The classical soil mechanics has been founded to support practice-driven geotechnical engineering solutions. In terms of fundamental soil properties, classical soil mechanics uses the basic mechanics concepts and utilizes experimentally observed soil behavior to develop application-driven engineering parameters. The microscopic mechanisms of these parameters are typically overlooked. This presentation will describe a framework that integrates computational models with characterization of the fundamental properties of soils to understand the structural and interaction bases of soil engineering parameters. The framework allows predicting soil engineering behaviors from the most fundamental characterizations. It has the potential of transforming soil mechanism into a predictive mechanics and catalyze the introduction of new sets of experimental tools for soil mechanics research.
Dr. Xiong (Bill) Yu is a professor at the Department of Civil Engineering, Case Western Reserve University.