The book presents a concise, yet reasonably comprehensive, overview of fundamental notions of plasticity in relation to geomechanics. The primary objective of this work is to provide the reader with a general background in soil/rock plasticity and, as such, should be perceived as an introduction to the broad area of inelastic response of geomaterials.


The book is divided into eight chapters. Chapters 1 & 2 start with an outline of the basic concepts and fundamental postulates, followed by a review of the elastic-perfectly plastic formulations in geomechanics. The isotropic strain-hardening framework and isotropic-kinematic hardening rules, the latter formulated within the context of bounding surface plasticity, are discussed in Chapters 3 & 4. Chapter 5 outlines the basic techniques for numerical integration, whereas Chapter 6 gives an overview of procedures for limit analysis that include applications of lower and upper bound theorems. Both these chapters are introductory in nature and are intended to provide a basic background in the respective areas. Chapter 7 deals with description of inherent anisotropy in geomaterials. Finally, Chapter 8 provides an overview of the experimental response of geomaterials.


The text is intended primarily for Ph.D./M.Sc. students as well as researchers working in the areas of soil/rock mechanics. It may also be of interest to practicing engineers familiar with established notions of contemporary continuum mechanics.