J. Carlos Santamarina, Georgia Institute of Technology, USA in collaboration with Katherine A. Klein, University of Toronto, Canada; Moheb A. Fam, Cairo University, Egypt

Soils are unique materials. Analogous to all other particulate materials, their properties depend on environmental parameters, such as confinement and fluid characteristics. While their behavior is complex, simple micromechanical analyses at the particle level provide unparalleled insight. Furthermore, elastic and electromagnetic waves can be effectively used to gain complementary information about the particulate medium,...