CIES ARC LINKAGE Grant Success

Staff from the Centre for Infrastructure Engineering and Safety (CIES) have been successful in securing an Australian Research Council Linkage Project Grant together with Roads and Maritime Services for the period 2014-2017.

The research group is comprised of CIES’s Prof Nasser Khalili and Dr Arman Khoshghalb and Mr John A Rubsov - Engineering Services Manager, Roads & Maritime Services.

The project titled "Experimental investigation and constitutive modelling of weak rocks subject to mechanical and moisture degradation" aims to advance the experimental, theoretical and computational bases for the mechanics of weak rocks, and will provide scientists and engineers with much-needed predictive tools for the quantitative evaluation and assessment of their behaviour in geological settings.

Based on the theoretical results of the research, numerical algorithms will be developed that will assist engineers to apply the findings of the project to geotechnical engineering problems. By incorporating previously neglected aspects in the behaviour of weak rocks such as mechanical, environmental as well as cyclic loading degradation, confidence in the design methods will be increased to the point that costly over designs can be avoided.