ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book reviews the probability theory and inferential statistics related to the proposed model for coarse-grained soil. It discusses the microscopic physical quantities, i.e., the number of particles per unit volume, the characteristic length, the numbers of contact points per unit volume and unit area, are derived by using the void ratio and the grain size distribution and applying the method to obtain the arithmetic average. The book explains the soil-water characteristic curve is numerically derived by using the elementary particulate model with the pore size distribution. It also discusses the concept of average friction angle at contact points in soil block is introduced and the average friction angle is assumed to be the same as the angle of repose of dry soil which is obtained from the inter-particle stress due to gravitational force.
