Soil Mechanics Laboratory Manual

Book excerpt: Now in its sixth edition, Soil Mechanics Laboratory Manual is designed for the junior-level soil mechanics/geotechnical engineering laboratory course in civil engineering programs. It includes eighteen laboratory procedures that cover the essential properties of soils and their behavior under stress and strain, as well as explanations, procedures, sample calculations, and completed and blank data sheets. Written by Braja M. Das, respected author of market-leading texts in geotechnical and foundation engineering, this unique manual provides a detailed discussion of standard soil classification systems used by engineers: the AASHTO Classification System and the Unified Soil Classification System, which both conform to recent ASTM specifications.To improve ease and accessibility of use, this new edition includes not only the stand-alone version of the Soil Mechanics Laboratory Test software but also ready-made Microsoft ExcelRG templates designed to perform the same calculations. With the convenience of point and click data entry, these interactive programs can be used to collect, organize, and evaluate data for each of the book's eighteen labs. The resulting tables can be printed with their corresponding graphs, creating easily generated reports that display and analyze data obtained from the manual's laboratory tests.FeaturesBL Includes sample calculations and graphs relevant to each laboratory testBL Supplies blank tables (that accompany each test) for laboratory use and report preparationBL Contains a complete chapter on soil classification (Chapter 9)BL Provides references and three useful appendices:Appendix A: Weight-Volume RelationshipsAppendix B: Data Sheets for Laboratory ExperimentsAppendix C: Data Sheets for Preparation of Laboratory Reports