Small strain shear modulus is one of the most important geotechnical parameters to characterize soil stiffness. In-situ stiffness of soils and rocks is much higher than was previously thought as finite element analysis have shown. Also, the stress-strain behaviour of those materials is non-linear in most cases with small strain levels. The commun approach for getting the small strain shear modu...

Rover-mounted geotechnical systems are of paramount importance to lunar trafficability assessment, construction, and excavation/mining toward establishing permanent human presence on the Moon. These tools can also be used to determine density, when the regolith is used as radiation shield, for example. Two popular insitu devices for establishing geotechnical properties of soil are the Static Co...

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 ...

This research paper presents a compendium of the geotechnical sub-soil data profiling and zoning of the major urban settlements of Peshawar using Geographic Information System. Significant geotechnical properties of the under study area soils i.e., Zone 5 & 6 in Peshawar were assessed through one hundred and three different standard penetration test reports up to the depth of 1 m and 3 m. The q...

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...