Soil Mechanics

Unified Facilities Criteria UFC 3-220-10
1 February 2022

We offer two versions of this document:

• UFC 3-220-10, the current version of the document, completely revised. This is now in print; click here to order.
• NAVFAC DM 7.01, 1 September 1986. The classic document; we offer this in print as well, click here for information on how to order

The history and subsequent course of this document is complicated; click here to look at that, with links to many related documents.

“Soil Mechanics” or DM 7.1 has been a valuable legacy document in geotechnical engineering for 50 years. Revisions to the document occurred in 1982, 1986, and 2005; but for the most part; the document has remained substantially unchanged since the original publication in 1971. DM 7.1 has been on the bookshelf of many civil engineers, many using the editions from pz27.net. It has been used in many graduate and undergraduate soil mechanics classed attended by generations of geotechnical engineering students, and charts and correlations from the document have been cited in numerous textbooks and research papers.

This current revision was undertaken with an emphasis on retaining the elements that were responsible for the lasting value of DM 7.1. Graphical examples of engineering solutions, both old and new, are found throughout the chapters. A new chapter has been written that focuses on geotechnical engineering correlations. Details about computer solutions and numerical modeling tools have been added to the manual. Owing to the rapid changes that occur in geotechnical engineering software tools and internet addresses, the authors have tried to minimize the number of URLs and the names of specific software packages in the text. Appendix B contains a listing of software packages available at the time of publication (2021), along with vendor contact information, with the intention that this appendix can be updated periodically in the future.

Application of Mineralogy to Soil Mechanics

Ralph E. Grim
Illinois Division of the State Geological Survey
Report of Investigations #146
1950

This mongraph contains two separate articles:

• Some Fundamental Factors Influencing the Properties of Soil Materials
• The Composition in Relation to the Properties of Certain Soils

Checklist and Guidelines for Review of Geotechnical Reports and Preliminary Plans and Specifications

FHWA ED-88-053
August 1988
Revised February 2003

A set of review check-lists and technical guidelines has been developed to aid engineers in their review of projects containing major and unusual geotechnical features. These features may involve any earthwork or foundation related activities such as construction of cuts, fills, or retaining structures, which due to their size, scope, complexity or cost, deserve special attention. The review check-lists and technical guidelines are provided to assist generalist highway engineers in:

• Reviewing both geotechnical reports and plan, specification, and estimate (PS&E) packages;
• Recognizing cost-saving opportunities
• Identifying deficiencies or potential claim problems due to inadequate geotechnical investigation, analysis or design;
• Recognizing when to request additional technical assistance from a geotechnical specialist.

At first glance, the enclosed review check-lists will seem to be inordinately lengthy, however, this should not cause great concern. First, approximately 50 percent of the review check-lists deal with structural foundation topics, normally the primary responsibility of a bridge engineer; the remaining 50 percent deal with roadway design topics. Second, the general portion of the PS&E check-list is only one page in length. The remaining portions of the PS&E check-list apply to specific geotechnical features – such as pile foundations, embankments, landslide corrections, etc., and would only be completed when those specific features exist on the project. Third, the largest portion of the check-lists deals with the review of geotechnical reports, with a separate check-list for each of eight geotechnical features. The check-list for each geotechnical feature is only one to two pages in length. Therefore, on most projects, reviewers will find that only a small portion of the total enclosed check-list needs to be completed.

Critical State Soil Mechanics

Andrew Schofield and Peter Wroth
Cambridge University, England

This book is about the mechanical properties of saturated remoulded soil. It is written at the level of understanding of a final-year undergraduate student of civil engineering; it should also be of direct interest to post-graduate students and to practising civil engineers who are concerned with testing soil specimens or designing works that involve soil.

The authors’ purpose is to focus attention on the critical state concept and demonstrate what they believe to be its importance in a proper understanding of the mechanical behaviour of soils. They have tried to achieve this by means of various simple mechanical models that represent (with varying degrees of accuracy) the laboratory behaviour of remoulded soils. They have not written a standard text on soil mechanics, and, as a consequence, they have purposely not considered partly saturated, structured, anisotropic, sensitive, or stabilized soil. They have not discussed dynamic, seismic, or damping properties of soils; they have deliberately omitted such topics as the prediction of settlement based on Boussinesq’s functions for elastic stress distributions as they are not directly relevant to the authors’ purpose.

Durability/Corrosion of Soil Reinforcement Structures

Victor Elias
FHWA-RD-89-186
December 1990

This report is intended to provide criteria in evaluating potential corrosion losses when using coated or uncoated steel reinforcements, and in determining ageing and construction damage losses when using geosynthetic reinforcements. To monitor in-situ corrosion rates of bare or galvanized steel reinforcements, remote electrochemical measurement equipment has been developed, evaluated and demonstrated on 7 field sites. The prototype equipment has been delivered to FHWA for further use.

Evaluation of Soil Suction from Filter Paper

Donald R. Snethen and Lawrence D. Johnson
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Waterways Experiment Station
Miscellaneous Paper GL-80-4
June 1980

Soil suction is a useful parameter for characterizing the effect of moisture on the volume change behavior of cohesive soil. Soil suction can be described as a measure of the pulling or tension force per unit area exerted on pore water. Two often-used energy methods for determining soil suction are the thermocouple psychrometer method and the filter paper method. In this study, laboratory suction tests were performed on 24 undisturbed soil samples to evaluate the filter paper method with respect to the thermocouple psychrometer method. The filter paper method is simple and requires little special equipment; however, the validity of filter paper as a useful tool for characterizing swelling behavior has not been well-established. The results of the study show that the filter paper method, as it was employed in this study, is as reproducible as the thermocouple psychrometer method. For the soils tested, comparisons of parameters generally found useful for characterizing swelling behavior showed that the filter paper method usually indicates less capability for swell than the thermocouple psychrometer method. This conclusion is especially significant since predictions of heave based on suction data from thermocouple psychrometers indicate higher levels of heave
than those actually determined in the field.

Geotechnical Engineering within the Piedmont Physiographic Province

Bryan M. Waisnor, Angelle Ducote-Price, Ben Jarosz, J. Michael Duncan, and Charles J. Smith
Virginia Tech Center for Geotechnical Practice and Research
August 2001

The purpose of the study described in this report is to compile and synthesize information on the geology and engineering properties of Piedmont residual soils, and on geotechnical engineering design methods appropriate for use in these soils. Considerable information was found on geology, classification, sampling, and testing of Piedmont residual soils. Less information has been published concerning geotechnical engineering design methods and the performance of foundations in Piedmont residual soils. Guidelines for anticipating excavatability, for estimating settlements of shallow foundations, and for estimating capacities of drilled shafts have been published, and are summarized and illustrated here. However, many subjects of interest, such as effects of pile driving, behaviour of driven piles, and use of ground improvement techniques, have not been treated as extensively in the published literature as might be anticipated, given the size of the Piedmont region and the amount of engineered construction in recent years. It seems likely that a great deal of information regarding geotechnical engineering in the Piedmont has been accumulated, which would be of great value to the profession if published.

Handbook for Marine Geotechnical Engineering

David Thompson and Diane Jarrah Beasley (Technical Editors). Daniel G. True, Sheng Tom Lin, Jean-Louis Briaud , William N. Seelig, Blake Jung (Contributors).
Naval Facilities Engineering Service Center
SP-2209-0CN
December 2012

Marine geotechnical engineering is the application of scientific knowledge and engineering techniques to the investigation of seafloor materials and the definition of the seafloor’s physical properties. The responses of these seafloor materials to foundation and mooring elements, as well as other seafloor engineering related behaviours and processes, are addressed in this document. This Handbook for Marine Geotechnical Engineering brings together the more important aspects of seafloor behaviour and Navy Ocean Engineering problems.

The Navy installs, or may require installation of, a variety of facilities fixed to the continental shelves and slopes, to the submarine slopes of seamounts and islands, and to the deep ocean floor. Some of these facilities rest on shallow foundations resembling a spread footing or on pile-like foundations. Other may be surface or subsurface-moored types where a buoyant element is tethered to the seafloor by uplift-resisting foundations such as piles, or propellant-embedded or drag-embedment anchors. Behaviour of mooring elements lying on or embedded in the seafloor is dependant on the physical properties of the materials making up the seafloor in the immediate area. In addition, scour and slope stability problems may exist or may be created by the placement of these elements.

Navy military and civilian engineers will be required to plan for, design, supervise construction of or have technical responsibility for these facilities. Geotechnical aspects of engineering problems associated with the facilities are difficult for Navy engineers to address because of the highly specialized nature of most geotechnical topics. Also, due to a general lack of historical precedence for seafloor construction, a low level of understanding of seafloor soil behaviour exists. Much of what does exist is published in documents not widely distributed. The Handbook brings this information together. It is intended for use by Navy engineers who do not have an extensive background in geotechnical engineering. The Handbook is not an all-inclusive design manual. Rather, the objective of the Handbook is to familiarize engineers with geotechnical aspects of problems, serve as a design guide for relatively uncomplicated problems, and be a technical directory to more complete discussions and to more sophisticated analysis and design procedures. Although it is intended for use with deep ocean problems (nominally beyond the continental shelf or below about 600 feet), the information contained in the Handbook is applicable to problems in shallow water as well.

Introduction to Soil Moduli

Jean-Louis Briaud
Texas A&M University

The modulus of a soil is one of the most difficult soil parameters to estimate because it depends on so many factors. Therefore when one says for example:”The modulus of this soil is 10,000 kPa”, one should immediately ask: “What are the conditions associated with this number?” The following is a background on some of the important influencing factors for soil moduli. It is not meant to be a thorough academic discourse but rather a first step in understanding the complex world of soil moduli. In a first part, the modulus is defined. In a second part, the factors influencing the modulus and related to the state of the soil are described. In a third part, the factors related to the loading process are discussed. Fourth, some applications of soil moduli are presented. In a fifth and sixth part, the soil modulus is compared to the soil stiffness and to the soil coefficient of subgrade reaction respectively.

An Investigation of the Effects of Grain Crushing on the Engineering Analysis of Calcareous Sediments

Naval Civil Engineering Laboratory CR 83.020
December 1982

Sixteen specially prepared laboratory soil specimens were subjected to model pile driving to induce grain crushing about the pile perimeter and study the effects grain crushing has on the engineering analysis of calcareous sediments. Each specimen constituted a particular material, level of degree of cementation, and density. The parameters measured for each test were the pile driving resistance, pile pull-out resistance, and grain size analysis curves determined before and after pile driving for areas next to and remote from the pile surface. The results of this experiment revealed that crush-ability depends on the interrelated effects of grain harness, pile penetration resistance to driving, cement content, and soil density. A significant finding showed that the pile driving resistance is not a rational parameter in assessing pull-out capacity for piles in calcareous sands.

Laboratory Investigation on Piles in Calcareous Settlements

Naval Civil Engineering Laboratory TN-1714
September 1982

Laboratory tests were performed, using a model pile, to determine what effect pile driving has on calcareous sand. Radiography was used to track the movement of lead shot in the sand during pile driving. Driving energy was also recorded. A test was done to measure the amount of grain crushing that occurs during pile driving. The result of this test shows that the side friction of piles in calcareous sand is low and does not increase with increasing blows. The reason for the low friction component is due to crushing the weak calcareous grains, which reduces the lateral pressures acting on the pile surface. Another test proved that the crushed calcareous sand does not reduce the soil-pile interface friction angle. Several innovative pile system concepts for improving the lateral load carrying capacity of piles in calcareous sand were developed.

Manual on Estimating Soil Properties for Foundation Design

EPRI EL-6800
August 1990

This manual provides foundation engineers with a comprehensive reference on estimating engineering soil parameters from field or laboratory test data. Empirical correlations are used extensively to evaluate soil parameters. The manual describes the most important of these correlations completely and systematically with an emphasis on the correlations of relatively common tests, including those that are seeing increased usage in practice.

Military Soils Engineering

We also have the previous version of this document, FM 5-410, Change 1

TM 3-34.64 (FM 5-410/23 Dec 1992)/MCRP 3-17.7G
September 2012

Construction in the theatre of operations is normally limited to roads, airfields, and structures necessary for military operations. This manual emphasizes the soils engineering aspects of road and airfield construction. The references give detailed information on other soils engineering topics that are discussed in general terms. This manual provides a discussion of the formation and characteristics of soil and the system used by the United States (US) Army to classify soils. It also gives an overview of classification systems used by other agencies. It describes the compaction of soils and quality control, settlement and shearing resistance of soils, the movement of water through soils, frost action, and the bearing capacity of soils that serve as foundations, slopes, embankments, dikes, dams, and earth-retaining structures. This manual also describes the geologic factors that affect the properties and occurrences of natural mineral/soil construction materials used to build dams, tunnels, roads, airfields, and bridges. Theater-of-operations construction methods are emphasized throughout the manual.

This manual has an excellent treatment of basic geology as it relates to soil mechanics, a subject not well covered in most soils texts (including many of the documents on this website.)

Offshore Soil Mechanics

Arnold Verruijt
University of Delft, The Netherlands
1994, 2005

This book is an excellent introduction to soil mechanics as it is applied to offshore structures, such as offshore oil platforms. Topics covered include the following:

• Soil Properties
• Theory of Consolidation
• Sea Bed Response to Cyclic Loads
• Cutting Forces in Sand
• Beams on Elastic Foundation
• Axially Loaded Piles
• Development of Pile Plug
• Laterally Loaded Piles
• Pile in Layered Elastic Material
• Waves in Piles
• Gravity Foundations

Plastic Soil Mechanics Theories

Edmund Pinney
Office of Naval Research Technical Report #2
University of California at Berkeley
July 1953

Although civil engineers have been interested in soil mechanics for ages, only recently has it begun to be feasible to apply to it the techniques of modern plasticity theories. There is little experimental evidence as to which theory to choose. On the other hand there is still relatively little theoretical guidance as to fruitful lines of experimental attack. This report is an attempt to bring the theoretical and experimental forces somewhat nearer common ground. To be mathematically tractable a theory of soil mechanics must drastically simplify true soil structure. Only a few important soil mechanisms may be considered. We will adopt rather naive models of these mechanisms, for simplicity is at a premium and high accuracy is not. The basic soil structure is its skeleton of solid sand or silt grains, usually of quartz. They are elastic in nature. Although they are crystalline, their crystallographic axes are usually randomly oriented so that the skeleton as a whole may be regarded as isotropic. The interstices between the particles are filled with water, air, or both. The water contains flocculated colloidal particles much smaller than the sand or silt grains, but appearing more prominently in clays than in sands. They are subject to electro-chemical forces tending to bond together the grains of the skeleton. In some alluvial deposits stream action has caused the deposit of non-randomly oriented highly flattened particles. The present theory does not apply to such cases.

A similar bonding is caused by surface tension in the water when air is present. We will account for this bonding by introducing a cohesive pressure , constant or at most weakly dependent on the plastic work W. The energy loss resulting from the breaking of these bonds and the rubbing together of the skeletal particles as the soil deforms will be accounted for by a mechanism of Coulomb friction. The soil skeleton will transmit a stress . In addition the water will transmit a pore pressure u, dependent primarily on the strain e. In many cases the cohesive pressure and the pore pressure can be lumped together into the intrinsic pressure . A soil may be considered incompressible only if it is saturated with water and contains no air and if the water, is not free to flow out. In the first 13 sections several different plastic soil mechanics theories are developed. In section 14, the general question of testing these theories is discussed, and specialized in section 15 to the ordinary triaxial type of testing situation. In section 16 the theory of section 15 is extended for the perfect plasticity case, and a numerical example is given in section 17. Rather accurate experimental work is required in testing the theories, as one might expect. If the experiments suggested are feasible they should definitely throw light upon the internal mechanism of soil plasticity.

Rapid Stabilization of Thawing Soils for Enhanced Vehicle Mobility

Maureen A. Kestler, Sally A. Shoop, Karen S. Henry,
Jeffrey A. Stark, and Rosa T. Affleck
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
CRREL Report 99-3
February 1999

Thawing soil presents a formidable challenge for vehicle operations cross-country and on unsurfaced roads. To mitigate the problem, a variety of stabilization techniques were evaluated for their suitability for rapid employment to enhance military vehicle operations. A combination of mechanical stabilization methods including several lightweight fills, geosynthetics, and tire and wood mats, were constructed and tested during the annual training exercises of the 229th Engineers of the Wisconsin National Guard during the difficult conditions of spring thaw. The techniques were evaluated for their expediency, ease of construction, traffic-ability, and durability. In general, chunk-wood was an excellent replacement for gravel fill in forested area; tree slash (or other vegetation) was effective but labour intensive; wood mats and pallets were effective and reasonably durable; tire mats were extremely rugged and effective. A loader or crane was needed to place the large wood mats, tire mats, and fascines. Geocomposite materials (Geonet) were quickly installed and could withstand limited traffic (50 passes) without additional cover material. Geosynthetics reduced the amount of cover material and enhanced placement, effectiveness and removal when used under other materials to spread the load and keep them from sinking into the mud. All materials were damaged during the severe motion of a tank cornering except the large, smooth wood mats, but these were slippery on slopes. Results are summarized in a decision matrix for choosing the best technique depending on site conditions, material and equipment availability, and utilization criteria.

Shear Modulus and Damping Ratio Values of Soils Found in Adama

Abu Gemechu Feyissa
Addis Ababa Institute of Technology
November 2011

In this study an attempt was done to determine shear modulus and damping ratio of soils found in Adama city. The city is located in Main Ethiopian Rift where occurrence of earthquake is expected. The response of soils for incoming earthquake is measured with the dynamic properties of soils (shear modulus and damping ratio) which are important parameters to study ground motion, site response of soil deposits under cyclic loading and soil -structure interaction. These parameters are also important for design of machine foundation. Therefore it is essential to study dynamic properties of soils under cyclic loading condition using cyclic simple shear machine. The values of normalized shear modulus and damping ratio are compared with already known curves in literature. The study showed that the values of normalized shear modulus, G/Gmax plotted against shear strain, show scatter when compared with curves of Seed and Idriss. For sand the scattered of results are observed. For saturated clay, all the measured points are close to the known curves. The values of damping ratio are also compared with curves given by Seed and Idriss. For strain less than 1% most of the measured points are located within range of the curves given for sand and clay soils. For strain greater than and equal to 1%, the points lay within the range for clays and outside the range for sand.

Soil Mechanics

N. Tsytovich
Mir Publishers
1976

This is a textbook in the course of Soil Mechanics for higher-school students of civil engineering and hydrotechnical engineering, and also for students of other specialties associated with construc­tion of engineering structures, such as road constructors, ameliorators, geologists, soil scientists.

The Author has made an attempt to write a concise course on the basis of a wide synthesis of natural sciences and to present the theore­tical data in the most simple and comprehensive form, without depreciating, however, the general scientific aspect of the problem; his other aim was to present a number of engineering solutions of problems in the theory of soil mechanics (calculations of strength, stability and deformability), which might be widely used in engi­neering.

Some problems in the book are discussed from new standpoints which take into account the principal properties of soils: contact shear resistance, structure-phase deformability (including creep of skeleton), compressibility of gas-containing porous water, and the effect of natural compaction of soils.

The book shows some new methods used for determination of characteristics of soils and gives some new solutions of the theory of consolidation and creep of soils, which can be used for predictions of settlement rates of foundations of structures and their time varia­tions; a separate chapter discusses rheological processes in soils and their significance.

Topics include the following:

• CHAPTER ONE. THE NATURE AND PHYSICAL PROPERTIES OF SOILS
  • Geological Conditions of Soil Formation
  • Components of Soils
  • Structural Bonds and Structure of Soils
  • Physical Properties and Classification Indices of Soils
• CHAPTER TWO. BASIC LAWS OF SOIL MECHANICS
  • Compressibility of Soils. The Law of C o m p a c t i o n
  • Water Perviousness of Soils. The Law of Laminar Filtration
  • Ultimate Contact Shear Resistance of Soils. Strength Conditions
  • Structural-Phase Deformability of Soils
  • Features of the Physical Properties of Structurally Unstable
    Subsidence Soils
• CHAPTER THREE. DETERMINATION OF STRESSES IN SOIL
  • Stress Distribution in the Case of a Three-Dimensional Problem
  • Stress Distribution in the Case of a Planar Problem
  • Pressure Distribution over the Base of the Foundation of
    Structures (Contact Problem)
• CHAPTER FOUR. THE THEORY OF ULTIMATE STRESSED STATE OF SOILS AND ITS APPLICATION
  • Stressed State Phases of Soils with an Increase in Load
  • Equations of Ultimate Equilibrium for Loose and Cohesive
    Soils
  • Critical Loads on Soil
  • Stability of Soils in Landslides
  • Some Problems of the Theory of Soil Pressure on Retaining Walls
  • Soil Pressure on Underground Pipelines
• CHAPTER FIVE. SOIL DEFORMATIONS AND SETTLEMENT OF
  FOUNDATIONS
  • Kinds and Causes of Deformations
  • Elastic Deformations of Soils and Methods for Their Determi­nation
  • One-Dimensional Problem of the Theory of Soil Consolidation
  • Planar and Three-Dimensional Problems in the Theory of Fil­tration Consolidation of Soils
  • Prediction of Foundation Settlements by the Layerwise Summa­tion Method
  • Prediction of Foundation Settlements by Equivalent Soil Layer Method
• CHAPTER SIX. RHEOLOGICAL PROCESSES IN SOILS AND THEIR SIGNIFICANCE
  • Stress Relaxation and Long-Term Strength of Cohesive Soils
  • Creep Deformations in Soils and Methods for Their Description
  • Account of Soil Creep in Predictions of Foundation Settlements
• CHAPTER SEVEN. DYNAMICS OF DISPERSE SOILS
  • Dynamic Effects on Soils
  • Wave Processes in Soils under Dynamic Loads
  • Changes in the Properties of Soils Subject to Dynamic Effects
  • The Principal Prerequisites for Taking the Dynamic Properties of Soils into Account in Vibrational Calculations of Foundations

Soil Mechanics

Note: the software that accompanies this book is available here.

Arnold Verruijt
University of Delft, The Netherlands
2004

Note: Arnold Verruijt (1940-2022) was one of the greats of geotechnical education and research. His books have graced this site for may years, and I still use this one in my geotechnical courses. His ability to make complex problems simple is unfortunately rare in education. Without him this site–and my courses–would not be what they are, and I am in his debt.

What do you think of the soil mechanics textbook you have (or had) has an undergraduate? Good or bad, one thing you didn’t like about it — the price! We are thus pleased to present a really first class textbook by a well known authority in geotechnical engineering. Topics include the following:

• Introduction
• Classification
• Particles, water, air
• Stresses in soils
• Stresses in a layer
• Darcy’s law
• Permeability
• Groundwater flow
• Floatation
• Flow net
• Flow towards wells
• Stress strain relations
• Tangent-moduli
• One-dimensional compression
• Consolidation
• Analytical solution
• Numerical solution
• Consolidation coefficient
• Secular effect
• Shear strength
• Triaxial test
• Shear test
• Cell test
• Pore pressures
• Undrained behaviour of soils

• Stress paths
• Elastic stresses and deformations
• Boussinesq
• Newmark
• Flamant
• Deformation of layered soil
• Lateral stresses in soils
• Rankine
• Coulomb
• Tables for lateral earth pressure
• Sheet pile walls
• Blum
• Sheet pile wall in layered soil
• Limit analysis
• Strip footing
• Prandtl
• Limit theorems for frictional materials
• Brinch Hansen
• Vertical slope in cohesive material
• Stability of infinite slope
• Slope stability
• Soil exploration
• Model tests
• Pile foundations

Verruijt’s website is still up and you can access it by clicking here.

State-of-the-Art of Marine Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering

Shun C. Ling
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Waterways Experiment Station
Technical Report S-72-11
August 1972

This report presents the state-of-the-art of marine soil mechanics and foundation engineering The study involved an extensive literature search and personal contacts with individuals in Government and industry involved in offshore work. The fields or sub-bottom exploration, laboratory and in situ testing, soil properties, and marine foundation engineering were examined to delineate existing capabilities and limitations. The viewpoint taken was that of a soils and foundation engineer attempting to plan, design, and construct, an offshore foundation with the available knowledge and experience. The study was limited to water depths of 600 ft or less. Uncertainties exist in (a) questionable soil property inputs for design procedures due to sample disturbance and inadequate knowledge about sea floor characteristics, (b) performance expectations based on inadequate full-scale foundation performance data, and (c) construction technology to place the foundation as designed. Recommendations are made for research projects to reduce these uncertainties and to advance the state-of-the-art of marine soil mechanics and foundation engineering.

Stresses in Soils

Don C. Warrington
June 2015

Many undergraduate civil engineering students find their required geotechnical courses strange. They enter into a new world of soil classifications, granular mechanics and porous materials, and a raft of empirical formulae. There seems to be little connection between the topics and a unifying theory is hard to find. Other enter geotechnical engineering in the course of their work as equipment suppliers, owners and the like, who may not have specific training in the field and find many of the concepts baffling. This article attempts to approach one of the important topics in geotechnical engineering in a different way. In the past, presentation of theory was just that–presentation–and it was difficult to apply the theory in a practical way except for the simplest of cases. Now, with finite element analysis, this theory can become practical reality. Many practising civil engineers, however, look on FEA as a “black box” where one puts in (hopefully meaningful) data and gets out answers which are at best no more meaningful than the data. Hopefully this article will bridge the gap between the two and make learning the essentials of stresses in soils easier.

A Summary of the Prevost Effective Stress Soil Model

Naval Civil Engineering Laboratory TR-913
September 1984

This report presents a summary of the Prevost effective stress soil model. A summary of the model formulation is given with its implementation into the DYNAFLOW finite element code. Test data are compared with code prediction. Several boundary value problems are solved as a demonstration of capability.

Theory and Problems of Poroelasticity

We also offer the software that accompanies this text.

Arnold Verruijt
2014

This text details the theory of poroelasticity, better known as consolidation. It begins by an extensive discussion of one-dimensional theory, and then proceeds to two- and three-dimensional problems. In addition to closed form solutions, finite element ones are discussed as well. Topics include the following:

• Theory of Poroelasticity
• One-Dimensional Problems
• Elementary problems
• Seabed response to water waves
• Flow to wells
• Plane Strain Half Space Problems
• Plane Strain Layer
• Axially Symmetric Half Space Problems
• Plane Strain Finite Elements
• Axially Symmetric Finite Elements