ABSTRACT

This book is about the principal concept of soil mechanics that become the basis in explaining the soil mechanical behaviours. It is the extended concept of effective stress of Terzaghi and it is known as "the concept of effective stress and shear strength interaction."

This new concept incorporates the role of mobilised shear strength developed within the soil body in resisting the compressive effect. Based on this new concept a comprehensive soil volume change framework has been developed known as Rotational Multiple Yield Surface Framework (RMYSF). This RMYSF is able to explain and quantify the puzzled and complex soil volume change behaviours. The main advantage of this RMYSF is that it is able to make a good prediction of soil and rock stress-strain responses at any effective stress. This will lead to accurate prediction of soil and rock settlements.

Due to its simplicity and the comprehensive nature of this new fundamental concept in soil and rock mechanics, it will eventually be included in soil and rock mechanics syllabus for undergraduate and postgraduate courses. This book would be very useful for geotechnical engineers dealing with soil settlement, underground excavation, computer modelling, rock mechanics, road engineering, earth and rock dam engineering and tunnel engineering.