Preface to the First Edition

are in the business of

This book is intended primarily for use by practising engineers who
design of foundations and for students preparing for engineering practices. It
is intended to
Design
serve as a text for the course on the Design of Substructures or Foundation aspects,
usually taught at the postgraduate level. Since the book deals largely with design
are
complicated and involved theoretical treatment is omitted . The background theories
however generally presented in the form of concise formulae and charts
.
Since 1964 the author has been actively engaged in the teaching of Foundation
( now
Engineering at both graduate and postgraduate levels at the University of Roorkee
by the
renamed as I IT Roorkee ). The course on Design of Substructures has been offered
thirty years
author to postgraduate students for over twenty years. The author has also over
had the
experience in the practice of the art of foundation engineering during which he
s for
opportunity to provide consultancy in soil exploration , analysis and design of foundation
storage tanks,
structures like multistoreyed buildings, thermal plants, cement factories, oil
towers, chimneys etc. During this exercise, the author felt the need for
a text covering
comprehensively the basic aspects of geotechnical engineering, analysis and structural design
this gap. The
of foundations and retaining structures. An attempt has been made to fill
soil
approach has been to deal with a topic in totality, starting from the initial stage of
design has
exploration and testing and ending with analysis and design . The methodology of
examples
been demonstrated through many illustrative examples. All the formulae, charts and
are given in SI units.
Some of the material included in this book has been drawn from the works of other
ged.
authors. Inspite of sincere efforts, some contributions may not have been acknowled
The author apologises for such omissions. Thanks are due to all the authors and publishers
for their kind permission to reproduce tables, figures and equations.
The author wishes to express his appreciation to Km. Seema Verma , Mr. Dinesh Saini
many
and Sri S.S. Gupta for the typing and drawing work. Thanks are also due to the
colleagues, friends and students of the author who assisted in the writing of this book.
*-
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he
The author would be failing in his duty if he does not acknowledge the support
received from his family members, especially his daughter Vartika Hemant , who encouraged
him right through the various stages of study and writing.
This book is dedicated to the author’s parents as a token of his gratitude, unbounded
affection and blessings which have sustained him all his life.
SWAMI SARAN