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Geotechnical Engineering

The Geotechnical Engineering research sub-group (Dr Glyn Bengough, Dr Andrew Brennan, Dr Michael Brown, Prof Dong-Sheng Jeng, Dr Jonathan Knappett, Prof David Muir Wood & Dr Anthony Leung) was established in 1997 and it has grown significantly since that time. In addition to its undergraduate and postgraduate teaching and research activities, the group offers services to industry across a broad range of geotechnical engineering. The group has hosted a number of major conferences and symposia in Dundee, such as the 7th Young Geotechnical Engineers' Symposium in 2002 and the BGA International Conference on Foundations (ICOF2003) in 2003. Following on from the success of ICOF2003, the 2nd BGA International Conference on Foundations (ICOF2008) was held in June 2008 in Dundee.
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Geotechnical centrifuge

Although the group was only formed in 1997, its research facilities have expanded (and continue to expand) quickly and now include the Dundee Geotechnical Centrifuge Research Centre (opened in 1999), extended soil element testing facilities, an environmental engineering laboratory and numerical support. Funding from SRIF in 2004 provided extensive improvements to the infrastructure for the Centre including a new building for model preparation and centrifuge control. Recent funding from the Northern Research Partnership in Engineering SFC pooling initiative will permit the installation of a state-of-the-art earthquake simulator on the geotechnical centrifuge, making it one of only three such facilities in Europe. The group has extensive expertise in the application of centrifuge modelling and complementary analytical and numerical studies.

The research interests of the group currently fall into four primary areas, namely:

  1. Fundamental behaviour of soils;
  2. Geo-environmental engineering (including natural hazards such as earthquakes and landslides);
  3. Ground improvement;
  4. Soil-structure, fluid-soil-structure interaction and wave-structure interaction (including offshore engineering), with strong coupling between each of these areas.

The research philosophy of the group concentrates on understanding the fundamental mechanisms involved in the geotechnical processes and then combining physical modelling, analysis and numerical modelling (together with fieldwork, laboratory and in situ testing of soil and rock) to solve the engineering problems. A distinctive aspect of the group is the wide range of collaborative research in which investigations are conducted at the interface between Geotechnical Engineering and other branches of engineering and science. Areas of collaboration have included military, chemical, medical and structural engineering, together with earth and biological sciences. This research is funded by the EU, the UK research councils (EPSRC, NERC and BBSRC), research organisations (e.g. TRL and DERA), industry and charities.

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