ABSTRACT
In previous chapters I considered the behaviour of single elements of soil, either in the ground or in laboratory tests, and I developed simple theories for strength of soil and simple constitutive equations relating increments of stress and strain. What we have to do now is to apply these theories to the behaviour of geotechnical structures such as foundations, slopes and retaining walls. As discussed earlier, solutions for problems in mechanics must satisfy the three conditions of equilibrium, compatibility and material properties. It is fairly obvious that complete solutions, satisfying these conditions with the material properties for soil, will be very difficult to obtain, even for very simple foundations and slopes.
