This book is a significant innovation in traditional rock mechanics. The Mohr-Coulomb failure criterion, which has been applied in rock mechanics for many years, is abolished in the book. The Mohr-Coulomb failure criterion does not take into account the influence of intermediate principal stress, which deviates from experimental results and cannot fully utilize the strength of the material, increasing the material consumption in engineering applications. This book adopts the unified strength theory to comprehensively and systematically reform traditional rock mechanics, enabling rock mechanics to obtain a series of new results from theoretical foundations to engineering applications, and raising the content of rock mechanics to a new level. In addition, this book also adds new content such as the penetration of rock by ground penetrating projectiles, which can be applied in national defense engineering.

Yu Maohong, a professor at Xi'an Jiaotong University, graduated from Zhejiang University. The original twin shear strength theory and unified strength theory have been widely applied in countries around the world. Won the Second Prize of National Natural Science and the Mathematics and Mechanics Award of He Liang He Li Foundation. Academic works in English include:

1 《Unified Strength Theory and Its Applications》，Berlin Springer，2004;

2 《Generalized Plasticity》，Berlin Springer，2006；

3 《 Structural Plasticity》, Springer and Zhejiang University Press, 2009;

4 《Computational Plasticity》, Springer and Zhejiang University Press, 2012;

5 《Soil Mechanics New Concept and Theory, Springer and Zhejiang University Press, 2023.

《New Theory of Rock Mechanics》 and 《New Theory of Concrete Mechanics》 are about to be published by Springer.