Plasticity theory is widely used to describe the behaviour of soil and rock in many engineering situations. Plasticity and Geomechanics presents a concise introduction to the general subject of plasticity with a particular emphasis on applications in geomechanics. Derived from the authors' own lecture notes, this book is written with students firmly in mind. Excessive use of mathematical methods is avoided in the main body of the text and, where possible, physical interpretations are given for important concepts. In this way the authors present a clear introduction to the complex ideas and concepts of plasticity as well as demonstrating how this developing subject is of critical importance to geomechanics and geotechnical engineering. This book therefore complements Elasticity and Geomechanics by the same authors and will appeal to graduate students and researchers in the fields of soil mechanics, foundation engineering, and geomechanics.

During the last ten years, our understanding of the perfect plasticity and the associated flow rule assumption on which limit analysis is based has increased considerably. Many extensions and advances have been made in applications of limit analysis to the area of soil dynamics, in particular, to earthquake-induced slope failure and landslide problems and to earthquake-induced lateral earth pressures on rigid retaining structures. The purpose of the book therefore is in part to discuss the validity of the upper bound work (or energy) method of limit analysis in a form that can be appreciated by a practicing soil engineer, and in part to provide a compact and up-to-date summary of recent advances in the applications of limit analysis to earthquake-induced stability problems in soil mechanics.

This book is a personal anthology of the author's utmost academic works and accomplishments with his former students and colleagues intended as an enduring record for the engineering community for many years to come.The author's forty-year professional career and academic life journey is first briefly sketched in Chapter 1 and more details are elaborated in three chapters that follow: Chapter 2: The first ten years at Lehigh — beginning to show; Chapter 3: Twenty=three years at Purdue — the highly productive years; and Chapter 4: seven years at UH — the pursuit of excellence. The author's specific academic contributions are documented in the following three chapters: Chapter 5: 23 academic bulletins are selected to highlight his 10 major research areas; Chapter 6: 23 Academic masterpiece books are listed along with their respective peer review comments; and Chapter 7: academic publications include journal articles, conference proceedings and symposiums, and lectures and keynotes. The book ends with the listing of all the author's 55 doctoral students' dissertation titles in Chapter 8.In 1975 at Lehigh, the author published a milestone treatise on Limit Analysis and Soil Plasticity. In 1982 at Purdue, he published another pioneering work on Plasticity in Reinforced Concrete.In September 1999, the author was recruited by UH to take the Deanship of the College of Engineering to accomplish the noble mission: to build the College to become one of the top 50 engineering schools by strengthening the faculty, improving the facilities, and increasing the enrollment. Over his seven years at UH, a lot of progress was made in all these three areas — the research program expanded, facilities improved, and enrollment increased.

This book reviews the developments that have taken place in the field of geotechnical engineering since the first international conference on Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering was held in Harvard University in 1936 until the January 1994 conference in New Delhi, India.