Preface

This book will be of interest to practical geotechnical engineers. It discusses contemporary issues related to soil mechanics and foundation engineering in earthwork projects, which are critical components in civil construction and often require detailed management techniques and unique solution methods to address failures and remedial measures. The geotechnical engineering community continues to find improved testing techniques for determining the sensitive properties of soil and rock, including stress wave-based non-destructive testing methods, as well as improvements to shallow and deep foundation design. To minimize failure during construction, contemporary issues and data may reveal useful lessons and information to improve project construction management and minimize economic losses. This book discusses these aspects using appropriate methods in a simple way.

It also discusses many interesting topics in geotechnical engineering such as modern geotechnical practice, geotechnical earthquake engineering, principals and practice in foundation design, slope stability analysis, modeling in geomechanics, and geotechnical engineering preservation of historical buildings and archeological sites.

This book brings together a small collection of chapters and covers a wide range of geotechnical problems and solutions. The first chapter is the introductory chapter. The second chapter is concerned with uniaxial and triaxial creep performance of calcarenitic and sandy oolitic limestone formations for stability analysis of Roman rock-cut tombs in Alexandria, Egypt. This work provides a geological map and geotechnical evaluation of the rock mass of these catacombs and their surroundings. We estimated the rock mass quality of the different members within the Alexandria calcarenitic formations using the long-term mechanical testing and rock mass rating and geological strength index systems. The third chapter deals with geotechnical response models for a steel compliant riser in deep water clays. The fourth chapter discusses in detail local scour around a monopile foundation for offshore wind turbines and scour effects on structural responses. Whereas the second, third, and fourth chapters treat the failures of materials and structures with deterministic methods, a frost heave deformation analysis model for a microheave filler is explained in the fifth chapter. Estimation of the excess pore pressure generation and nonlinear site response of liquefied areas is presented in the sixth chapter. Weathered granite soils are discussed in the seventh chapter.

I would like to express my gratitude to the publishers (IntechOpen) for their efforts in publishing this book and to the authors of the accepted manuscripts for their work and patience.
