book by Roy Hunt 1

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

 

[SlideRuleEra]

Maybe these links will help:

http://www.thattechnicalbookstore.com/b0849321824.htm

http://innopac.library.unr.edu/search/,?b2337741

http://opamp.com/cf/details.cfm?ISBN=0849321824

http://www.SlideRuleEra.net

 

[sgordin]

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

 

[cbosy]

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.

 

[BigH]

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 (

http://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.

 

[TTK]

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.

 

[sgordin]

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 CA

 

[dgillette]

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.

 

[GeoJock]

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