Topics related with sustainable Energy. such as, interaction between soil and foundations and windmill structures, Energy piles,... etc

Thank you Mohammed, very interesting, but I think this is a costly research, isn’t it?

It depends on research plan. And the expected outcomes from the research

Disturbed soil states is a thing. When soil is deformed - the grains rearrange, the soil fabric is permanently changed - changing the shape of the stiffness curve, and affecting the strength portperties, dilativity... thus, there is a huge potential for research in this direction. At the moment, most measurements are made looking to "quantify" in-situ condition, and "the first loading cycle". But reliable methods to model and test "the long term evolution of disturbed soil states" are missing.

While investigating disturbed soil states, we have found that there are exclusively deformation dependent behaviors, governing evolution of didturbed sand stiffness. Hints towards deformation dependencies had been made by R.Dobry, but other than that - very little research has been made with respect to deformation dependent soil properties.

In our research, we show the disturbed soil states can be quantified using a deformation envelope. We are using a deformation envelope to interpolate within the Coulomb stress limits.

Validity of the deformation envelope is proved by demonstrating, that disturbed sand stiffness is not only predictable, but de-facto control-able by controlling the applied deformation amplitude. We can "stretch" the stiffness hysteresis loops, and we can re-position them along the deformation axis. The models using a deformation envelope converge towards the correct answer - the more deformation cycles are applied, the more precise the estimate of disturbed stiffness curve. The predictions remain correct even during irregular loading cycles, even while transitioning drained and undrained soil response. Thus, by introducing a deformation envelope, a model combining drained and undrained sand response during irregular loading could potentially be obtained.

Its a completely new way of testing, analyzing and modelling soil, but it has the potential to generate precise estimates of changes in sand stiffness for application in construction, industrial, offshore and seismic fields. Deformation envelopes in geotechnics can be viewed as a completely new branch of research. Hints towards which had been made in the 80's, by R.Dobry and P.J.Yoder, but the potential has not been explored since then.

Thank you Tomas. Very interesting answer. This is one of the directions that we have to focus on.

I would say also that topics related to sustainable development are the hottest as well as the most critical ones (in fact it's the case for all research field). Concerning geotechnical engineering, it might concern low embodied energy structures and the use / reuse of local and raw materials that are available in huge quantities on earth. Drystone constructions, as well as stone masonry structures are part of them, but also slope stability using vegetation (forest) which can lead to colaborations with other fields (study of the growth of plants, ...).

I recommend this book "Geological and Geotechnical Engineering in the New Millennium: Opportunities for Research and Technological Innovation". It might help you to figure out which "sexy" topics of Geotechnical engineering in further.

i feel the infrastructure development and subsequent impact on the existing structure..in today, we do not have enough space for new construction and need to construct closer to the existing..therefore, the effect ground movement on the existing structure due to various activities like excavation, surcharge, tunneling etc..also due to industrialization there is a chance for contamination of the ground..so we need to control the contamination migration..Also, the risk analysis and reliability based geotechnical design is catching up..ok all the best in your research..

Thank you Karth for your input. Very interesting to estimate the level of migration and therefore contamination of ground with the influence of new structure on the exesting ones specially in geotechnical aspects.

in my opinion its can related to needs of science to prove in some exact aims.

Climate change adaptation

In Iran, I think the most important topic that should be consider is about the influence of climate change on Geotechnical issues.

Also, I suppose that Iran need to invest on water transport tunnels to tackle the water problems in central part of @Iran.

I believe the problems concerning renewable energy and generally sustainable design would comprise the upcoming research subjects in Geotechnics.

I feel DEM simulation will be the hottest topic of Geotechnical Engineering in future.

There are 2 directions. In developing countries, it will be a constant development and maintenance of infrastructure with low cost and simple technologies. With reasonable benefits for those communities. In "western" countries (Europe, Canada, Australia), SUSTAINABILITY will be the main issue. Not because of particular need for such research. But because of political reason and preferences in granting of public founds.

Develop and employ the new technologies that used to monitor the geotechnical structures.

- Coupled DEM-FEM-CFD for real-life cases such as dams, stone columns, dynamic compaction, etc.

- Molecular level simulation to serve as a micro-/nano- virtual lab.

- Constitutive model parameters reliable estimation using field testing and simple numerical studies.

- Geostatistical studies, correlations, and comparisons that utilize AI, ANN, Deep learning, Machine learning, Big Data, Data mining, BIM, data management, etc.

- And many many more

Everything was posted here very well, however, maybe geotechnics for space exploration was missed. If there is a possibility to occupy another space bodies by humans or machines we need to tackle also some geotechnical aspects. Ongoing InSight mission with heat probe and seismic device is good example I think.

Disaster assessment

Geo-synthetics and environmentally friendly material for geotechnical applications

Alternative foundation techniques to be used instead of pile foundation.

Multi-field coupling model for soils.

One must distinguish between "hottest" and "most important" topics.

As for “hot” topics – look at the Universities. New tools (powerful hardware and software) make it possible for developing more and more sophisticated geotechnical research (calculations). Scientists publish more and more “indexed” but “unread” research papers without any influence on contemporary world. There are some key words in this “parallel universe” (sponsored by public institutions) like: green, eco-, sustainability that replaced former leaders: risk, reliability etc. The scientific world does even not pretend to address their findings to the current needs.

As for “important” topics – just look at the current situation in the developing countries. There is a big need for “infrastructure”, “food” and “energy” for the growing populations. The clue point is that development of Asian, African and South American countries does not demand for high-tech technologies or methods. The real world needs simple, cheap and robust geotechnical technologies to be applied in large infrastructural projects (roads, railways, dams, hydro-energy, flood protection, water supply for people and agriculture. �.

I think that sustainability is (or should become) a hot topic across the whole discipline

Sustainability without doubt will be the most burning topic for future, as each geotechnical project leaves an irreversible impact on the environment.

I think potential instability of soil is a common challenge which can get unstable the structures. The pore pressure variations in the soil media, in the potential instability onset can be investigated .

I think the Risk Control in Geotechnical Engineering will be the hottest topics.

• Bearing Capacity and Soil-Reinforcement Friction Improvement
• Reinforced soil slopes and walls
• Ground Improvement techniques using Basal reinforcement, Wick Drains, stone columns, compaction piles, vibrofloatation
• Seismic analysis of reinforced soil structures, embankment and reinforced soil footings
• Problems of liquefaction and their remedial measures
• Marine geotechnical structures like quay walls, artificial islands, gravity offshore platforms

Marine geotechnical engineering and environmental geotechnical engineering

That was helpful, thank you all.

Stability of Underground Structures

I agree that hot topic in Geotechnical Engineering should never separate from solving actual engineering problems.

Coupled mechanical model for Geoenvironmental issues

Reliability-based and Performance-based design.

There are two things that Eurocode 7 (EC7) mentioned in design. a) "When selecting the zone of ground governing the behaviour of a geotechnical structure at a limit state, it should be considered that this limit state may depend on the behaviour of the supported structure." b) "...the characteristic value should be derived such that the calculated probability of a worse value governing the occurrence of the limit state under consideration is not greater than 5%" . The former emphasises the significance of limit state which requires a sound analysis of the global performance of the geotechnical system. The latter, on the other hand, is looking at the uncertainties and their impact on the global performance of the geotechnical structures. Combining the two, we have a reliability-based and performance-based design, in which we need to integrate the knowledge about mechanism and uncertainty.

My personal vision is that this is not just one or two isolated geotechnical topics. It's an upgrade to the entire geotechnical field. Unlike the structural field in which the materials are mostly artificial, we geotechnical engineers are dealing with the material from the mother nature, which is filled with uncertainties.

An interesting question and discussion many varied but similarly very valid thoughts and opinions!

In my opinion there are a few fields of study which will really increase in geotechnical engineering over the coming decade (leaving aside wider industry movements such as BIM / data management / integrated modelling).

I believe that the focus on stochastic or reliability/risk based design and analysis assessments will increase significantly – such methods are widely adopted in oil & gas for example but in my experience rarely in other sectors.

It is noteworthy that (as I understand) such methods will be explicitly discussed in the forthcoming revision to Eurocode 7. This is a process which is fairly well developed and understood technically, though I believe will soon become ‘hot’ in industry practice.

Other topics which I expect to increase significantly in utilisation (largely due to the focus on sustainable design and engineering as others have noted) are:

Assessment, analysis and adoption of vegetation related stabilisation within slope stability assessments and remedial measures.

Foundation re-use within the onshore and offshore wind industries as turbines reach the end of their design lives or quickly become vastly outperformed by more recent models.

In Era 4.0 now, I think the monitoring and prediction of the evolution of soil strength are the hottest topics, specially for disaster mitigation aspect. We need the clear and fix analysis, in the lab, or simulation to provide the model for soil pramaters.

Geohazards assessment especially related to highways and the reservoirs.

Early warning for landslides

soil- structure interaction, kinematic analysis

sustainable technology to improve geotechinical problems

Geohazards and and stability of surface/underground structures.

Energy Geotechnics and Post wildfire debris flow

Offshore geotechnical problems, thermo-hydro-mechnical coupling,

geoenergy structures

stochastic geotechnics and problem of uncertainty of primary information (basic data)

Landslides predication, control and preventing.

How is savage enginners searching for resareshes :

😂😂😂😂😅 .. i liked hottest 😋 .

Anyway, try ( geoengineer.org )

hello all

i think we will have good news about geosyntethics and surface wave methods in earthquake geotechnical engineering in next 10 years.

Insitu Testing

Environmental Geotechnics. Remediation of contaminated tests - Non-destructive assessment and subsequent designs of remediation strategies. This is an interdisciplinary area, has huge potential.

I feel rapid and non-destructive evaluation of contaminats and, strenght and stiffness at contaminated sites has some potential in the next 10 years.

Green Geomaterials!

Topics concerning Geotechnical and Environmental Engineering at the same time to propose environmental friendly geomaterials and geotechnical engineering methods in light of global considerations to the environmental concerns.

For a better understanding I invite you to take a look at this fresh publication.

Article Laboratory Creep Parameter Determination of Sand–TDA Mixture...

Mousa Bani Baker Atul Kohli Jayaprakash Reddy Joga İbrahim Hakkı Erkan Mohd Yousuf Tariq Siddique Javed Iqbal Delei Shang Heriansyah Putra Jamie Mccabe Yutao Pan Bhim Dahal Zhongya Zhang Sohan Singh Rajpurohit Mala Babagana Gutti Lulu Liu Ashish Pawar Fasheng Miao Masoud Khabazian Sunny Murmu Gianvito Scaringi Jaroslaw Rybak Jaroslaw Rybak Jaroslaw Rybak M. Wasif Naqvi Janaki Ramaiah Ammad Hassan Khan Mohammad Mehdi Moradi Ahmed Othman Marwan Wannan Igor Fomenko Mehdi Daryabari Hessam Fathipour Hessam Fathipour

I think machine learning, the coupling of different analysis methods, constitutive models, soil improvement with additives and effect of the climate are going to be the next generation subjects

Dear Nima Ghafari

Thank you for sharing your recent paper. It nice paper. I agree with you, the research related to environmental friendly geomaterial is nessesarry now. Recently, we also consent on that topic using calcite preciputation method.

Thank you

In line with the contribution of Jaroslaw Rybak, it depends on the perspective of the researcher. Introduction of machine learning and artificial intelligence into the field of geotechnics, couple with the use of software to reduce the rigorousness and number of iterations in solving problems, is of importance now. Also, researching into finding lasting solutions to the environmental challenges of the developed countries such as natural disasters (landslides, volcanoes) and that of developing and underdeveloped worlds such as pollution control and management, green energy development and water pollution amelioration, are highly important and timely.

I think topics about soil improvement using environmental friendly technologies are hot nowadays

Agree with John Bosco Niyomukiza "Soil improvement and its evaluation based on spatial variability" may be the hottest one.

Thank you Nima Ghafari for sharing your publication. It is a very good experimental work.

Posssibly ground improvements using economical feaible methods.

Dear Mousa Bani Baker

As far as I can see, the application of ANN in all subfields of geotechnical engineering is getting fame. Besides, landsliding and ground improvement with cost-effective solutions are the hot zones nowadays.

Thanks.

1. Stabilization of expansive soil (specially black cotton soil)

2. Soil stabilization by sludge (wet and dry state and the comparison of properties of soil)

3. Soil stabilization by copper and iron slag

4. Design of flexible pavement by using waste materials in soils

5. Use of stabilized soil in controlling of liquefaction

How to deal with problematic soils??

Thermal piles/walls sound hot to me!!! 😄

For academic or real applications? Academic-wise I saw a lot of thermal interaction which I cannot comment whether it is purely tech-push or there is a real problem to solve. For real application definitively the treatment of problematic soils, e.g. clays, both for TBM excavation, or ground improvement or stabilization in general.

Innovative foundations for renewable energy units.

Applying nano-technology in soil improvement, but the used nano material should be cheap.

• Multiscale modeling of problematic geomaterials
• Risk management based on real-time monitoring

Emerging Trends in Geotechnical Engineering - IIT Guwahati

www.iitg.ac.in › amurali › ETGE2012_proceedings

PDFJun 8, 2012 - AK Sarma, Department of Civil Engineering, IIT Guwahati. Prof. ... Treating soft ground with PVDs is one of the most popular techniques for improving soft soil deposits ... indicated in FLAC manual version 5.0 is adopted for the study. ... Therefore now a days, construction of undersigned parkings, metro rails,.by AM Krishna

Analyzing via statistical modelling techniques, e.g., spherical statistics or more generally via Directional Statistics by considering the data structure to be of complex nature or of having nonlinear behavior. See also https://papers.acg.uwa.edu.au/p/2025_03_Donati/

Article Numerical study of the segmental tunnel lining behavior unde...

Article Numerical Investigation of Closed-Form Solutions for Seismic...

Offshore Geotechnics especially in field close to renewable energy such as Offshore Turbine Winds (OTWs)

The following topics may comes under best category:

1. Foundation techniques for offshore structures

2. Liquefaction studies

3. Studies on compressibility data

Hi Friend

I think, treatment of problematic soils, TBM excavation, or ground improvement or stabilization were the hottest topics in Geotechnical Engineering to me.

Thanks

Hi Friend

In my opinion, the geomechanical problems existing in deep geological engineering are hot spots, especially the mountain crossing tunnel in plateau area, subsea tunnel, and deep mining engineering (such as in China). There are complex geological conditions, such as high ground stress, fault, high water pressure, and so on.

In my country Kenya, the hot topic is on why the levels of some lakes and dams are rising. Could it be because runoff is seeping from very far distant?

Shear and tensile strenght co-relations in underground excavation stability.

Currently, research on sustainable development in the field of geotechnical engineering and Geo-environmental engineering has attracted researcher across the globe, and seems to have a bright future as well.

In my opinion, It is purely geographic location specific. Different type of challenges will be encountered for different type of soil conditions. In Indian and elsewhere most of the locations are now associating in to the earthquake prone zones. Moreover, with increase in demand for infrastructure, the high rise buildings are expected to grow significantly in future to meet the requirement. It is the foundations which transmits the seismic forces from soil to the super-structure. Hence, there is a probability that "Soil dynamics" may gain more importance in upcoming generations in the field of geo-technical engineering.

Dear Friend Mousa Bani Baker

In my opinion, due to the geotechnical enginering represents the early stage of any project. highlighting sustainability in geotechnical engineering to reduce global warming is the dominant future trend. Such as the use of sustainable materials (such as helical pile and temporary heap), changing consumption patterns, alternative materials, material reuse and recycling, earth-friendly improvement techniques, and more.

See the attachment, it may be helpful.

good luck

I think mixed study of AI, DL, environmental geotechnology and sustainability will be the trend for next 5 years

In my opinion, there are several topics that can be considred: 1) AI applications like machine learning, image processing, and machine vision; 2) Smart technologies and IoT; 3) sustainable geo-materials and nano-particles.

Best regards,

I would like to suggest the following research topics:

• Expansive soils (Swell amount and swell pressures, Lateral swell behavior)
• Stabilization of soils by waste materials, Use of fly ash for soil stabilization
• Soil stabilization by bacterial cementation
• 2D and 3D Numerical Modeling,
• Unsaturated Soils (Triaxial testing of unsaturated soils for modeling unsaturated soil strength and deformation, Soil-water retention curve prediction and hysteresis, Hydraulic conductivity function and flow modeling
• Geotechnical testing system and methodology development,
• Slopes and Landslides, Rainfall triggered landslides, Stabilization of slopes by passive piles
• Embankment dams, Behavior of earth and rock fill dams under earthquake motions
• Ground Improvement, Stone columns

Hope them helps

Dear Mousa Bani Baker,

I would like to suggest the following research topics:

Geotechnical site investigation specially treatment of problematic soils and ground improvement and stabilization

Application of soft computing methods and smart prediction (AI, ML, DL)

Soil stabilization by bacterial cementation (biogeotechnics)

Tunnelling, NATM, mechanized excavation

Dear Friend,

Your question depends on different circumstances, the most important of which is the specific circumstances of each country. But in general, topics such as:

Optimization of mechanized tunneling

Ground improvement and treatment of problematic soils

Interdisciplinary knowledge such as the application of artificial intelligence and biogeotechnics

Subsidence and its problems

Climate change

Energy geotechnics

unsaturated soil mechanics

Mousa Bani Baker

I would say that the Geospatial systems, Non destructive testing, Geo informatics and Saturation related studies have high scopes in present studies as well as in future.

Application of soft computing methods and smart prediction (AI, ML, DL) approach in Geotechnical site, investigations in soil treatments , ground improvement and stabilization.