Centrifuge modelling for civil engineers Preface The first time I ever heard the word centrifuge modelling was during the late afternoon lectures given by Prof Chandrasekaran at the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay. The course was about finite element methods in geomechanics but Prof Chandrasekaran would philosophise that if we wanted real understanding of the failure mechanisms we should really be doing centrifuge modelling. On my arrival in Cambridge Prof Andrew Schofield drove me to the centrifuge centre to show the beam and drum centrifuges. In those days I was still an ardent numerical modeller so I was looking for the big main frame computers. Only a year later did I slowly realise the unique opportunity centrifuge modelling provides and started my first centrifuge tests on tower structures subjected to earthquake loading. Over the last 25 years I have been involved in a wide variety of centrifuge tests and often complement them with numerical analysis. This combination of centrifuge modelling to clarify mechanisms and use of centrifuge data to verify numerical procedures is a powerful one and is reflected in this book. The origins of this book took shape from my lecture course that introduces new research students to centrifuge modelling. It also benefits from the various short courses I gave at IIT Bombay with support from the Royal Society UK and the Department of Science and Technology India and the training course offered at IFSTTAR centrifuge facility in Nantes France under the EU funded SERIES project. I felt that there is a need for a book which makes the principles of centrifuge modelling the scaling laws and the techniques used accessible to practising civil engineers