What Are The Worst Geotechnical Engineering Challenges?
Geotechnical engineering is critical for handling all kinds of building and infrastructure jobs. There are, however, some particular challenges that keep geotechnical engineers up at night. Anyone preparing a project should learn a bit about the following four challenges so they can understand the road ahead.
Liquefaction
In some situations, soil can almost instantaneously take on the characteristics of a fluid. Worse, this can happen even if the soil isn't wet. Soil holds together in large part due to internal friction. An event like an earthquake can disrupt the friction inside the soil and trigger liquefaction. Similar events like explosions or building demolitions can also serve as triggers. Even if this causes the ground to move a couple of feet, that could be enough to damage or even destroy a building or a bridge.
The solutions to this risk vary. In some cases, it may be possible to stabilize the soil to mitigate the risk. Other cases may require replacing the soil. Sometimes, the solution is simply to not build in the spot.
Insufficient Bedrock
If the soil can suddenly behave like a fluid, then you want to know every building you're in is anchored to the bedrock. One of the biggest goals of a geotechnical engineering services firm is to identify where the bedrock is on the property. If there is insufficient bedrock, it presents gigantic challenges because heavy structures need reliable anchors. The geotechnical engineering solution may be to simply probe deeper to try to find bedrock. It is also possible there might not be a solution, but you at least want to know that before you commit time and money to build at a site.
Unknown Seismicity
The idea that there are unknown earthquake fault lines lurking around the world is disconcerting. In the geotechnical engineering services world, it's downright frightening. From a geotechnical perspective, you want a building or a piece of infrastructure to be over-engineered. However, every project has limits due to time, costs, and the basic rational need to not throw solutions at problems needlessly.
Cavitation
Finally, there is the risk that water flowing in the ground can create cavities under structures. When you erect a building, it changes the water flow. In extreme cases, there is enough pressure for the water to cavitate the soil. Eventually, the cavitation can leave a structure with no support. Ideally, you can discover these risks and mitigate them with the shape of the structure, underground barriers, soil amendment, and good anchoring.
For more information on geotechnical engineering, contact a professional near you.