Current Trends in Computational Geomechanics and Geotechnical Engineering - Civil & Structural Engineering

Computational geomechanics is the field of computational mechanics where geo-engineering systems are analyzed using the principles of mechanics through numerical methods. In those systems lie porous media with a variety of multi-phase materials such as soils, rock, composites or living tissues. Geomechanics is the branch of mechanics in that response and instability of such porous materials are studied under external loadings such as earthquakes, waves, varying heads of flow during various drainage conditions etc. Among those effects, earthquakes constitute a significant part of the design of geo-engineering systems. Geotechnical considerations  are  particularly  important  in  identifying  the  conditions  leading  to  instability  of  such  systems  under  seismic  excitations.  Here,  seismic  soil  behaviors  are  necessary  properties  to  be  determined  to  decide  whether  there  will  be  permanent  damage in foundation soils or indirectly in the upper structures during earthquakes. Therefore, it is of utmost significance that earthquake-induced  soil  behavior  is  both  measured  in  laboratory  experiments  and  modeled  through  theoretical  and  numerical  frameworks. While the former have been conducted since 1960’s, it had to take about two more decades for latter works to emerge. As the geotechnical earthquake engineering is a common field of application of geomechanics, another such field is the geotechnical coastal  engineering. Wave-induced  seabed  response  is  of  major  concern  here  to  engineers  and  researchers  particularly  around coastal and offshore structures. From a broader perspective, it looks like the field of computational geomechanics has currently shifted to three main topics: i) Recent challenges of numerical analyses in geomechanics and geotechnical engineering, ii) Analysis of large deformation and post failure response in geotechnical engineering, iii) Modeling and minimizing uncertainty for design and
monitoring in geotechnical engineering. For the first issue of our newborn Journal: this short paper briefly summarizes some recent examples of problems from the fields of geotechnical earthquake engineering and geotechnical coastal engineering.

Read more...PDF in Iris Publishers