An integrated approach to modelling granular materials in a pavement system. The Australian transportation system consists of some 900,000 km of paved roads valued in excess of 300 billion dollars. Hundreds of millions of dollars are spent each year on maintenance. About 90% of these paved roads are constructed with granular base and sub-base materials. This project will develop an accurate constitutive model for granular materials and a numerical method that are essential in predicting the life ....An integrated approach to modelling granular materials in a pavement system. The Australian transportation system consists of some 900,000 km of paved roads valued in excess of 300 billion dollars. Hundreds of millions of dollars are spent each year on maintenance. About 90% of these paved roads are constructed with granular base and sub-base materials. This project will develop an accurate constitutive model for granular materials and a numerical method that are essential in predicting the life-long performance of pavements. The project will lead to improved pavement design procedures, which, together with the research training offered through the conduct of the work, will result in cost-effective and highly reliable pavement designs.Read moreRead less
Determination of unsaturated soil properties using cone penetrometer data. Unsaturated soils account for almost 40 percent of earth's land surface. Over 70 percent of Australia's land surface consists of unsaturated soils. The research proposed aims at providing a methodology for a realistic characterisation of unsaturated soils in the field. The developments in this research will be immediately applicable to many engineering problems of national interest including dams, embankments, foundatio ....Determination of unsaturated soil properties using cone penetrometer data. Unsaturated soils account for almost 40 percent of earth's land surface. Over 70 percent of Australia's land surface consists of unsaturated soils. The research proposed aims at providing a methodology for a realistic characterisation of unsaturated soils in the field. The developments in this research will be immediately applicable to many engineering problems of national interest including dams, embankments, foundations, highways and airfields. The work will also benefit Australia and the Australian research community through the development of a new expertise within Australia, which is likely to receive wide spread attention in both scientific and engineering communities.
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A fully coupled elasto-plastic model for dynamic analysis of unsaturated soils. This research is concerned with an important and, as yet, unresearched class of problems in geomechanics dealing with dynamic analysis of unsaturated soils. The work is of significance as it will contribute to the progress of soil mechanics as a science, advancing it from the study of unsaturated soils to that of real soils, which are invariably unsaturated. The project should lead to cost savings in many geotechnica ....A fully coupled elasto-plastic model for dynamic analysis of unsaturated soils. This research is concerned with an important and, as yet, unresearched class of problems in geomechanics dealing with dynamic analysis of unsaturated soils. The work is of significance as it will contribute to the progress of soil mechanics as a science, advancing it from the study of unsaturated soils to that of real soils, which are invariably unsaturated. The project should lead to cost savings in many geotechnical engineering practices as it will provide a better understanding of the response of unsaturated soils to dynamic loading and provide a greater confidence in the prediction of the preformance of earth-structures.Read moreRead less
Enhanced Analysis and Structural Design of Pavements - Virtual Laboratory for Advanced Pavement Design. The proposed research will lead to improved pavement engineering procedures, which will reduce the maintenance costs for future pavement projects, and will result in cost-effective and more reliable design of new pavements.
Experimental Investigation and Constitutive Modelling of Thermo-Hydro-Mechanical Coupling Effects in Unsaturated Porous Media. The research proposed in this project will benefit the Australian community through provision of a methodology for a more realistic and fully coupled modelling of flow and deformation in unsaturated porous media subject to thermal loading. The developments proposed in this research will be immediately applicable to many engineering problems of national interest, includin ....Experimental Investigation and Constitutive Modelling of Thermo-Hydro-Mechanical Coupling Effects in Unsaturated Porous Media. The research proposed in this project will benefit the Australian community through provision of a methodology for a more realistic and fully coupled modelling of flow and deformation in unsaturated porous media subject to thermal loading. The developments proposed in this research will be immediately applicable to many engineering problems of national interest, including storage of nuclear wastes, removal of contaminants using air sparging, steam drive/steam flooding, and in situ combustion. The work will also benefit Australia and the Australian research community through the development of a new expertise within Australia, which will have a high potential for export to other countries.
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