Geotechnical engineering concerns the application of civil engineering technology to some aspect of natural earthen material, namely soil and rock, whose properties and behavior must be understood in order to build with it, upon it, or within it.  Typical design and construction projects include foundations for virtually all industrial, commercial and residential buildings, towers, tanks, and various types of offshore structures, and structures used to support rocket construction and launch.  Other important aspects of geotechnical engineering include the stability of natural and excavated slopes, improving or modifying existing soil properties, controlling water movement and pressures, and designing/constructing retaining structures, earth/rock dams, airfields, highway embankments, tunnels, and mines.  In addition to considering static structural loadings, many cases also include dynamic loads due to blasting, earthquakes, and mechanically induced vibrations.

Faculty

Research

Interested and highly motivated students having primary interests in Geotechnical Engineering can become involved in research in one or more of the following areas:  ground improvement methodologies, measurement of engineering property improvement of modified soil, interaction between modified soils and the structures they support, particle migration and filtration in porous media, geoenvironmental containment of contaminants and hazardous wastes, rheological and physicochemical characteristics of suspensions, properties and constitutive behavior of cementitious grout.

    Ground Improvement Methodologies

    Engineering Property Improvement of Modified Soil