Subjects › Geotechnics and Geology
Soil Mechanics
How soil carries load, holds water and settles.
Topics by level
Basics
School, diploma and first-year level: the ideas in plain words.
Intermediate
Degree and exam core (GATE, ESE level).
Advanced and Design
Professional design practice.
Research
Frontier topics for researchers and postgraduates.
- Unsaturated soil mechanics planned
- Constitutive modelling planned
Codes and standards
| Country | Designation | Scope (our words) | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| India | IS 1498 | Classification and identification of soils for general engineering purposes. | current |
| India | IS 2720 (series) | Methods of test for soils: water content, limits, compaction, shear and others, each in its own part. | current |
| India | IS 6403 | Determination of bearing capacity of shallow foundations. | current |
| India | IS 8009 (Part 1) | Calculation of settlement of shallow foundations. | current |
| USA | ASTM D1557 | Laboratory compaction of soil using modified effort. | current |
| USA | ASTM D698 | Laboratory compaction of soil using standard effort. | current |
| UK | BS 1377 | Methods of test for soils for civil engineering purposes. | partly superseded by EN ISO 17892 |
| UK | BS 5930 | Code of practice for ground investigations. | current |
| Europe | EN 1997 (Eurocode 7) | Geotechnical design. | current |
| Germany | DIN 1054 | Subsoil verification of safety; German supplement to Eurocode 7. | current |
| Germany | DIN 4085 | Calculation of earth pressure. | current |
| Japan | JIS A 1210 | Test method for soil compaction using a rammer. | current |
| Australia | AS 1289 (series) | Methods of testing soils for engineering purposes. | current |
| Canada | Canadian Foundation Engineering Manual (Canadian Geotechnical Society) | National guidance on foundation investigation and design. | current |
Listed in a fixed country order; no standard is ranked above another. Scopes are our summaries. Buy the standards from the issuing body for exact text.
References and further reading
Standard texts, listed in no order of merit. We do not copy text, figures, tables or solved problems from any book; our explanations and examples are original.
- Gopal Ranjan, A. S. R. Rao, Basic and Applied Soil Mechanics, New Age International, latest edition.
- B. M. Das, Principles of Geotechnical Engineering, Cengage, latest edition.
- K. Terzaghi, R. B. Peck, G. Mesri, Soil Mechanics in Engineering Practice, Wiley, 3rd edition.
- J. A. Knappett, R. F. Craig, Craig's Soil Mechanics, CRC Press, latest edition.