Construction Project Organising

Dams form an essential part of the infrastructure of many countries. Control of water, whether for agriculture, public or industrial supply, or flood alleviation is a prerequisite for social and economic development.

From the second of biennial symposia, 54 papers cover embankment and slope stability, mining, tunneling, soil and structure interaction, dynamic analysis, and constitutive models. They also include applications and case studies of FLAC and three- dimensional FLAC. Among specific topics are a visco-elastic- plastic softening model and its application for solving static and dynamic stability problems in potash mining, the seismic modeling of sheet pile bulkheads for waterfront applications, calculating the collapse strains of floodable rockfills by means of finite difference formulated numerical simulations, the effect of embankment slope on the lateral response of piles, and the softening of coal on the design of yield pillars. Only authors are indexed. c. Book News Inc.

Geothermal heat is a viable source of energy and its environmental impact in terms of CO2 emissions is significantly lower than conventional fossil fuels. Shallow geothermal systems are increasingly utilized for heating and cooling of buildings and greenhouses. However, their utilization is inconsistent with the enormous amount of energy available underneath the surface of the earth.

New Techniques on Soft Soils covers a wide range of updated techniques related to site investigation, vertical drains, surcharge, piled embankment, granular piles, deep mixing, monitoring and performance. An essential reference for designers and practitioners involved in soft soil construction, it provides a comprehensive view of current experiences and opinions of researchers and professionals from different parts of the world involving site investigation, design and construction on soft clays.