Collapsible Soils’ again provides an interesting and comprehensive range of papers, once again ranging from some fairly fundamental considerations through to numerous case studies, for example ‘Foundation failures on highly expansive black cotton soils’ and ‘Performance of pile groups in expansive clays’. It is perhaps slightly surprising to see so many papers on this subject in a Symposium dedicated to problematic soils, given the fact that a conference series on Unsaturated Soil Behaviour now exists.
The ‘Decomposed Soil’ section essentially features papers on two types of materials, decomposed granite and loess. Once again, comments made on previous sections apply here, in terms of the comprehensive range of problems considered. Typical subjects covered include ‘Mechanical properties and bearing capacities of loess’, ‘Mechanical characteristics of weathered granite’ through to ‘Cyclic and monotonic behaviour of decomposed granite’.
Finally, the last section of the book has the catch-all title of ‘Other Soils’. As stated previously, there are 56 papers in total in this section. Soil types covered include marine clays, flays deposits, carbonate sands, crushed mudstones, and sensitive lake marls. Considerations relating to ground improvements feature in this section. Stabilization using lime, soil nailing and geosynthetics are covered in various papers. Design considerations are also covered.
One aspect of interest is that the papers are limited in general to 4 pages only. There is, therefore, obviously only a limited opportunity to develop ideas. The papers provide just a flavour of work performed.
In conclusion, I would describe this volume as a useful reference providing a wide-ranging body of work on the subject. It is not a book that one would read from cover to cover. It is obviously a reference book and I would certainly recommend the text for inclusion in an organization's library or on one's own bookshelf. It does contain a series of useful, technically interesting, small papers that I feel should be of value to the community as a whole.
