Objective Soft soils have high compressibility and low shear strength. They include a variety of geological materials and can be found all around Europe. Sustainable development in Europe requires safe and economical design of structures constructed on soft soils an d this creates new challenges for geotechnical design. Construction on soft soils often requires utilisation of ground improvement techniques. These include preloading techniques, often combined with prefabricated vertical drains, and increasingly, various methods based on stiffening columns. The column elements can be produced either by mixing stabilising agents with the soft soil in situ (deep stabilisation), by forming columns of imported granular fill within the soft soil (stone columns) or by installin g piling elements that penetrate only partly through the soft soil deposit and do not reach a stiff soil stratum (creep piles). All these techniques offer an economical and sustainable alternative to more traditional construction techniques such as piling to a stiff soil stratum or removal of the soft soil. Most of the methods have been developed using an empirical approach and may have been adopted without full understanding of the underlying physical principles. Introduction of stiffening or modifying ele ments (i.e. columns or drains) into soft soils creates a complex soil-structure interaction problem. In addition, soft soils are complex non-linear multi-phase materials. Current design practices routinely rely on over-simplified one-dimensional methods, w hich are at best very crude and conservative (hence uneconomical), or at worst unsafe. The design would benefit from systematic numerical studies and the industry needs professionals trained to do such advanced analyses. The proposed research training netw ork on aims to develop advanced 2D and 3D numerical modelling techniques for ground improvement systems on soft soils, and train researchers in computational geotechnics. Fields of science engineering and technologyenvironmental engineeringgeotechnicssocial scienceseconomics and businessbusiness and managemententrepreneurshipnatural sciencesmathematicsapplied mathematicsnumerical analysishumanitiesphilosophy, ethics and religionphilosophy Programme(s) FP6-MOBILITY - Human resources and Mobility in the specific programme for research, technological development and demonstration "Structuring the European Research Area" under the Sixth Framework Programme 2002-2006 Topic(s) MOBILITY-1.1 - Marie Curie Research Training Networks (RTN) Call for proposal FP6-2002-MOBILITY-1 See other projects for this call Funding Scheme RTN - Marie Curie actions-Research Training Networks Coordinator UNIVERSITY OF STRATHCLYDE EU contribution No data Address Richmond Street 16 GLASGOW United Kingdom See on map Links Website Opens in new window Total cost No data Participants (6) Sort alphabetically Sort by EU Contribution Expand all Collapse all EIDGENÖSSISCHE TECHNISCHE HOCHSCHULE ZÜRICH Switzerland EU contribution No data Address Raemistrasse 101 ZURICH See on map Links Website Opens in new window Total cost No data NORGES TEKNISK - NATURVITENSKAPELIGE UNIVERSITET Norway EU contribution No data Address Hogskoleringen 1 TRONDHEIM See on map Links Website Opens in new window Total cost No data TECHNISCHE UNIVERSITÄT GRAZ Austria EU contribution No data Address Rechbauerstrasse 12 GRAZ See on map Links Website Opens in new window Total cost No data TEKNILLINEN KORKEAKOULU Finland EU contribution No data Address Otakaari 1 ESPOO See on map Links Website Opens in new window Total cost No data UNIVERSITY OF GLASGOW United Kingdom EU contribution No data Address University Avenue GLASGOW See on map Links Website Opens in new window Total cost No data UNIVERSITÄT STUTTGART Germany EU contribution No data Address Keplerstrasse 7 STUTTGART See on map Links Website Opens in new window Total cost No data
