A REVIEW
by
Prof A. Sridharan
Honorary Professor and INSA Senior Scientist, IISc.
Formerly Professor, Deputy Director and Adviser
at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore.

Part I consists of sixteen Chapters. In this Part, three new Chapters are a welcome addition. Here, the new areas of Engineering Properties of Natural Offshore Deposits, Manmade Deposits and Partially Saturated Soils have been introduced to the readers. The Chapter on Partially Saturated Soils considers only non-expansive soils. In India, we also encounter partially saturated soils that are expansive and their behaviour is even more complex.

Part II on Location Characterization has been dealt with in a lucid way. Readers should find this part very useful.

Analytical Techniques (Part III), Engineering Design (Part IV), Geotechnical Construction (Part V) and Ground Engineering (Part VI) have been presented with clarity. These form the major part of the Book and will be useful both for undergraduate students and consulting engineers. The Chapters on Reinforced Soil and Geosynthetics deal with emerging areas and deserve to be introduced at the undergraduate level.

Geoenvironmental Engineering (Part VII) is an upcoming thrust area with great practical significance. This Part containing six Chapters has been treated extremely well. It will be useful also for postgraduate students. The authors need to be commended for their contribution.

Part VIII with three Chapters introduces Soil Dynamics including Machine Foundations and Earthquake Geotechnics to the readers. These are large topics and full justice cannot be done to them in fifty or so pages. However, the authors’ objective of introducing the fundamentals to undergraduate students is decidedly achieved.

Almost all Chapters contain worked out examples that will be extremely useful to users.

The Book is very welcome as a textbook for undergraduate students; it will also serve as an excellent resource for postgraduate students and Consulting Geotechnical Engineers.