At Baker Hughes INTEQ, we have always prided ourselves on our people and their level of professionalism, experience, responsiveness and adaptability at the wellsite, where time, money and effective operations depends on rapid, reliable information management. IN-FACTS, a system for training, developing and providing professional advancement for field operations personnel, is the method behind these applications.

Changes in the methods of investigation have had a crucial impact on progress in mineralogy. Many important methods have emerged with their own parameters, interpretations, problems, new albeit restricted possibilities and scopes, and with their own instrumentation and measurement tools. Even the aims and contents of the investigations have changed. Two processes can be discerned:

1.  The logical completion of developing and elaborating the methods, i.e. determining all physical principles based on a single, general, multifaceted phenomenon: the interaction of radiation (particles) with matter.

These interactions and hence these methods can be presented schematically by two coordinates. One is energy (or wavelength of radiation) and parts of the electromagnetic spectrum (nuclear, X-ray and electron, UV, visible, IR, microwave, SHF and RF). The other coordinate is represented by the modes of interaction (spectroscopy-absorption, emission, scattering-diffractometry, microscopy). The various intersection points in this system of coordinates have already been determined and elaborated in detail according to theoretical and instrumentational aspects.

The role of natural gas in meeting the world energy demand has been increasing because of its abundance, versatility, and clean burning nature. As a result, new gas exploration, field development, and production activities are under way. This is especially true in places where natural gas was (until recently) labeled as “stranded.” Because a significant portion of natural gas reserves worldwide are located across bodies of water, gas transportation becomes an issue. We are dealing with many unique issues and facing many challenges in the entire “food chain” (upstream to midstream and downstream) of natural gas engineering.

Soils are aggregates of mineral particles; and together with air and/or water in the void spaces, they form three-phase systems. A large portion of the earth’s surface is covered by soils, and they are widely used as construction and foundation materials. Soil mechanics is the branch of engineering that deals with the engineering properties of soils and their behavior under stress.

This book is divided into 11 chapters: “Soil Aggregate, Plasticity, and Classification,” “Stresses and Strains: Elastic Equilibrium,” “Stresses and Displacement in a Soil Mass: Two-Dimensional Problems,” “Stresses and Displacement in a Soil Mass: Three-Dimensional Problems,” “Pore Water Pressure due to Undrained Loading,” “Permeability,” “Seepage,” “Consolidation,” “Shear Strength of Soil,” “Elastic Settlement of Shallow Foundations,” and “Consolidation Settlement of Shallow Foundations.” This chapter is a brief overview of some soil properties and their classification.

It is assumed that the reader has been previously exposed to a basic soil mechanics course.