Unsaturated Soils. Advances in Geo-Engineering: Proceedings of the 1st European Conference, E-UNSAT 2008, Durham, United Kingdom, 2-4 July 2008

Unsaturated Soils: Advances in Geo-Engineering comprises 136 contributions from leading international researchers and practitioners, presented at the First European Conference on Unsaturated Soils (Durham, UK, 2-4 July 2008). The papers report on the latest advances in geo-engineering aspects of unsaturated soils. It is the first collection to focus on research developments within Europe, where a resurgence of interest in unsaturated soil behaviour has lead to major advances. The volume is divided into five sections: – Advances in testing techniques, – Engineering behaviour, -Constitutive modelling, – Numerical modelling, -Case histories. The areas of application include slope stability, foundations, dams, contaminated land, landfill and nuclear waste repositories. The section on advances in testing techniques includes recent developments in high capacity tensiometers, spatial Time Domain Reflectometry and Environmental Scanning Electron Microscopy. The section on engineering behaviour includes the latest findings concerning factors affecting the water retention surface; volume change of soils during wetting and drying; peak, ultimate and residual strength of soils; small strain modulii and shear wave responses. The sections on Constitutive and Numerical modelling address major developments in coupled thermo-hydro-mechanical elasto-plastic models. Unsaturated Soils: Advances in Geo-Engineering contains 90 papers from 15 countries within Europe with a further 46 contributions from 15 other countries, and is a comprehensive collection that will be essential referencematerial for geo-engineers around the world.