Soil and Rock Fundamentals for Field Engineers
An Introduction to Geotechnical Principles, Identification, Classification, and Construction PreparednessBy Samuel Boateng
Length12h 29m
About this audiobook
Ground conditions decide schedules. The engineer who can read them stops being surprised.
Every delay, claim, and redesign traces back to one thing: what is actually under the site. This field guide closes the gap between textbook theory and the realities of a working construction project. It begins with the geology behind the deposits under your site, then builds phase relationships, gradation, plasticity, and classification until a borehole log becomes readable at a glance. You will identify soils by hand in the field, describe rock and its quality designation, plan an investigation with penetration testing and proper sampling, and interpret the laboratory results that come back.
Earthwork chapters cover moisture-density control, field density testing, and lift discipline—the daily decisions that make or break a fill. Later chapters take you through seepage and effective stress, consolidation settlement, slope stability, bearing capacity, earth pressures, shoring, and the problem soils that cause claims. Each topic is presented for the person standing on site, not in a lecture hall, with the vocabulary and methods needed to communicate clearly with designers, inspectors, and contractors.
What you will learn:
• Read a site's geology and understand how local deposits formed
• Use phase relationships to connect weights, volumes, and moisture content
• Classify soils by gradation, plasticity, and index properties
• Identify soil and rock in the field by hand and simple tools
• Plan site investigations with penetration testing and correct sampling
• Interpret laboratory results and turn them into field decisions
• Control compaction through moisture-density testing and lift discipline
• Apply effective stress, seepage, and consolidation to settlement problems
• Evaluate slope stability, bearing capacity, and earth pressures
• Recognize problem soils and select ground improvement approaches
For field and site engineers, construction supervisors, and civil engineering students, this book is a practical introduction to geotechnical principles that hold up under real project pressure. Keep it in the site office, use it during inspections, and let it turn ground conditions from a source of surprise into a managed part of the schedule.
Audiobook details
GenreTechnology
Length12 hrs 29 mins
Narrated byListen with 1,000+ voices
FormateBook with Audio
Publish dateSep 27, 2026
LanguageEnglish
Table of contents
1Soil and Rock Fundamentals for Field Engineers
2Foreword
3Preface
4About This Book
5Important Safety Notice
Show all chaptersShow less
6Chapter 1: Geology for the Site Engineer
71.1 The Rock Cycle and What It Means at the Surface
81.2 Weathering: How Rock Becomes Soil
91.3 Transported Deposits and Their Engineering Signatures
101.4 Landforms, Maps and Reading the Ground Before You Dig
111.5 Groundwater in the Geological Setting
121.6 Geology to Geotechnics: The Hand-Off
13Chapter 2: Soil Phase Relationships
142.1 The Three Phases and the Phase Diagram
152.2 Volume-Mass Relations and Their Conversions
162.3 Unit Weights in the Field: Total, Dry, Saturated and Submerged
172.4 Relative Density and Density Index of Granular Soils
182.5 Worked Conversions from a Borehole Log
19Chapter 3: Index Properties and Classification
203.1 Grain Size Distribution and the Gradation Curve
213.2 Atterberg Limits and the Plasticity Chart
223.3 The Unified Soil Classification System
233.4 The Highway Classification System and Group Index
243.5 Classification in Practice: From Lab Sheet to Design Assumption
25Chapter 4: Field Identification of Soil and Rock
264.1 Visual-Manual Soil Identification Procedure
274.2 Hand Tests That Separate Silt from Clay
284.3 Describing Soil for a Log: The Discipline of Words
294.4 Rock Description and the Quality Designation
304.5 Field Records That Survive Scrutiny
31Chapter 5: Site Investigation
325.1 Planning the Investigation
335.2 Test Pits and Hand Augers
345.3 Borehole Methods and Drilling Fluids
355.4 Standard Penetration Testing
365.5 Cone Penetration Testing and Other In-Situ Tests
375.6 Sampling, Logging and Groundwater Observation
38Chapter 6: Laboratory Testing
396.1 Sieve and Hydrometer Analysis
406.2 Compaction Testing in the Laboratory
416.3 Permeability Testing
426.4 Direct Shear and Triaxial Testing
436.5 Reading a Laboratory Report
44Chapter 7: Compaction and Earthwork Control
457.1 Why Compaction Works and What It Changes
467.2 Moisture-Density Control and the Specification
477.3 Field Density Testing
487.4 Lift Thickness, Roller Selection and Method Specification
497.5 Acceptance, Records and Disputes
50Chapter 8: Water in the Ground
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