A procedure is described for performing nonlinear dynamic slope stability analysis. The method combines updated Lagrangian kinematic relations with a cap‐type, strain‐hardening soil plasticity model in an explicit nonlinear dynamic finite element formulation. A detailed analysis of the progressive failure of an embankment is performed and comparisons with conventional methods for seismic slope stability analysis are presented. The results presented indicated the applicability and accuracy of the proposed method.

Rock bolting is not a commonly used tool for stabilizing rock slopes; however, its use in stabilizing large slopes in very poor rock is demonstrated here. During the excavation of double silos for a large pumped water storage hydroelectric scheme, multiple slope failures occur. Further excavation has been suspended until stabilization and excavation processes are determined. Extensive geological and numerical modeling, followed by sensitive monitoring with ongoing construction, is required. Deformations are predicted using a mechanistic finite element method. The installed monitoring system with predicted deformations is used to control construction and support requirements. If the measured deformations exceed the predicted deformations by more than 30% to 100%, depending on the class of rock, then reasons for these differences are determined before further excavations are performed.

The results of an instrumented pile load test program, including uplift and compression tests, are presented. The purpose of the pile load test is to determine ultimate bearing and skin friction design parameters. Vibrating wire strain gauges mounted on the steel H‐piles allow measurement of load transfer behavior along the pile length. Residual driving stresses and their distribution along the pile are also measured. Measured skin friction and endbearing stresses are found to vary significantly depending on whether or not residual stresses are accounted for in the analyses of the test data. Residual stresses are reduced significantly, but not completely, after one or two uplift load cycles. Since the design conditions are transient earthquake uplift loads, which are likely to change the residual stresses from those noted in the test piles, it is necessary to account for the residual stresses in the interpretation of the load test results.

A simple finite element model for predicting the hysteretic behavior of a single compressible pile embedded in a possibly inhomogeneous soil under cyclic quasistatic axial load is presented, along with applications to two actual field tests of piles driven in dense sand. Predicted settlement, resultant shaft and tip loads after repeated loading and unloading in the two cases are within 5% of the field test measurements. The model permits calculating the amount of energy dissipated in the soil during a loading cycle, which can be used in establishing equivalent viscous damping coefficients for studying the dynamic response of driven piles. Degradation of the stiffness and strength of the soil are taken into consideration by means of a simple rule. Due to its simplicity, the model is well suited for carrying out parametric studies to examine the sensitivity of the response to the various system parameters.

A simple one‐dimensional finite element procedure is used to analyze lateral piles in clayey soils. The analysis included a creep law for the soil based on a probabilistic model and allows for stress‐dependent creep. A field problem is analyzed taking into account the variation in the soil properties with depth. The numerical predictions are compared with field pile load test data and the creep deflections are found to increase nonlinearly with the applied loads. The depth variation of the soil properties is found to be important in the prediction of deflections of a pile‐soil system.

The behavior of axially loaded piles in layered soil is investigated in terms of effective stresses, using a rigorous elastic load transfer theory. Following the technique of Muki and Sternberg, the problem is decomposed into extended soil layers with elastic properties of the layered soil and a fictitious pile characterized by Young's moduli equal to the difference between the Young's modulus of the real pile and the respective Young's moduli of the soil layers. The unknown fictitious pile force and the fictitious pile top settlement are determined by equating the vertical displacement of the fictitious pile to the vertical displacement caused by a system of interactive forces in the extended soil layers along the centroidal axes of the original pile location. The real pile force and displacement can then be calculated once the fictitious pile force is known. Extensive parametric studies with regard to the base load, bearing layer load, and pile top settlement are presented graphically for the design and analysis of axially loaded piles in layered soil.

Due to the frequent use of the standard penetration test, efforts have been made to standardize the test using energy measurements with electronic calibrators. These calibrators integrate the force-time waveform over the first compression wave. It has been suggested that soil type does not affect this integration. Using a common wave equation computer program and input parameters verified by previous work, the effect of soft and hard clay, and hard sand on the first compression waveform were studied. The results of this study indicate that the signatures of stress during the first compression wave were significantly affected by the soil type. These results match well with the expected results from the application of reflected wave theory.