The goal of the Geotechnical Department is to advance education and research on the topics of Soil Mechanics, Rock Mechanics, Foundation Engineering, Engineering Geology and Geoenvironmental Engineering. More specifically, the subject areas covered by the Geotechnical Department include:
- Subsurface investigations, laboratory studies of the mechanical behavior of soils and rocks under static and dynamic loading, in situ measurements of soil and rock parameters.
- Ground water flow.
- Modelling of the mechanical behavior of soils and rocks.
- Engineering behavior of rock formations and geological strata.
- Slope stability analysis. Stability and deformation analysis of retaining structures.
- Design, analysis and construction of foundations of buildings, dams, roads, etc.
- Dynamic behavior of soils, foundations and other geotechnical structures.
- Soil-structure interaction under static and seismic loading conditions.
- Seismic behavior of underground structures, quay walls, bridge piers.
- Analytical and numerical methods for the solution of problems in soil mechanics, foundation engineering and soil dynamics.
- Analysis of geotechnical failures, with emphasis on earthquake-induced failures.
- Protection and restoration of the geoenvironment.
- Engineering geology and hydrogeology in karst environments.
- Geotechnical description and behavior of unstable masses as applied to tunneling and dam construction.
Due to the multidisciplinarity of the subject matter, education and research in the Geotechnical Department is closely related to the other Departments in the Civil Engineering School.
The Department includes 10 faculty members, 8 instructors and 5 staff members providing administrative and laboratory support. The Department houses two Laboratories, the Soil Mechanics Laboratory and the Foundation Engineering Laboratory. The Department is administered through the General Assembly of its faculty members and the Department Head who is elected yearly.
In brief, the activities of the department can be described as educational (instruction, supervising of diploma theses, Master’s theses and doctoral dissertations), research-related (management of funded research projects) and scientific-professional (organizing seminars and conferences, collaborating with universities and research institutes from abroad) with the purpose of further advancing instruction and research in the broader area of Geotechnical Engineering.