Principles of Testing Soils, Rocks and Concrete

Soils, rocks and concrete are the principal materials a civil engineer encounters in practice. This book deals with the material analogies, their implications in property characterization, giving attention to similar as well as dissimilar methods in respect of each of these three materials. It provides an integrated, systematic approach for realistic assessment of engineering properties of soils, rocks and concrete. Geotechnical engineers, civil engineers and materials scientists will be interested in this volume.

Inhalt

Preface. 1. Introduction. Prelude. Practical problems. Material state and engineering property. Stress and strain. Strength. Deformation. Constitutive relationships. Yield and failure. What are material properties? 2. Rock and Soil as Engineering Materials. Introduction. Geological origin of rock materials. Structural geological features of rock mass. Formation of soils. Transitional earth materials. Engineering characteristics. Engineering properties. 3. Concrete as a Construction Material. Introduction. Basic differences. Requirement. Materials for concrete. Proportioning of concrete mixes. Practical concreting. Properties of concrete. 4. Soil, Rock and Concrete Material Analogies and Implications. Introduction. Saturated soil and fresh concrete. Intact rock and hardened concrete. Rock fill and rock masses. Testing of soils, rocks and concrete. 5. Exploration. Introduction. Art and science in subsurface exploration. Problems and phases in site investigation. Types and classification of methods. Phases of site investigations. Geophysical exploration. Soil sounding. Standard penetration test. Boring and drilling methods. Concluding remarks. 6. Sampling: Requirements and Techniques. Introduction. Sampling: classification and requirements. Preparatory work. Representative disturbed sampling. Undisturbed sampling: tools and techniques. Sampling techniques in relation to soil, rock and concrete. Handling of samples. Sample quality and evaluation. 7. Compositional Analysis. Introduction. Structure of solid phases. Basic structural units. Mineralogy of the earth's materials. General scheme for compositional analysis. Particle-size analysis. Surface area determination. Elemental analysis of soils, rocks and concrete. Differential thermal analysis. Optical methods. Electron microscopy. X-ray diffraction. 8. Micro- and Macro-structural Analysis. Introduction. Micro-structure. Macro-structure. Experimental techniques. Specimen preparation for specific techniques. Petrofabric analysis. Soil fabric analysis. Cement pastes, mortars and concrete. Macro- and micro-structural characteristics of soils, rocks and concrete. Structural dependent property characterization. 9. Inferential Testing. Introduction. In-situ and placement state parameters. Inferential testing of rock material. Consistency limits of soils. Inferential tests on transitional earth materials. Cements, mortars and concrete. Inferential parameters and environmental behaviour. Micro-mechanistic interpretation for property correlations. 10. Engineering Property Evaluation: Laboratory Methods. Introduction. Deformability, compressiblity and consolidation. Strength and deformation. Permeability: laboratory measurement methods. 11. Engineering Property Evaluation: In-situ Methods. Introduction. Field instrumentation. In-situ stress determination. Compressibility and deformation modulus assessment. In-situ strength measurements. In-situ evaluation of concrete. In-situ permeability tests. References. Author index. Subject Index.