Preface
When the ninth Edition of this book was published in 2014, I was pleased to receive positive feedback for making the understanding of the new geotechnical design code, Eurocode 7, straightforward and easy to follow. At that same time, a review of all Eurocodes commenced with the intention of producing a ‘second generation’ of the codes containing improvements and changes to the design procedures. The second generation of the Eurocodes will be published throughout the 2020s and Eurocode 7, in particular, is set to be significantly different from the first generation of the code.
The changes in the new Eurocode 7 affect many aspects of the existing design procedure, and I describe these and explain how to perform the new geotechnical design process in this tenth edition of the book. Many new worked examples help to illustrate the new procedures. Since the first generation of Eurocode 7 is still very much in use in geotechnical design, I have retained the content on it so that readers of this book can gain a thorough understanding of the design procedures used in both generations of the code.
As with the ninth edition, to help the reader fully understand the stages of a Eurocode 7 design, I have arranged the sequence of chapters in the book appropriately: Chapter 6 describes the design methods (aligning mainly to Eurocode 7 Part 1) and Chapter 7 describes the ground investigation aspects (aligning to Part 2). The new Part 3 of the second generation of the code is then introduced in the appropriate later chapters in the book (e.g. retaining structures, shallow and deep foundations).
In recognition of the growing coverage of geomechanical modelling in university degrees, I have introduced a brand‐new chapter on constitutive modelling in geomechanics (Chapter 16). The content of this chapter was provided by my friend and colleague Dr Rodaina Aboul Hosn from the École Spéciale des Travaux Publics, Paris. What Rodaina does not know about constitutive modelling is not worth knowing, and I owe her an immense amount of thanks for her excellent work. I have embedded Rodaina's work into my style of writing so that the chapter sits neatly alongside all the other chapters.
In addition to the above new content, I have also updated all sections on laboratory and field testing to align the descriptions of the procedures with the new international standards for these tests (Chapters 1, 4 and 7). Another update introduced in this edition is highway pavement foundation design (Chapter 15) – brought about as a result of revisions to the UK Design Manual for Roads and Bridges (DMRB). The early chapters of the book continue to cover the fundamentals of the behaviour of soils. To ease understanding of critical state soil mechanics, I have rearranged and expanded this subject and this is now in a new chapter alongside description of stress paths (Chapter 5).
As with previous editions, I have provided many worked examples throughout the book that illustrate the principles of soil mechanics and the geotechnical design processes. To help the reader further, I have produced a suite of spreadsheets and documents to accompany the book that match up against many of the worked examples. These can be used to better understand the analysis being adopted in the examples. In addition, I have produced the solutions to the exercises at the end of the chapters, a suite of video animations of lab tests and geotechnical processes, and various other teaching resources to accompany the book. All of these files can be freely downloaded from the companion website.
The content of the book aligns to the subjects typically covered in all university geotechnics courses. Teachers should find the content and teaching resources helpful for the own needs, and students will find that the book covers all courses in all years of their degree – all written in an easy‐to‐follow style.
In addition to Dr Aboul Hosn, I must also express my thanks to Dr Andrew Bond (past Chair TC250/SC7 – Eurocode 7) and to Dr Daniel Barreto (Edinburgh Napier University) for answering the various questions I posed to them as I wrote this edition.
Professor Ian Smith
Edinburgh, January 2021
About the Author
Ian Smith is a freelance Geotechnical and Educational consultant, and Professor of Geotechnical Engineering and Leader of the Built Environment Education at Heriot Watt University, Edinburgh. He has taught Geotechnical Engineering for 25 years at various universities across the globe, having spent some years beforehand working in the site investigation industry. He was Head, then Dean, of the School of Engineering and the Built Environment at Edinburgh Napier University before leaving to set up his own consultancy in 2017. He is an authority on the use of Eurocode 7 in geotechnical design, and has instructed designers and academics in the use of the code throughout the UK, Europe and in China. He is also Visiting Professor at three universities in China and is regularly invited to teach geotechnical engineering at universities across Europe and Asia.
Notation Index
The following is a list of the more important symbols used in the text.
Notation specific to the second generation of Eurocode 7 are indicated where appropriate.
| A | Area, pore pressure coefficient |
| A' | Effective foundation area |
| Ab | Area of base of pile |
| As | Area of surface of embedded length of pile shaft |
| B | Width, diameter, pore pressure coefficient, foundation width |
| B' | Effective foundation width |
| C | Cohesive force, constant |
| Ca | Area ratio |
| CC | Compression index, soil compressibility, coefficient of curvature |
| Cd,SLS | Eurocode 7 serviceability limit state limiting design value |
| CN | SPT overburden correction factor |
| Cr | Static cone resistance |
| Cs | Constant of compressibility |
| Cu | Uniformity coefficient |
| Cv | Void fluid compressibility |
| Cw | Adhesive force |