Author Description

This book reviews fracture mechanics theory and its application in preventing failure in geotechnical engineering works, including embankment dams, pavements, clay liners and soil covers in waste containment systems. Contributors examine stress and strain fields in the vicinity of cracks, and predict the depths to which cracks will extend beneath the surface of a drying clay. They also determine the underlying physical processes that govern inelastic behavior in brittle geologic materials. Case studies that use finite elements techniques, linear elastic fracture mechanics, and the interpretation of acoustic emissions, among other methods of investigation, are presented.