The geotechnical behaviour of expansive clay soils is investigated by looking into the geomorphologic, geological and climatic conditions and mineralogical composition of the soils in the study area. The geotechnical results are linked with the performance of the foundation as well as structures. Since swell potential and swell pressure are key properties of expansive soils, the swell parameter...

the uniaxial compressive strength (ucs) of intact rocks is an important geotechnical parameter required for designing geotechnical and mining engineering projects. obtaining accurate estimates of the rock mass ucs parameter throughout a 3d geological model of the deposit is vital for determining optimum rock slope stability, designing new exploratory and blast boreholes, mine planning, optimizi...

Parallel computing is gradually becoming a main stream tool in geotechnical simulations. The need for high fidelity and for modeling of fairly large 3-dimensional (3D) spatial configurations is motivating this direction of research. A new program ParCYCLIC for seismic geotechnical applications has been developed. Salient characteristics of the employed parallel sparse solver will be presented. ...

Over the last few years, artificial neural networks (ANNs) have been used successfully for modeling almost all aspects of geotechnical engineering problems. Whilst ANNs provide a great deal of promise, they suffer from a number of shortcomings such as knowledge extraction, extrapolation and uncertainty. This paper presents a state-of-the-art examination of ANNs in geotechnical engineering and p...

due to its critical impact and significant destructive nature during and after seismic events, soil liquefaction and liquefactioninduced lateral ground spreading have been increasingly important topics in the geotechnical earthquake engineering field during the past four decades. the aim of this research is to develop an empirical model for the assessment of liquefaction-induced lateral ground ...

In application to numerical analysis of geotechnical problems, the limit-state surface is usually not known in any closed form. The probability of failure can be assessed via the so-called reliability index. A minimization problem can naturally be formed with an implicit equality constraint defined as the limit-state function and optimization methods can be used for such problems. In this paper...

Dam monitoring relies on the long-term measurement of small structural motions at regular intervals. Traditional surveying techniques and geotechnical instrumentation can effectively monitor oneor twodimensional modes of motion. However, spatial distribution of geotechnical instrumentation is usually limited to the locations that the instruments can be installed during dam construction, whilst ...

As physical modeling sees increasing use in geotechnical engineering education, there is a need for a strategic approach for integrating this powerful simulation technique into courses in a way that ensures the greatest benefit for students. For this reason, a learning theory approach, which recognizes the natural learning cycle of students, has been developed. The approach is based on a modifi...

John S. McCartney received BSCE and MSCE degrees from the University of Colorado Boulder and a PhD degree in civil engineering from the University of Texas at Austin. Dr. McCartney’s research interests include unsaturated soil mechanics, geosynthetics, and thermally active geotechnical systems. He has received several research awards, including the NSF Faculty Early Development (CAREER) Award i...

The finite-element (FE) method is widely recognized as a powerful tool in modeling structural and geotechnical systems and simulating their response to static and dynamic loads. In addition, numerical optimization is commonly used in many engineering applications, such as structural reliability analysis, FE model updating, structural identification, and structural optimization. This paper focus...