Any practical use of Critical State Soil Mechanics? 1

[GeoW]

As a young geotechnical engineer, I wonder if I need to learn Critical State Soil Mechanics.

 

[geotechniqa]

In my opinion..It has huge benefit but indirectly. It gives you a detailed picture about the mechanics of soil under various loading senarios.

Many soil mechanics concepts can be seen clearer in the light of CSSM

Cam Clay model which is based on CSSM is becoming a regular model in almost every geotechnical software that respects the strain hardening/softening behavior of the cohesive soils.
My final words, most practicioners scare to use anything not tried frequently before. So the use of CSSM can be avoided in practice.

 

[Dirtguy4587]

I echo the comments by geotechniqa. Overall, CSSM is not widely used in common geotechnical practice, however, you will find that in specific cases, an understanding of the theories in CSSM will help you understand the fundamental stress-strain soil behaviour. Going back to my grad school days, I would suggest that if you have a good instructor who can explain the practical side of CSSM, it becomes relatively straight forward to learn and understand. I think it would be advantageous for geotechnical engineers to learn CSSM.

 

[dgillette]

Post-earthquake residual undrained shear strength is one area where cssm is helpful in understanding what goes on.