Session report: dams, embankments and slope stability

Abstract

This session report discusses 13 papers that were presented at the 8th International conference on physical modelling in geotechnics 2014 in the session 'Dams, embankments and slope protection'. It concentrates on whether scaling is possible and what the consequences of scaling are in the various papers. Some tests do not really appear to be scaled model tests, because it is difficult to define prototype that behaves as the model. However, such models can still be useful to study mechanisms that are relevant in prototype

Editorial

“…as outlined by Randolph (2003)) under various loading regimes. There were also healthy contributions in other perennial geotechnical areas, and the reviews by Bezuijen (2015) and Kitazume (2015) also echo the issues mentioned previously regarding the level of realism that could/should be modelled -that is, whether the aim is to model a specific prototype, or whether the physical modelling is used as an experiment in its own right. The topic of geohazards included within the paper by Kitazume (2015) naturally leads on to a more in-depth review of one of the most significant of natural hazards, namely earthquakes (Madabhushi, 2015).…”

“…These include areas of general interest & similitude, scaling and education (Lee, 2015) & physical modelling studies of soil properties and behaviour (Sasanakul and Abdoun, 2015) and also ones themed around geotechnical engineering applications & shallow and deep foundations (Reul, 2015) & dams, embankments and slope stability (Bezuijen, 2015) & ground improvements, reinforcements and geohazards (Kitazume, 2015) & geotechnical earthquake engineering (Madabhushi, 2015) & offshore geotechnics (O'Loughlin, 2015) The former, general interest papers provide a broad overview, discussing recent developments in the modelling of challenging geomechanical problems, such as those involving dynamic soil behaviour or unsaturated soil. Contemporary geotechnical physical modelling generally involves conducting low volumes of increasingly complex tests to achieve ever-more realism in the geotechnical processes that can be modelled.…”