Addressing Emerging Issues in Geotechnical Earthquake Engineering, Geomechanics and Soil Remediation
The Geotechnical Engineering Group in the UC Davis CEE Department exists to generate new knowledge, advance geotechnical engineering practice, and equip the workforce through industry, international, and interdisciplinary research and teaching. The faculty members of our group perform research driven by science-based inquiry to develop robust, practical methods and technologies for geotechnical practice. Our topics of interest span across multiple scales, ranging from the micro-scale of soil particles up to the interaction of soils with geographically distributed infrastructure.
By employing a multitude of experimental (lab, centrifuge, and field testing) and numerical tools (Discrete Element Modeling, Finite Element, and Finite Difference Modeling), and integrating them with geologic studies as well as case history analyses, we seek to expand our understanding of interactions at all scales and develop methods for assessing and managing risks associated with natural hazards, including earthquake engineering. Products of our work include the development of characterization tools for challenging soils and of advanced constitutive models for soils, the development of numerical simulation platforms, the design of site investigation programs to minimize uncertainty, advancement of bio-mediated technologies, discovery of bio-inspired solutions, and incorporation of sustainability metrics in research and practice.
Last but not least, our group is the home of three national research centers: the Center for Biomediated and Bioinspired Geotechnics (CBBG), the Center for Geotechnical Modeling (CGM), and the UC Pavement Research Center (UCPRC). CBBG applies biogeotechnical techniques to create sustainable, resilient, and environmentally compatible solutions for construction, repair, and rehabilitation of civil infrastructure systems. CGM provides users access to world-class geotechnical modeling facilities, including 9-m and 1-m radius centrifuges with shaking tables, to enable major advances in the ability to predict and improve the performance of soil and soil-structure systems affected by earthquake, wave, wind and storm surge loadings. UCPRC produces advancements in roadway system technology, management of distributed roadway systems, and incorporation of sustainability into technology and system management.
