The backbone of Geotechnical Engineering does not concern the development of more or less sophisticated tools and theories. It remains in a previous step. When facing a real problem it is necessary to isolate its fundamental aspects and to achieve a correct conceptual representation of its nature. This phase requires abstract thinking, which is certainly assisted by a proper understanding of paradigms and theories of Soil and Rock Mechanics. The process of abstract thinking with the aim of identifying the key issues usually renounces to complexity and secondary details. To be successful, concepts should be simple and rooted on well established mechanical and physical knowledge. Only when the relevant mechanisms or phenomena which define the problem are well understood, additional sophistication may be added for a more accurate analysis or interpretation. This book remains in this first "simple" stage.
The correct identification of the essential traits of a geotechnical situation relies heavily also on accumulated experience and on educated intuition. But, how to educate intuition and how to transfer practical experience?
Geotechnical failures, specially the catastrophic ones, are an excellent experience and a source of inspiration to improve our current understanding of phenomena and our procedures and tools for analysis and prediction. This unconventional manner to learn Geomechanics is the essence of this book which teaches how to build the necessary models to understand failures. Balance and equilibrium equations are formulated at different scales which are selected having in mind the abstract representation of the key concepts of each case.
Geomechanics of Failures. Advanced Topics E.E. Alonso • N.M. Pin yol • A.M. Puzrin Geomechanics of Failures. Advanced Topics Eduardo E. Alonso Núria M. Pinyol Department of Geotechnical International Center for Numerical Engineering Civil Engineering School Methods in Engineering Calle Gran Capitan s/n (CIMNE) Edificio D-2 Campus Nord UPC 08034 Barcelona Edifici C-1 Spain 08034 Barcelona
[email protected] Spain
[email protected] Alexander M. Puzrin Institut für Geotechnik ETH Zürich Wolfgang-Pauli-Str. 15 8093 Zürich Switzerland
[email protected] Every effort has been made to contact the copyright holders of the f gures which have been reproduced from other sources. Anyone who has not been properly credited is requested to contact the publishers, so that due acknowledgements may be made in subsequent editions. ISBN 978-90-481-3537-0 e-ISBN 978-90-481-3538-7 DOI 10.1007/978-90-481-3538-7 Springer Dordrecht Heidelberg London New york Library of Congress Control Number: 2010931830 © Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2010 No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfi ming, recording or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher, with the exception of any material supplied specifically for the purpose of being entered and executed on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work. Printed on acid-free paper Springer is Part of Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com) Table of Contents Preface vii Part I – Landslides Chapter 1. A Constrained Creeping Landslide: Brattas-St. Moritz Landslide, Switzerland Chapte