Most Soil Mechanics and Foundations text and reference books (such as NAVFAC DM 7.01 and Verruijt) state the equations for Boussinesq’s point load problem without proof. For those who are interested in how these equations are developed, below is the derivation, taken from Manual of the Theory of Elasticity, by V.G. Rekach, where more detail is given along with the notation, which is different from what we have in the U.S.. The derivation from Rekach is given below.
An introduction to problems in the theory of elasticity. You can download the book by clicking here. Contents are as follows: Notation Chapter I Theory of Stress I. Static and Dynamic Equilibrium Equations II. Surface Conditions III. State of Stress at a Point Problems Chapter 2 Theory of Strain I. Strain Equations in Orthogonal Co-ordinates […]
Manual of the Theory of Elasticity, by V.G. Rekach
The city with a metropolitan population of over 20 million is sinking at a rate of almost 50 centimeters (20 inches) per year — and this isn’t stopping anytime soon.
At first glance, you’d be inclined to attribute this to the strong earthquakes that sometimes strike Mexico City. But while earthquakes can cause their own damage, they’re not the main culprit here. Instead, it’s something much more inconspicuous: subsidence.
You can read it all here. Put into geotechnical terms, the bed of old Lake Texcoco has some very high void ratio soils, and as a large city puts pressure on them the void ratio decreases as the voids between the soil grains shrink. Thus the entire city has severe settlement, total and differential.
My own lecture on the subject of settlement and consolidation is here.
An MSE Retaining Wall suffered a dramatic failure last week closing the right northbound lanes of I-295 indefinitely. The wall is part of the Direct Connection Project to reduce congestion on I-295/I-76/Route 42 in Bellmawr, […]
Retaining Wall Collapse on I-295 Project in Bellmawr, New Jersey
The latest in our series of monographs on vibratory pile drivers, this one takes us back to the beginnings of vibratory pile driving in the Soviet Union. It was prepared for the ReSEARCH Dialogues at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga in April 2021. The vibratory driver that started it all: the Soviet BT-5, used […]
Reconstructing a Soviet-Era Plastic Model to Predict Vibratory Pile Driving Performance — vulcanhammer.info
