Foundation Design : Principles and Practices - 2nd edition

Preface

Foundation Design: Principles and Practices is primarily intended for use as a textbook in undergraduate and graduate-level foundation engineering courses. It also serves well as a reference book for practicing engineers. As the title infers, this book covers both ''principles'' (the fundamentals of foundation engineering) and ''practices'' (the application of these principles to practical engineering problems). Readers should have already completed at least one university-level course in soil mechanics, and should have had at least an introduction to structural engineering.

This second edition contains many improvements and enhancements. These have been the result of comments and suggestions from those who used the first edition, my own experience using it at Cal Poly Pomona, and recent advances in the state-of-the-art. The chapters on deep foundations have been completely reorganized and rewritten, and new chapters on reliability-based design and sheet pile walls have been added. Extraneous material has been eliminated, and certain analysis methods have been clarified and simplified. The manuscript was extensively tested in the classroom before going to press. This classroom testing allowed me to evaluate and refine the text, the example problems, the homework problems, and the software.

Key features of this book include:

Integration with Geotechnical Engineering: Principles and Practices (Coduto, 1999), including consistent notation, terminology, analysis methods, and coordinated development of topics. However, readers who were introduced to geotechnical engineering using another text can easily transition to this book by reviewing the material in Chapters 3 and 4.
Consideration of the geotechnical, structural, and construction engineering aspects of the design process, including emphasis on the roles of each discipline and the interrelationships between them.
Frequent discussions of the sources and approximate magnitudes of uncertainties, along with comparisons of predicted and actual behavior.
Use of both English and SI units, because engineers in North America and many other parts of the world need to be conversant in both systems.
Integration of newly-developed Excel spreadsheets for foundation analysis and design. These spreadsheet files may be downloaded from the Prentice Hall website (www.prenhall.com/coduto). They are introduced only after the reader learns how to perform the analyses by manual computations.
Extensive use of example problems, many of which are new to this edition.
Inclusion of carefully developed homework problems distributed throughout the chapters, with comprehensive problems at the end of each chapter. Many of these problems are new or revised.
Discussions of recent advances in foundation engineering, including Statnamic testing, load and resistance factor design (LRFD), and applications of the cone penetration test (CPT).
Inclusion of extensive bibliographic references for those wishing to study certain topics in more detail.
An instructor's manual is available to faculty. It may be obtained from your Prentice Hall campus representative.
Acknowledgements
Many friends, colleagues, and other professionals contributed to this work. Much of the book is the product of their stimulating discussions, constructive reviews, and support. Professor Joseph Caliendo of Utah State University was especially helpful. Stanley Vitton (Michigan Technological University), Samuel Clemence (Syracuse University), Richard Handy (Iowa State University), Raymond Moore (University of Nebraska), John Horvath (Manhattan College), Jose Pires (University of California, Irvine), Paul Chan (New Jersey Institute of Technology), William and Sandra Houston (Arizona State University), and others reviewed part or all of the manuscripts for the first or second editions and provided many useful suggestions and comments. Iraj Noorany (San Diego State University), Michael O'Neill (University of Houston), Major William Kitch (U.S. Air Force Academy), James Olson (University of Vermont), Samuel Paikowsky (University of Massachusetts, Lowell), Richard W. Stephenson (University of Missouri, Rolla), William Kovacs (University of Rhode Island), Dan Burgess, Rick Drake (Fluor Daniel), Bengt Fellenius (Urkkada Technology), Mohamad Hussein (Goble, Rausche, Likins), and others also provided useful suggestions and advice.

A special note of thanks goes to the foundation engineering students at Cal Poly University who used various draft manuscripts of this book as a makeshift text. Their constructive comments and suggestions have made this book much more useful, and their proofreading has helped eliminate mistakes.

I welcome any constructive comments and suggestions from those who use this book. Please mail them to me at the Civil Engineering Department, Cal Poly University, Pomona, CA 91768.

Coduto, Donald P. : California State Polytechnic University-Pomona

Donald P. Coduto, Professor of Civil Engineering, California State Polytechnic University, Pomona