ABSTRACT
This chapter considers undrained failure under monotonic conditions – a process often called static liquefaction when dealing with loose sands. Why start with static liquefaction? Because static liquefaction largely controls stability, even when the loading is cyclic (e.g. during earthquakes). If there is suf‚cient residual strength, then cyclic loading is going to manifest itself only as fatigue-like strains, which are unlikely to endanger anyone. Static liquefaction failures, on the other hand, have killed several hundred people on more than one occasion (Chapter 1). A second reason to start with static liquefaction is that it is relatively straightforward to understand, and there is no point dealing with more complex loadings until entirely comfortable with how excess pore water pressure is caused by plastic strain (and not the collapse of a metastable soil structure). No new models or properties for the soil are required as static liquefaction is an aspect of soil behaviour that ‚ts simply within the state parameter framework.
