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| Url | https://cimne.com/sgp/rtd/Project.aspx?id=1018 | ||
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| Acronym | MODEST | ||
| Project title | MOdelling Drying Effects on Soil investigation Technologies | ||
| Reference | PID2023-149935OB-I00 | ||
| Principal investigator |
Marcos ARROYO ALVAREZ DE TOLEDO - marcos.arroyo@upc.edu
Alberto LEDESMA VILLALBA - alberto.ledesma@upc.edu |
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| Start date | 01/09/2024 | End date | 31/08/2028 |
| Coordinator | CIMNE | ||
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| Program | P.E. para Impulsar la Investigación Científico-Técnica y su Transferencia | Call | Proyectos Generación de Conocimiento 2023 |
| Subprogram | Subprograma Estatal de Generación de Conocimiento | Category | Nacional |
| Funding body(ies) | MCIU | Grant | $92,233.09 |
| Abstract | The purpose of geotechnical site investigation is to identify which materials are lying on a particular site and evaluate their engineering properties (strength, stiffness, permeability). This activity, central to all of geotechnical engineering, relies on various technologies, of which the two most important are sampling in boreholes and mechanical in situ testing. Both those two separate technologies are affected by problems derived from soil desiccation. In the case of borehole sampling, desiccation and water-loss during sample retrieval has made practically impossible to obtain good quality samples from soils such as liquefiable silts, which are both dangerous and frequently found in applications. This limits severely the engineering solutions for the problems that such silts cause. For in-situ tests the problem is even more severe, as test are currently interpreted as if the materials were either completely dry or fully saturated and not, as they are when subject to desiccation, partially saturated. The problem is particularly acute for the most important soil in-situ test, the cone penetration test or CPTu. Erroneous interpretation of CPTu leads to unsafe designs and/or wasted resources wherever unsaturated soils are tested. The problems caused by soil desiccation in geotechnical site investigation, have been historically addressed through empirical trial-anderror of different technological tweaks. This is slow and inefficient: our project proposes an alternative, based on simulation. We will build and validate models of the relevant site investigation processes (digital twins in current parlance) that would give detailed understanding of the variables affecting sampler performance in silts or CPTu test outputs on partially saturated soils. Simulation of these problems has not been attempted before (in case of silt sampling) or is incipient (unsaturated CPTu) because it faces many complexities: large displacement and deformation of multiphase materials, hard interfaces, cracking. MODEST will overcome those difficulties combining new numerical developments and laboratory experiments and building on a) our previously developed expertise on numerical simulation of large strain soil-object interactions for saturated soils b) our previous decades-long experimental track-record on soil desiccation and cracking c) our expertise on unsaturated soil mechanics and d) an international network of experts that will facilitate access to complementary experimental data. It is envisaged | ||
| Proyecto PID2023-149935OB-I00 financiado por MCIU/AEI/10.13039/501100011033/ FEDER, UE | |||