Book Review
Manual of Soil Laboratory Testing
(K.H. Head and R.J. Epps)
Review by: Richard Jackson
11 Venus Crescent, Geofirma Engineering Ltd., Heidelberg, Ontario N0B 2M1, Canada
Over the past 25 years, K. H. Head and Roger
Epps have prepared three editions of their classic
geotechnical laboratory text in three volumes. For the
environmental and engineering geoscientist, the man-
ual is most helpful in explaining the principles of
testing soil materials and how the numerical values
are generated. Thus, expertise in data interpretation is
enhanced by inspection and mastery of the testing
methods.
The third edition of Manual of Soil Laboratory
Testing. Volume III: Effective Stress Tests (2014), was
recently published by the Scottish publishing house
Whittles, thus completing the updating of the test
methods. Therefore, this is a suitable time to review
this multi-volume textbook. Some may recognize the
engineering geologist Roger Epps as the lead author
of the chapter on ground investigation and testing in
the Geological Society of London’s 2012 monograph
on Hot Deserts, reviewed in this journal by Robert
Watters (2013) of the University of Nevada.
Volume I of the series was originally published in
1980 to describe the U.K. standards, but it has been
revised over the years along with the other volumes
to account for changes in the British standards and
the adoption of tests in 2010 developed by the
European Union, i.e., Eurocode 7, Geotechnical
Design, which are replacing the British Standards
Institute tests.
Most importantly for North American readers, the
manual identifies those tests that are similar to or the
same as the standardized tests of the American
Society of Testing Materials (ASTM). Thus, in
Volume I, Chapter 4, on particle size, Procedure
4.8.3 Hydrometer Analysis identifies both the BS
1377 standard and the ASTM D 422 standard as
references. The text clarifies that two types of
hydrometer are specified by ASTM. Similarly, con-
solidation testing (BS 1377) is described in Volume II
in detail, and then a section is devoted to describing
the specific differences in the ASTM consolidation
Environmental & Engineering Geoscience, Vol. XXI, No. 3, August 2015, pp. 247–248
test (D 2435), e.g., specimen size, load pressures, and
equipment.
The third edition of Volume I (soil classification
and compaction tests; Head, 2006) includes seven
chapters: (1) scope and general requirements; (2)
moisture content and index tests; (3) density and
particle density; (4) particle size; (5) chemical tests; (6)
compaction tests; and (7) description of soils.
The third edition of Volume II (permeability, shear
strength, and compressibility tests; Head and Epps,
2011) has a further seven chapters: (8) scope,
equipment, and laboratory practice; (9) preparation
of test specimens; (10) permeability and erodibility
tests; (11) California bearing ratio; (12) direct shear
tests; (13) undrained compression tests; and (14)
oedometer consolidation tests.
The third edition of Volume III (effective stress
tests; Head and Epps, 2014) consists of a final eight
chapters: (15) effective stress testing principles:
theory and practice; (16) stress paths in triaxial
testing; (17) test equipment; (18) calibrations, correc-
tions, and general practice; (19) routine effective
stress triaxial tests; (20) further triaxial shear strength
tests; (21) triaxial consolidation and permeability
tests; and (22) hydraulic consolidation and perme-
ability tests.
The three-volume set is not a cookbook for
laboratory technicians, although that is certainly
one of the uses considered by the authors. Each
volume contains the theoretical basis of measurement
that is most helpful to geoscientists who may never
have taken a course in geotechnical engineering or
soil mechanics. Thus, Volume II, Chapter 8 describes
the use, calibration, and care of geotechnical
laboratory instruments from pressure transducers
to load rings. Later in this volume, Chapter 10
presents a useful introduction to the laboratory
measurement of hydraulic conductivity, therein re-
ferred to by the old and incorrect terminology
‘‘permeability’’ or ‘‘coefficient of permeability,’’
247
 Book Review
which faded from use in North America in the 1970s
as we realized the terminological error and the
ambiguity when considering multiphase flow. The
introductory chapter in Volume III, ‘‘Effective Stress
Testing Principles: Theory and Applications,’’ pro-
vides a very useful introduction for geoscientists to
the concept of effective stress and the theory of
triaxial testing.
The descriptions are clear, the chapters are well
organized, and the illustrations are superb. This
splendid manual belongs in every university library
patronized by geoscientists and engineers. Through
the kindness of Whittles Publishing, the review set
now is resident here in the library of the University of
Waterloo.
248 Environmental & Engineering Geoscience, Vol. XXI, No. 3, August 2015, pp. 247–248
REFERENCES
HEAD, K. H., 2006, Manual of Soil Laboratory Testing. Volume I:
Soil Classification and Compaction Tests, Vol. 3rd ed.:
Whittles Publishing, distributed in North America by CRC
Press LLC, Boca Raton, FL.
HEAD, K. H. AND EPPS, R. J., 2011, Manual of Soil Laboratory
Testing. Volume II: Permeability, Shear Strength and Com-
pressibility Tests, Vol. 3rd ed, Whittles Publishing, distributed
in North America by CRC Press LLC, Boca Raton, FL.
HEAD, K. H. AND EPPS, R. J., 2014, Manual of Soil Laboratory
Testing. Volume III: Effective Stress Tests, Vol. 3rd ed.:
Whittles Publishing, distributed in North America by CRC
Press LLC, Boca Raton, FL.
WATTERS, R. J., 2013, Book Review of Hot Deserts: Engineering,
Geology and Geomorphology, (edited by M. J. Walker.
(Editor), Environmental & Engineering Geoscience, Vol. 19,
No. 4, pp. 394–395.