Numerical Methods and Implementation in Geotechnical Engineering - Part 1 is the first part of a summary of some of the research and teaching materials to students and engineers by the authors. Chapters of the book discuss some of (but not all) the common computational methods that are used by geotechnical engineers. These chapters also introduce various strange or even unacceptable results that may be encountered by engineers. The authors discuss the reasons behind the strange results with recommendations and new ideas. Furthermore, the authors have included some of the computer codes that are developed for research purposes. These computer codes are very useful to research students and engineers in understanding the actual principle behind many engineering programs as well as the limitations of different computational methods. For a research student to fully understand a computational method, a small computer code written for the implementation can go a long way to help their understanding of the subject. During the code development process, the student will appreciate the various constraints, treatments under different conditions, limitations in the modeling and the computational method. Some of the codes in this book come from the efforts of several published papers which are not available in any existing books. These codes can help the students in deeper understanding of the methods of implementations, and the readers are suggested to try and improve these codes for their own uses.
Besides that, this book also illustrates the limitations of some classical theories and assumptions. The slope stability, bearing capacity and lateral earth pressure problems are unified under one formulation governed by the lower bound plasticity equation. The classical concept about the interslice force function which is considered to be statically indeterminate is shown to be statically determinate by the authors. The sample active pressure program KA can be easily modified by the users to test for this unification.
During teaching, the authors always emphasize to students not to believe completely in computer output. Human, theory or computer implementation problems may be present in every problem. Every student or engineer has the responsibility to check and assess the acceptability of the results of analysis. Readers are strongly recommended to modify and improve the computer codes in this book for their specific needs.
About the Author:
Prof. Cheng Y. M. is affiliated with School of Civil Engineering, Qingdao University of Technology, Qingdao, China and Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong. He has worked in various design and construction areas involving soft ground tunneling, rock tunneling, various types of bridges, deep excavation and lateral supports, soil stabilization, ground treatment works and other geotechnical works before joining the university. His research interests include geotechnical engineering, structural engineering, numerical methods, monitoring system.
Prof. Cheng has participated in the Foundation Code 2017 for Hong Kong as well as the Foundation Handbook for Hong Kong. Besides that, he is also the members of various professional bodies as well as advisors to several government departments. Apart from research, Prof. Cheng has also participated in various large scale construction works in Hong Kong, Macau, China, Taiwan, Europe, Egypt and Australia.
To date, Prof. Cheng has published 7 books and has received 3 Best Paper Awards from different journals. Prof. Cheng has also developed several patents which include SLOPE 2000, SLOPE3D, PLATE, GeoSuite, IOT monitoring system.
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Keywords: Geotechnical engineering, engineer, computer codes, computational method, geotechnical problems, structural/geotechnical analysis, Numerical Methods, bearing capacity, slope stability, lateral earth pressure problems, plasticity equation, Civil Engineering