Abstract:
In the nine years since the appearance of the first edition
of Soil Strength and Slope Stability there have been significant developments in measurement of soil strength in the
laboratory and the field, advances in methods of stability
analysis, and development of new techniques for slope stabilization. In situ testing, particularly cone penetration testing,
has improved the efficiency of soil exploration and evaluation of soil strength through the use of correlations. Chapter
5, on shear strength of soil and municipal solid waste, is
greatly expanded in this edition, providing discussions of
the behavior of rockfill, gravel, sand, silt, and clay, as well
as compilations of data and typical values of their strengths.
This edition also draws together more lessons that have been
learned from recent slope failures, such as the failures of
I-walls in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina, and delayed failures that resulted from gradual softening of clays
over long periods of time. The purpose of this book is to describe the current state of knowledge on soil strength and
slope stability in a form that makes it easily accessible to
geotechnical graduate students and professionals.
Development of this book would not have been possible
without the assistance of many colleagues, whose contributions to our understanding we gratefully acknowledge.
Foremost among these is Professor Harry Seed, who taught
all of us and was the inspiration for our lifelong interest in soil strength and slope stability. We are also grateful for the opportunity to work with Nilmar Janbu, who
during his sabbatical at Berkeley in 1969 taught us many
