Abstract
Historically, geotechnical stability analysis has been performed by a variety of approximate methods that are based on the notion of limit equilibrium. Although they appeal to engineering intuition, these techniques have a number of major disadvantages, not the least of which is the need to presuppose an appropriate failure mechanism in advance. This feature can lead to inaccurate predictions of the true failure load, especially for cases involving layered materials, complex loading, or three-dimensional deformation.
In this lecture, the speaker will describe recent advances in stability analysis, which avoid these shortcomings. Attention will be focused on new methods, which combine the limit theorems of classical plasticity with finite elements to give rigorous upper and lower bounds on the failure load. These methods, known as finite element limit analysis, do not require assumptions to be made about the mode of failure, and use only simple strength parameters that are familiar to geotechnical engineers. The bounding properties of the solutions are invaluable in practice, and enable accurate solutions to be obtained through the use of an exact error estimate and automatic adaptive meshing procedures. The methods are extremely general and can deal with layered soil profiles, anisotropic strength characteristics, fissured soils, discontinuities, complicated boundary conditions, and complex loading in both two and three dimensions. Following a brief outline of the new techniques, stability solutions for a number of practical problems will be given including foundations, anchors, slopes, excavations, and tunnels.
About the speaker
Prof Scott Sloan received his PhD from University of Cambridge in 1982. He then joined the University of Newcastle in 1984 and is currently a Laureate Professor. He was also appointed as the founding Director of the Centre of Excellence for Geotechnical Science and Engineering by the Australian Research Council.
Prof Sloan’s research interests cover computational stability analysis, nonlinear finite element algorithms, geotechnical analysis, soft soils, modelling unsaturated soil behavior, nonlinear optimization methods and georemediation.
Prof Sloan has received numerous awards, including the Booker Medal from the International Association for Computer Methods and Advances in Geomechanics (2008), a Centenary Medal from the Australian Prime Minister (2003) and the Telford Medal from the Institution of Civil Engineers London (2000). He is also an elected Fellow of the Royal Society of London (2015), the Royal Academy of Engineering (2015), the Australian Academy of Science (2007), the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering (2000) and the Australian Institution of Engineers (1994). He was also a Federation and Laureate Fellow of the Australian Research Council fro the period 2004-2014.
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