×
INTELLIGENT WORK FORUMS
FOR ENGINEERING PROFESSIONALS

Log In

Come Join Us!

Are you an
Engineering professional?
Join Eng-Tips Forums!
  • Talk With Other Members
  • Be Notified Of Responses
    To Your Posts
  • Keyword Search
  • One-Click Access To Your
    Favorite Forums
  • Automated Signatures
    On Your Posts
  • Best Of All, It's Free!
  • Students Click Here

*Eng-Tips's functionality depends on members receiving e-mail. By joining you are opting in to receive e-mail.

Posting Guidelines

Promoting, selling, recruiting, coursework and thesis posting is forbidden.

Students Click Here

Jobs

book by Roy Hunt

book by Roy Hunt

book by Roy Hunt

(OP)
Good morning.
Can anybody share an opinion about Roy Hunt's book "Geotechnical Engineering Investigation Handbook"?  I want to buy one, but I cannot find any reviews.

Thanks - and happy Holidays for all.
 
Steve Gordin SE
Irvine CA

RE: book by Roy Hunt

(OP)
Thanks,

It helped somewhat.  However, the question is - did any engineering professional find this (or earlier) edition useful in the day-to-day work?

Steve Gordin SE
Irvine CA

RE: book by Roy Hunt

I have a copy but it seems dated and I can't remember the last time I used it.  Mine is dated 1984 and you'd be better off buying something newer.

RE: book by Roy Hunt

I'm not familiar with his book.  Would make the following points though.  There are two levels of investigations that I see - one the "traditional" one with SPTs, Vane Shear, thin-walled samplers (shelby tubes), piston samplers etc. The second level is the black-box type - piezocones, self-boring pressuremeters, etc.  
   For the first:  The bible of field investigations and, I believe, one that every engineer should have, is Hvorslev's book (1948 or 1949).  I think it is a USBR book - but ASCE reprinted it quite a number of years ago.  Secondly, William Acker III or the Acker Drill Company (Scranton, PA) has a book on field investigations that is nice.  A third book by Clayton, et al. is free for downloading from Cambridge University's site ( www-civ.eng.cam.ac.uk/geotech_new/geotech.htm ).  When page opens go to News and Features - right hand side of web page half way down and click on second item in list (Shofield and Wroth's Critical State Soil Mechanics).  This takes you to a page to download, for free, Clayton's book.  Fourthly, Winterkorn and Fang (now Fang) has a very good chapter on site investigations.
   For the new techniques, I would check out papers by Paul Mayne - he explains most of the techniques very nicely.
   cheers

RE: book by Roy Hunt

I picked up Roy Hunt's book on a whim at a used book store several years ago.  

Although I don't use it often it has been an indispensible reference for me on several occasions.  Even if the "Investigation" portions of the book are dated it contains some of the best summaries of soil and rock properties that I have ever seen in a single book.

I would highly recommend it.

RE: book by Roy Hunt

(OP)
Guys,

Thanks for the most useful replies.

My particular thanks to BigH. I already bought the "bible" by Hvotsev and downloaded the Clayton's book.  I am sure that BigH's advise was of great value not only for me.  Personally, I love older books - they do not have this literally formalized approach thqat you find in the newer publication.  At a certan point, the physical sense appears to become lost behind the matrices and weird formulas.
 
Happy Holidays to all.

Steve Gordin SE
Irvine CAamericanflag

RE: book by Roy Hunt

One caution when using Hunt's book:

Table 3.31 lists "typical" values for c and phi'.  Many of these values came from old USBR tests from back before the need was recognized for very fine porous stones (high air-entry pressure) in the triax tests.  Therefore, the numbers reported may be closer to a total stress condition that overstates c and underestimates phi'.  I was told this by the man that did most of USBR's triaxial testing in the '50s and '60s, one of those old time lab technicians who, after 40 years in the lab, understood soil mechanics better than the engineers did.

RE: book by Roy Hunt

I see your located in Irvine; Forget this book, Learn about the real world geotechnical issues by contacting L Shoemaker in Irvine, CA  

Red Flag This Post

Please let us know here why this post is inappropriate. Reasons such as off-topic, duplicates, flames, illegal, vulgar, or students posting their homework.

Red Flag Submitted

Thank you for helping keep Eng-Tips Forums free from inappropriate posts.
The Eng-Tips staff will check this out and take appropriate action.

Reply To This Thread

Posting in the Eng-Tips forums is a member-only feature.

Click Here to join Eng-Tips and talk with other members!


Resources