Laboratories
The Department’s laboratories — Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering — are fully equipped both for determining the physical characteristics of soils and for investigating the behaviour and mechanical properties of soils and soft rocks. They include oedometers, direct shear devices and conventional triaxial apparatus for standard and high pressures.
For monotonic and cyclic loading of cylindrical specimens, the laboratories are equipped with fully automated stress-path-controlled triaxial devices. These carry dedicated transducers for measuring strain and pore water pressure, as well as the velocity of shear waves applied to the specimens through bender elements.
For dynamic loading, the Department operates a conventional dynamic triaxial apparatus, and for the study of static and dynamic soil loading a hollow cylinder torsional device, which allows independent control of the three principal stresses and the study of anisotropic soil behaviour. In-situ dynamic soil properties are measured with a cross-hole arrangement.
A separate undergraduate teaching laboratory is used exclusively by undergraduate and postgraduate students for the fundamental tests of soil mechanics. The equipment supports diploma theses, doctoral research and funded research projects.