The complementary roles of physical and computational modelling

Abstract

Physical modelling in geotechnical engineering is used extensively, in spite of the high investment costs for experimental facilities and the contrasting decline in computing costs. The paper discusses why physical modelling is still needed, and the manner in which it may be used in conjunction with numerical analysis to develop the simple conceptual models that are used for the major part of design. Two example problems are discussed, one in relation to scale effects when dealing with interface shearing involving dilation, and one in the area of penetration testing. In both cases, physical modelling is shown to reveal limitations in analytical models. An approach for in situ determination of the consolidation coefficient, by means of variable rate penetration testing, is described.