Physical Modeling of Geotechnical Systems using Centrifuge

In geotechnical engineering, the mechanical characteristics of soil, the main material of geotechnical engineering, is highly related to the confining stress. Reduced-scale physical modeling is often conducted to evaluate the performance or to verify the behavior of the geotechnical systems. However, reduced-scale physical modeling cannot replicate the behavior of the full-scale prototype because the reduced-scale causes difference of self weight stress level. Geotechnical centrifuges are commonly used for physical model tests to compensate the model for the stress level. Physical modeling techniques using centrifuge are widely adopted in most of geotechnical engineering fields these days due to its various advantages. In this paper, fundamentals of geotechnical centrifuge modeling and its application area are explained. State-of-the-art geotechnical centrifuge equipment is also described as an example of KOCED geotechnical centrifuge facility at KAIST.