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Soil mechanics is a branch of soil physics and applied mechanics that describes the behavior of soils. It differs from fluid mechanics and solid mechanics in the sense that soils consist of a heterogeneous mixture of fluids (usually air and water) and particles (usually clay , silt , sand , and gravel ) but soil may also contain organic solids ...
A more advanced understanding of the behaviour of soil undergoing shearing led to the development of the critical state theory of soil mechanics (Roscoe, Schofield & Wroth 1958). In critical state soil mechanics, a distinct shear strength is identified where the soil undergoing shear does so at a constant volume, also called the 'critical state'.
This theory, which considers the soil to be in a state of plastic equilibrium, makes the assumptions that the soil is homogeneous, isotropic and has internal friction. The pressure exerted by soil against the wall is referred to as active pressure. The resistance offered by the soil to an object pushing against it is referred to as "passive ...
This behavior, critical state soil mechanics simply assumes as a given. For these reasons, critical-state and elasto-plastic soil mechanics have been subject to charges of scholasticism; the tests to demonstrated its validity are usually "conformation tests" where only simple stress-strain curves are demonstrated to be modeled satisfactorily.
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Terzaghi's principle applies well to porous materials whose solid constituents are incompressible - soil, for example, is composed of grains of incompressible silica so that the volume change in soil during consolidation is due solely to the rearrangement of these constituents with respect to one another.
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Soil physics is the study of soil's physical properties and processes. It is applied to management and prediction under natural and managed ecosystems . Soil physics deals with the dynamics of physical soil components and their phases as solids , liquids , and gases .