Infrastructure Geotechnics in Gravelly Soils: Considerations in Characterization and Engineering Analysis
Jason T. DeJong, Ph.D.
Professor, University of California, Davis
Event details
- Friday, Dec. 1, 2023
- Noon to 1:30 p.m., Earthquake Engineering Lab Auditorium
- Register for the seminar
Abstract
Gravelly soils, both natural and anthropogenic, often are pervasive in large infrastructure projects such as dams and bridges, and yet the characterization and engineering analysis of those materials is both challenging and highly uncertain. This presentation will systematically consider the formation and characteristics of those materials, propose a systematic methodology for performing site investigation programs, cover gravel-specific techniques including the instrumented Becker Penetration Test (iBPT), and examine how engineering analyses may need to be modified for gravelly soils. More specifically, we will examine how the effects of the particle size and broad gradation of these gravelly soils may influence soil properties, engineering behavior, characterization methods and ultimately system behavior.
About the speaker
Jason T. DeJong, a professor at the University of California, Davis, is the director of the UC Davis Center for Geotechnical Modeling and the UC Davis lead for the NSF ERC Center for Bio-mediated and Bio-inspired Geotechnics. Professor DeJong’s major technical contributions have been in the areas of soil and site characterization, bio-mediated and bio-inspired geotechnics, earthquake engineering and geotechnical sustainability.
He has developed several in situ and laboratory tools as well as associated analysis and interpretation techniques to characterize challenging soils — soft sediments, intermediate soils, tailings and gravelly soils. Results from his research program have been disseminated through 250 publications and he is chair of the ISSMGE TC102 In situ Testing committee. DeJong serves as a reviewer or technical advisor on several civil infrastructure projects, and methods he has developed have been implemented in practice.
