Geotechnics

The group's research activity concerns the mechanics of soils and rocks, aimed at the analysis and design of geotechnical structures and infrastructures. The main applications are found in the context of seismic and hydrogeological risk mitigation, the preservation of the historical-architectural heritage and the exploitation of offshore renewable energy.

Description

Research activities develop along the following main areas:

Soil mechanics

The topic concerns the geotechnical characterization of natural soils from site and laboratory tests, with special reference to the execution and advanced interpretation of CPTU tests.

Foundations

The research is mainly aimed at the physical and numerical modelling of the behavior of shallow foundations under general load conditions, with application to the protection of historic buildings as well as to the development of innovative solutions for offshore structures.

Earth structures

In the context of flood risk mitigation, the research is aimed to the stability analyses of embankments relevant to various possible collapse mechanisms. The research concerns specifically the site monitoring of saturated and unsaturated soil conditions and the development of advanced numerical models.

Risk mitigation from landslides

The research involves the study of the response of rockfall barriers and their contribution to rockfall risk mitigation. It is carried out using advanced numerical modelling and innovative meta-modelling techniques.

ERC Sectors

PE8_3 Civil engineering, maritime/hydraulic engineering, geotechnics, waste treatment

PE8_9 Materials engineering (biomaterials, metals, ceramics, polymers, composites, …) 

Faculty Members

Guido Gottardi

Full Professor

Laura Govoni

Associate Professor

Michela Marchi

Associate Professor

Laura Tonni

Full Professor

Research assistants

Alessio Mentani

Associate Professor