On the Back Cover
This accessible, clear, concise and contemporary text in geotechnical engineering design covers the major design topics, making it the one stop shop for students. Packed with self-test problems and projects, and with a detailed online solution manual, it presents the state of the art in engineering practice, including soil nail walls, liquefaction, earthquake foundation design and erosion controls.
Geotechnical Engineering Design explains fundamental design principles and approaches in geotechnical engineering, offering an introduction to engineering geology, subsurface explorations, shallow and deep foundations, slope stability analyses and remediation, filters and drains, earth retaining structures, geosynthetics, and basic seismic evaluations of slope stability, lateral earth pressures, and liquefaction. Readers are expected to have taken a soil mechanics course and already understand the principles of engineering properties of soils. The he book applies these principles and focuses on the design methodologies in geotechnical engineering.
Individual chapters present particular design approaches, followed by a detailed sample problem demonstrating it. The chapters begin by explaining why that design topic is important in engineering practice. Hundreds of illustrations on field applications and design approaches are provided throughout the text. Wherever designs are presented, sample problems and solutions are included and homework problems at the end of each chapter test students' basic understanding of the concepts and design approaches as well as challenging them to solve real-world design issues.
A unique aspect of the book is the inclusion of Eurocode 7: Geotechnical design, the European Standard for the design of geotechnical structures. The design approaches of many topics in this book use both limit state design (in Europe) and allowable stress design (in the USA) so two sets of solutions in many sample problems are provided to show both design methodologies. Both British Standards and America Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) standards are referred to. This allows an international audience to understand the commonalities and differences in geotechnical engineering designs worldwide.
About the Author
The author, writing under the pseudonym Xiao Ming, was a Chinese diplomat and official of the Ministry of Culture before coming to the United States. A graduate of Wake Forest University and the University of Pittsburgh, she now teaches communication at a private college in Pennsylvania.
