We live in the age of high tech. Though engineering stands at centre stage becoming the key to survival, civil engineering is a much misunderstood and widely underestimated profession. It is a miserable paradox in its moment of ascendance and severely needed by society, civil engineering is frequently faced with the trivialization of its purpose and the debasement of its practice. Geotechnical engineering is without a doubt a huge deal in the construction industry that deals with the behavior of rock and ground materials which are all essential components in the construction sector. Having a deep understanding as to how these components behave and work as construction materials is crucial in order for project managers, builders and developers to measure the safety and efficiency of the structure that is about to be built. It is more than clear that geotechnics will continue to be primarily concerned with the idea of risk management. A geotechnical engineer needs to take things like the terrain stability (existing and potential landslides), element vulnerability and most importantly, consequences of failure. Based on this, they need to conduct an objective risk assessment and say whether the risk is acceptable/tolerable or not. It plays a key role in all civil engineering projects built on or in the ground, and it is vital for the assessment of natural hazards such as earthquakes, liquefaction, sinkholes, rock falls and landslides.

Geotechnical Engineering brings together state of the art information to understand the current developments in the fields of rock mechanics, geotechnical engineering, soil mechanics and foundation engineering, civil engineering, mining engineering, hydraulic engineering, petroleum engineering, engineering geology, etc. It presents comprehensive coverage on the experimental and theoretical aspects of rock mechanics, including laboratory and field testing, methods of computation and field observation of structural behavior. The chapters’ content emphasizes the importance of geotechnical engineering, which is one of the several majors of civil engineering, on the development of lunar basis and lunar exploration. Shear strength of soils is overviewed and strength characteristics of various lunar soil simulants are summarized, as shear strength is a key factor for most of the geotechnical analysis.

The book will be of interest towards materials scientists, metallurgists, mechanical and civil engineers, and can also be well used in education, research and industry.