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Analysis of Geotechnical Engineering Safety Technology in Urban Underground Space Construction

With the accelerating pace of urbanization, the development and application of urban underground space has attracted much attention. In the construction of urban underground space, geotechnical engineering safety is the key point for construction. Based on this, this paper analyzes the application of geotechnical engineering safety technology in urban underground space construction, in hope that this analysis can provide a scientific reference for the rational application of geotechnical engineering safety technology as well as the construction and development of urban underground space.

Experimental Study on Creep of Sandstone under Hydrochemical Corrosion

Abstract Corrosion creep of sandstone has great influence on the safety and stability of geotechnical engineering, and it is of great significance to study the creep characteristics of sandstone under the action of hydrochemical corrosion for the long-term stability of geotechnical engineering. Through creep test of corroded rock, the characteristics of rock deformation and strength are analyzed. Combined with electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), the microcracks of corroded sandstone during creep process are detected, and the variation law of equivalent circuit parameters and the development trend of microcracks during creep process of corroded sandstone are analyzed. The test results show that the creep characteristics of rock samples are related to the hydrochemical environment; The medium-and long-term strength of the solution with high pH value is relatively small, and the difference with uniaxial compressive strength is large; Moreover, there is a certain correlation between creep of rock samples and equivalent circuit parameters. In this paper, the influence of creep deformation, mechanical properties and hydrochemical environment on sandstone creep is analyzed, and the research results can provide reference for stability analysis of related geotechnical engineering.

Geotechnical engineering

Explore geotechnical engineering investigations hydrogeological problems during design and construction, ssi analysis in geotechnical engineering problems using a finite difference method, construction technology of slope reinforcement in geotechnical engineering, modern methods of diaphragm walls design.

This article addresses hazard reduction in deep excavations. The authors present a possible combination of prestressing of concrete structures (from bridge engineering) and prestressed structures of diaphragm walls from geotechnical engineering science. This innovative concept has not yet been shown in scientific articles. The “Sofistik” software (with TENDON module–SYSP/AXES/TOPP/TGEO) and its use is shown, with graphical presentations of the suggested solution. The authors compare the provided solution through usage of Sofistik and Plaxis software. The results show possible strengthening of sustainable construction by limitation of hazards and decreasing costs (via limitation of use of expensive steel reinforcement).

Geotechnical Test and Effective Processing Analysis of Geotechnical Engineering Investigation Based on Geographic Information System Under BP Neural Network

Fabric studies of ice-thrust shear zones as applied to problems in geotechnical engineering, development of an adaptive ctm–rpim method for modeling large deformation problems in geotechnical engineering, export citation format, share document.

• Frontiers in Built Environment
• Geotechnical Engineering
• Research Topics

Rising Stars in Geotechnical Engineering

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About this Research Topic

Geotechnical engineering plays a pivotal role in shaping the foundations of our built environment. As the field continues to evolve, it is essential to acknowledge and celebrate the contributions of emerging talents who are pushing the boundaries of innovation and knowledge and to recognise the future leaders ...

Keywords : Rising Stars, Geotechnical Engineering, Built Environment

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Geotechnical Engineering

The UW CEE Geotechnical Engineering research group explores a broad range of areas related to geotechnical engineering. Students come from across the United States and around the world to work closely with faculty on research projects, both as master’s and Ph.D. students. Researchers draw upon their collective expertise in analytical and numerical modeling, experimental simulations and field methods to study problems in geotechnical earthquake engineering, geologic hazards, soil mechanics, rock mechanics, engineering geology, foundation engineering, bio-geotechnics and reinforced soil systems.

The group is highly interdisciplinary and current research projects entail collaborating with experts in structural engineering, mechanics, geology, seismology, remote sensing and statistics. Research is funded by federal and state agencies such as the National Science Foundation, the Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research Center, the U.S. Geological Survey, the U.S. Agency for International Development, and the Washington State Department of Transportation.

Research topics

• Soil mechanics Faculty involved:   Pedro Arduino , Michael Gomez , Brett Maurer , Joe Wartman
• Geologic hazards Faculty involved: Brett Maurer , Joe Wartman
• Foundation engineering Faculty involved: Pedro Arduino , Michael Gomez , Brett Maurer , Joe Wartman
• Geotechnical earthquake engineering Faculty involved: Pedro Arduino , Michael Gomez , Brett Maurer , Joe Wartman
• Computational geomechanics Faculty involved: Pedro Arduino , Peter Mackenzie-Helnwein

Student research

Protecting infrastructure from seismic soil movement.

Induced by seismic shaking, lateral spreading is a phenomenon that causes soil to move horizontally, which can result in significant damage to buildings and other infrastructure, as illustrated in the above figure. Master’s student Andrew Makdisi researched a commonly used analytical procedure used to assess lateral spreading, revealing biased and extraordinarily uncertain estimates of lateral spreading deformations. Makdisi received a Valle Scholarship & Scandinavian Exchange Program fellowship to conduct part of his research during a nine-month stay at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology.

Evaluating Seismic Earth Pressures on Retaining Walls

During an earthquake, an increase in soil pressure on retaining walls can lead to wall failures on a catastrophic level if the wall is not adequately designed to sustain the additional forces. To address this, Ph.D. student Cyndi Lopez is performing finite element analyses with the goal of improving the outdated methodology for estimating seismic earth pressures. Thanks to a nine-month Valle Scholarship & Scandinavian Exchange Program fellowship, she traveled to Oslo, Norway, to work on her research with the computational geomechanics department at the Norwegian Geotechnical Institute.

• Wave Propagation Tool: Dr. Layer
• Teaching Tool: What is Soil Liquefaction?
• Liquefaction Hazard Evaluation Tool: WSliq

CEE faculty oversee labs and research groups, where they investigate a variety of critical problems related to transportation engineering. Undergraduate and graduate students are encouraged to participate in research.

• Geotechnical Engineering Laboratory

Hennes lecture

The department hosts an annual geotechnical lecture, named in honor of former Professor Robert Hennes who established the geotechnical program

UW CEE hosts several centers, funded by industry and government. The centers headquarter research on specific themes and act as hubs connecting faculty and students with resources to support research, education and outreach activities.

• NHERI RAPID Post-Disaster Rapid Response Research Facility

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UW Geotech Group

Professional societies

• ASCE Seattle Section Geotechnical Group
• Geo-Institute Graduate Student Society (GIGGS) UW Chapter
• Earthquake Engineering Research Institute
• Geotechnical Extreme Events Reconnaissance

Degree programs

• Geotechnical Engineering Master’s Program
• Geotechnical Engineering Ph.D. Program 

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This 5-minute video produced by the DFI Women in Deep Foundations (WiDF) Committee answers the question: “What is the geotechnical field?”

Latest news

Mapping for safety.

See how RAPID's cutting-edge mapping and geological analysis are pivotal in Washington's fight against landslide risks after 2014's Oso disaster.

CEE duo earn EERI award

Professor Brett Maurer and Ph.D. student Morgan Sanger win an EERI Outstanding Paper Award for their research on AI use in earthquake hazard mitigation.

Drones n' Lasers

Students gets hands-on with LiDAR drones, transforming campus landscapes into detailed 3D models.

PSEC Academic Engineer of the Year

CEE Professor Pedro Arduino is the recipient of the 2023 Academic Engineer of the Year Award by the Puget Sound Engineering Council, which honors his career as a geotechnical engineering educator and researcher.

Recent Geotechnical Research at BOKU

• © 2024
• Yunteng Wang 1

Institute of Geotechnical Engineering, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, Austria

You can also search for this editor in PubMed   Google Scholar

• Provides wide-ranged research including laboratory testing and numerical simulations with DEM and SPH
• Offers a glimpse of the geotechnical research activities at BOKU, Vienna, in 2022
• Written by experts in the field

Part of the book series: Springer Series in Geomechanics and Geoengineering (SSGG)

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About this book

This book offers a glimpse of the geotechnical research activities at BOKU, Vienna, in 2023. The research topics are wide-ranged including laboratory testing, constitutive modelling, numerical simulations with DEM and SPH, landslide, tunnelling and machine learning. Many research activities are carried out by visiting scholars from China.

• constitutive model
• Geotechnical Research
• machine learning

Table of contents (19 chapters)

Front matter, a simple hypoplastic model for sand under cyclic loading.

• Mohammad-Javad Alipour, Wei Wu

Failure Mode and Mechanism of the Consequent Slope in Xuan’en County

• Yi Du, Chao Cheng, Jiaqiang Zou, Jian Wang, Echuan Yan

Reliability Analysis of Slope Stability with Intelligent Surrogate Models: A Case Study in the Three Gorges Reservoir

• Carlotta Guardiani, Enrico Soranzo, Wei Wu

Experimental Study on the Permeability of Hydrophobic Powders Treated Loess

• Yuqi He, Wei Wu, Hongjian Liao, Xiaohua Liu

Modelling and Assessment of Debris Flow Impact on Infrastructure in the Carpathians

• Olena Ivanik

On the Performance of CAES Pile in Overconsolidated Soils: A Numerical Study

• Xuan Kang, Wei Wu, Shun Wang

Experimental and Numerical Analysis of Fluid-Injection Unloading Rock Failure Process

• Miaomiao Kou, Yu Wang, Xinrong Liu, Wei Wu

A Visco-Hypoplastic Model with Solid Hardness Degradation for Granular Soil

• Haoyong Qian, Wei Wu, Xiuli Du, Chengshun Xu

Prediction of Tunnelling-Induced Settlement Trough by Artificial Neural Networks

• Enrico Soranzo, Christoph Pock, Carlotta Guardiani, Yunteng Wang, Wei Wu

Machine Learning Prediction of Bleeding of Bored Concrete Piles Based on Centrifuge Tests

• Enrico Soranzo, Carlotta Guardiani, Yunteng Wang, Wei Wu

Stability Evaluation of Huangtupo Riverside Slump I Landslide Based on Soil-Water Interaction

• Xuexue Su, Carlotta Guardiani, Huiming Tang, Pengju An, Wei Wu

Effect of Different Factors on Dynamic Shear Modulus of Compacted Loess

• Haiman Wang, Wankui Ni, Kangze Yuan

Unified Description of Viscous Behaviors of Clay and Sand with a Visco-Hypoplastic Model

• Shun Wang, Xiao Xu, Xuan Kang, Guofang Xu, Wei Wu

Experimental and Numerical Investigation on Mechanical Behaviour of Gravel Soils

• Shun Wang, Xuan Kang, Guofang Xu, Hongguang Bian, Wei Wu

A Basic Hypoplastic Model with Fabric Evolution

• Yadong Wang, Wei Wu

Phase-field Modeling of Brittle Failure in Rockslides

• Yunteng Wang, Shun Wang, Enrico Soranzo, Xiaoping Zhou, Wei Wu

Triggering Mechanism and Mitigation Strategies of Freeze-Thaw Landslides for Engineering in Cold Regions: A Review

• Xi Xu, Xiuli Du, Wei Wu

SPH Modeling of Water-Soil Coupling Dynamic Problems

• Chengwei Zhu, Chong Peng, Wei Wu

Assessing Slope Stability Based on Measured Data Coupled with PSO

• Jiaqiang Zou, Wei Zhang, Aihua Liu

Editors and Affiliations

Wei Wu, Yunteng Wang

Bibliographic Information

Book Title : Recent Geotechnical Research at BOKU

Editors : Wei Wu, Yunteng Wang

Series Title : Springer Series in Geomechanics and Geoengineering

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-52159-1

Publisher : Springer Cham

eBook Packages : Engineering , Engineering (R0)

Copyright Information : The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2024

Hardcover ISBN : 978-3-031-52158-4 Published: 21 March 2024

Softcover ISBN : 978-3-031-52161-4 Due: 21 April 2024

eBook ISBN : 978-3-031-52159-1 Published: 20 March 2024

Series ISSN : 1866-8755

Series E-ISSN : 1866-8763

Edition Number : 1

Number of Pages : VIII, 306

Number of Illustrations : 39 b/w illustrations, 132 illustrations in colour

Topics : Geoengineering, Foundations, Hydraulics , Geotechnical Engineering & Applied Earth Sciences

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Geotechnical Engineering - Research Topics

Geotechnics.

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All topics of Geotechnical Engineering are research interest to our division, but current research is on the following topics:

• Geotechnical Earthquake Engineering (Soil Liquefaction, Engineering Seismology, Seismic Hazard Analysis, Ground motion models, Seismic source characterization)
• Collapsing soils, Dispersive soils,
• Expansive soils (Swell amount and swell pressures, Lateral swell behavior)
• Stabilization of soils by waste materials, Use of fly ash for soil stabilization
• Soil stabilization by bacterial cementation
• 2D and 3D Numerical Modeling,
• Unsaturated Soils (Triaxial testing of unsaturated soils for modeling unsaturated soil strength and deformation, Soil-water retention curve prediction and hysteresis, Hydraulic conductivity function and flow modeling
• Geotechnical testing system and methodology development,
• Slopes and Landslides, Rainfall triggered landslides, Stabilization of slopes by passive piles
• Embankment dams, Behavior of earth and rock fill dams under earthquake motions
• Ground Improvement, Stone columns
• Geosynthetics,
• Offshore Geotechnical Engineering, Offshore foundations
• Retaining walls and Deep Excavations,
• Buried pipelines,
• Uncertainty and risk calculations in geotechnical engineering
• Transportation Soils and Pavement Design,
• Software Engineering for geotechnical engineering,
• Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence for geotechnical problems,
• Site survey and damage assessment with Unmanned Aerial Vehicles
• Tunnel Design

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Geotechnical and materials engineering research.

Geotechnical and materials engineers are interrelated with other civil engineering disciplines such as structural engineering, construction engineering, and architectural engineering to plan, design, build, and maintain critical infrastructure systems such as bridges, buildings, roadways, rails, dams, foundations, retaining walls, slopes, and tunnels. Geotechnical engineering investigates various geomaterials (e.g., soils and rocks) and determines the most effective way to support the desired structure. Geotechnical engineers plan and design foundation systems and other structures such as dams, levees, tunnels, and landfills. Moreover, they mitigate the influences of naturally occurring phenomena such as floods, landslides, and earthquakes; and develop safe and environmentally sustainable sources of energy and minerals. Materials engineering involves the design and development of construction materials to meet specific properties and performance criteria. In addition to mechanical properties, durability, sustainability, and economical efficiency of materials are of importance and must be optimized.

Materials engineers select and design construction materials and mixtures such as cementitious materials and concrete mixes, asphaltic materials and mixtures, soils-aggregates with stabilization, fiber-reinforced composites, metals, woods, and polymeric materials (plastics). They also characterize properties of materials, monitor the quality of materials used for construction, develop materials specifications for better design, repair, and maintenance of key civil infrastructure systems.

The Geotechnical and Materials faculty in the UNL Department of Civil Engineering conduct research on both fundamental and applied aspects, and cover a wide variety of technical topics of research. Specific research areas of interests include:

• Advanced/smart/multifunctional/engineered materials
• Characterization of material properties and behavior
• Constitutive modeling of damage-induced behavior and durability
• Dynamics/Earthquake engineering
• Earth retaining geotechnical system
• Energy geotechnology
• Foundations
• Geoenvironmental engineering
• Grouting and soil improvement
• Highway and airfield pavement engineering
• Mechanics and modeling of construction materials and geotechnical systems
• Multi-physics and multi-scale mechanics and modeling
• Nondestructive testing and evaluation
• Rehabilitation/renewal of geotechnical and geoenvironmental systems
• Sensors and field instrumentation/measurement
• Slope, levee, dam analysis
• Sustainable/resilient infrastructure

Geotechnical and Materials Engineering

Jongwan Eun

Seunghee Kim

David Lange

Mojdeh Pajouh

Jamilla Teixeira

Matthew Williamson

Tewodros Yosef

Faculty personal webpages.

• Dr. Jongwan Eun
• Dr. Hamzeh Haghshenas Fatmehsari
• Dr. Jiong Hu
• Dr. Congrui Grace Jin
• Dr. Seunghee Kim
• Dr. Mojdeh Pajouh

Centre for Geotechnical Science and Engineering

Research Strengths

Leading research in geomechanics.

The Centre for Geotechnical Science and Engineering focuses on the development of innovative test procedures, field monitoring techniques, mathematical models, and computational methods to predict the behaviour of soils, rock and other materials. By linking two of Australia’s leading research teams, namely the Geotechnical Research Group and Diffusion in Solids Group, the Centre is uniquely equipped to study a range of problems with length scales that vary over several orders of magnitude. The outcomes of this research are delivering improvements in the safety, efficiency and reliability of civil infrastructure and mechanical technology.

The Centre is currently conducting research in five key areas:

Geoinfrastructure

Key research areas include:

• Unsaturated soil mechanics
• Rock mechanics
• Soft soil engineering
• Pipelines crossing geographically challenging environments
• Ground improvement for infrastructure on soft or problematic soils
• Hazard assessment and risk mitigation for landslides, rockfalls and debris flow
• Utilisation of underground rock face stability
• Stochastic optimisation of construction and performance of built infrastructure
• Infrastructure on problematic soils and rocks
• Renewal and remediation of ageing infrastructure
• Recycling of construction waste for geotechnical purposes

Geoenvironment

• Futureproofing infrastructure against climate change
• Mine subsidence and groundwater (including waste dumps)
• Particle characterisation of granular materials
• Environmental geotechnics of coal mine spoil
• Mechanics of hard and soft soils
• Landslides and rockfall

• Rockfall hazard and risk mitigation
• New technologies for remote and continuous monitoring of slope movements
• Efficient numerical and probabilistic methods for risk assessment in geotechnical engineering
• Probabilistic geotechnical site investigation using geotechnical, geophysical and geological information
• Reliability analysis of geoinfrastructures based on site investigation data
• Risk assessments and early warning systems of rainfall induced landslides
• Landslide susceptibility prediction of regional landslides
• Data-driven predictive maintenance for rail track
• Bayesian back analysis for settlement of prediction of embankments built on soft soils
• Reliability updating of single piles and pile groups based on load tests
• Novel probabilistic characterisation of complex joint structures for the optimisation of mine operations

Computational Geomechanics

• Limit analysis methods
• Particle Finite Element analysis methods
• Phase-Field Finite Element analysis methods
• Discrete element and discontinuous deformation analysis methods
• Adaptive coupling of continuum and dis-continuum methods for dynamic analysis
• Discrete modelling (DEM) of bonded and unbonded granular materials
• Discontinuum Deformation Analysis (DDA)
• Adaptive coupling of continuum and discontinuum methods for dynamic problems
• Dynamic impact problems and fragmentation
• Soil-machine interaction problems
• Soil-inclusion and soil-structure interaction problems
• Dynamic coupled finite element analysis for soil structure interaction problems

• Thermal transport in Composites and Porous Media
• Investigation of Mass Transport in High Entropy Alloys
• High Energy Density - High Delivery Rate Thermal Energy Storage
• Increasing Solar Power Efficiency
• Maximising Metallic Foams

Professor Anna Giacomini

• Phone: (02) 4921 6254
• [email protected]
• Research profile

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• Centre Administrator [email protected]

The University of Newcastle acknowledges the traditional custodians of the lands within our footprint areas: Awabakal, Darkinjung, Biripai, Worimi, Wonnarua, and Eora Nations. We also pay respect to the wisdom of our Elders past and present.

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Geotechnical Topics in Civil Engineering

• Categories : Geotechnical engineering
• Tags : Civil engineering

Introduction to Geotechnical Engineering

Geotechnical engineering is often the starting point for studies for every practicing civil engineer. Thus it’s important to understand how geotechnical aspects affect the development of civil engineering projects and construction works. Here, in this list of articles on the topic, we start with the basics, introducing geotechnical engineering and how it relates to the other branches of civil engineering. Questions that can be asked and answered include how geoenvironmental engineering and geotechnical engineering differ, and what place soil mechanics and rock mechanics hold in the field.

• Fundamentals of Geotechnical Engineering: Everything You Should Know
• Major Differences between Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
• The Best Geotechnical Engineering Publications and Online Resources
• Importance of Conducting Geotechnical Surveys
• About Soil Engineering
• What is Rock Mechanics
• Common Terms Applied to Rock Mechanics in Geotechnical Engineering

Soil Mechanics Study

Before any construction work can start, we need to study the behavior of soils. This is covered in soil mechanics and includes the study of mineralogy, soil composition and types, and the shear properties of soils. Soil mechanics provides knowledge about the characteristics and the behavior of the underlying soil, which is important in the design and construction of structures such as bridges, buildings, highways, and dams. Soil properties, in fact, determine the type of structure to be built.

Soil mechanics study is also important because the principles of soil mechanics are also used in related disciplines such as hydrology and soil physics. In this group are articles about soil classification, soil formation, soil properties, and other related aspects of soil mechanics.

• How Soils are formed - Geotechnical Topics: Formation of Soils
• Classification of Soils under Different Classification Systems
• Properties of Soils: Study of Chemical and Physical Properties
• Geotechnical topics: Soil Permeability
• Geotechnical Topics: Soil Compaction
• Understanding Geotechnical Soil Reports

Different Soil Tests

Geotechnical examination is important in order to build strong and durable structures above the soil. Studying soil properties means conducting various studies to determine various factors like grain size, plastic limit, shear stress, loading tests, and other tests. Various laws are used in the determination of these properties, among which Darcy’s Law is one of the most commonly used. You’ll also learn about the role of soil properties in a failure of a structure like a bridge or a building.

• Passive Lateral Earth Pressure, Bearing Capacity, and Shear Stress in Cohesive Soils
• Darcy’s Law for Modeling Groundwater Flow
• Geotechnical Analysis and Examination
• Testing Permeability of Soil
• Reasons for Construction Failures
• Methods of Soil Compaction Remediation

Implementing Results from Studies and Tests

After completing the geotechnical studies of site soil mechanics, we can start with the real work: the construction work. At this point, all the results and reports have been compiled, and accordingly the appropriate construction methods, equipment, and soil preservation methods have been determined. Different types of equipment like rollers, compactors, leveling devices, and other heavy machinery are used to move forward in this phase. Here we have articles related to soil investigations while constructing foundations using different methods like auger boring, core drilling, and percussion boring.

Natural soil preservation methods that help to maintain ecological balance and achieve optimum geotechnical properties also talked about in the articles in this section. Because foundations come in direct contact with the soil, we include articles related to pile foundations and best foundation construction methods. The articles in this section also provide detailed information about engineering sciences related to geotechnology like geosynthetic and geology and other modern age technologies, which are relatively new but closely related to geotechnical engineering studies.

• Practical Methods of Soil Preservation
• Different Types of Soil Compaction Equipment
• Soil Investigation for Foundations
• Introduction to Pile Foundations
• Building Foundations : Best Practices
• Erosion Control Using Geosynthesis
• Methods of Cliff Stabilization
• Studying Earth Sciences Geology

The articles included in this guide will provide a great information source for those interested in geotechnical studies in the civil engineering field. The articles cover the most fundamental aspects of geotechnical engineering where they are important: soil mechanics and rock mechanics, suitability testing for structural erection, natural and engineered methods of soil preservation, erosion control and cliff stabilization, including geosynthesis techniques, and the common civil engineering role of preparing for foundations and civil structures.

Suitability testing can include soil analysis and testing as well subsurface testing (bore and auger sampling). In fact, a large part of the role of the geotechnical engineer involves helping to prevent structural failures that endanger human life and materials. Such failures always indicate the lack of load-bearing capacity of some element (the foundation, structure, or the soil beneath them both), and the geotechnical engineer, for having the responsibilty for determining the suitability of the site, is always at the front lines of the investigation.

• Braja M. Das, Cengage Brain, Fundamentals of Geotechnical Engineering (pdf)
• COWI, <em>Geotechnical Engineering (pdf)</em>
• Listed articles

2024 Best Doctoral Dissertation Advances Geotechnical Earthquake Engineering, Seismic Design

• by Molly Bechtel
• May 21, 2024

Sumeet Kumar Sinha is this year's recipient of the University of California, Davis, College of Engineering Zuhair A. Munir Award for Best Doctoral Dissertation. The award recognizes the methods, findings and significance of Sinha's research, which featured several first-of-its-kind approaches and analyses in the field of geotechnical earthquake engineering and is actively informing seismic design practices.   

The college established the annual award in 1999 in honor of Zuhair A. Munir, the former dean of engineering who led the college from 2000 to 2002 and acted as associate dean for graduate studies for 20 years. The award recognizes a doctoral student, their exemplary research and the mentorship of their major professor.  

A two-time Aggie alum, Sinha received his master's degree in 2017 and Ph.D. in 2022 from the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, where he was mentored by Associate Professor Katerina Ziotopoulou and Professor Emeritus Bruce Kutter . He is now an assistant professor in the Department of Civil Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi and co-founder of BrahmaSens, a startup that specializes in the development of sensing technologies and solutions for application in various sectors including health-monitoring of civil infrastructures.  

"It's really a special honor to get this [award]," said Sinha. "It acknowledges both the depth and significance of the research I conducted during my Ph.D."   

Sinha's dissertation is of notable significance in California, where agencies like the Department of Transportation, or Caltrans, which funded his research, are eager to identify improved design methods in seismically active regions of the state.  

In " Liquefaction-Induced Downdrag on Piles: Centrifuge and Numerical Modeling, and Design Procedures ," Sinha focuses on the effects of earthquakes on deep foundations, like piles, in soils that can liquefy. Liquefaction occurs when wet sand-like soils lose their strength due to increased pore water pressure during earthquake shaking. This causes the soil to behave like a liquid, leading to significant ground deformations.   

After the shaking stops, the soil slowly regains its strength as the water drains out, but this settling and densifying process, called reconsolidation, can drag down piles downward. Additional downdrag loads have not always been properly accounted for in conventional design.   

Through centrifuge model tests at the UC Davis Center for Geotechnical Modeling , Sinha developed numerical models to evaluate scenarios. His findings include procedures for accurately estimating downdrag loads and the corresponding demands on pile foundations, as well as practical methods to design bridges in a more efficient and economical way.  

"Dr. Sinha's methods, approaches, documentation, results and overall findings have been, by any standards, novel and meticulous," said Ziotopoulou in her nomination letter. "His research represents a significant and original contribution to the field of geotechnical earthquake engineering, and his findings have already been implemented into practice by major design firms."  

Sinha's research was recognized with a DesignSafe Dataset Award , an Editor's Choice in his field's top journal and the Michael Condon Scholarship from the Deep Foundations Institute. He has published seven papers in peer-reviewed journals.  

Of perhaps greater meaning to Sinha is making improvements in the design codes to make them more informed, feasible, economical, resilient and sustainable through the complete understanding of the mechanism obtained through his findings from experiments, developed numerical models and design procedures, which are available publicly via platforms such as GitHub and DesignSafe.   

"My philosophy has always been to convert whatever I'm doing into a product, a tool which has a wider impact," explained Sinha. "During my Ph.D., I tried to go beyond the deliverables so that I maximize the impact of [my research]."  

Sinha is grateful for his mentors' and peers' influence and support during the five-year Ph.D. program at UC Davis.  

"I have learned a lot from [Professors Katerina Ziotopoulou and Bruce Kutter] academically as well as professionally," said Sinha. "The Geotechnical Graduate Student Society also had a very important role in my overall experience at UC Davis."  

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PEER Proposed Research Summary: "Uncertainty Quantification for Meeting Bridge Design Objectives"

The impact of a PEER funded research project "Uncertainty Quantification for Meeting Bridge Design Objectives" is highlighted below. The project Principal Investigator (PI) is Tracy Becker, UC Berkeley. The Research Team includes Maria Camila Lopez Ruiz, UC Berkeley; Debra Murphy, Slate Geotechnical Consultant; Tessa Williams, Slate Geotechnical Consultants.

Download the Research Project Highlight which includes the abstract (PDF)

Research Impact

There is still considerable debate on the appropriate and best methods to select ground motions for time series analysis of structures. Furthermore, there is a large disconnect in thought between seismologists and structural engineers which has resulted in codes that have (1) multiple accepted methodologies for including uncertainty from seismic input and (2) express the need for consideration of uncertainty without providing direct guidance. By comparing the resulting statistics of engineering demand parameters and damage states arising from suites of different ground motion selection and scaling methods and comparing the resulting uncertainties against that from the original seismic hazard analysis as well as the structural model and material uncertainties, we will build a strong basis to (1) give explicit recommendations on the effect of ground motion selection methodologies that should be used for design, and (2) provide clear guidance on how practitioners can maintain means and uncertainties. As a result, this work will facilitate procedures for bridges requiring nonlinear dynamic analysis, reducing design costs, and bolster confidence in the seismic performance of these structures. Furthermore, through understanding the uncertainty in the analysis, stakeholders can be given more power to select beyond-code-conforming behavior. Thus, the research is of strong interest to Caltrans structural and geotechnical engineers, structural engineering firms, geotechnical engineering firms, and code committees.

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