Geotechnics – Climate Change Impacts on Slope Stability

Warmer temperatures, extreme droughts, and more intensive convective storms are accelerating deterioration of slopes, degrading resilience. There is an urgent need to understand why, and anticipate when, slope failures occur to enable targeted and timely preventative actions. Learn more at Geotechnics – Climate Change Impacts on Slope Stability from the V.

Key facts of the  Geotechnics – Climate Change Impacts on Slope Stability Geotechnics – Climate Change Impacts on Slope Stability programme offered by  Loughborough University Loughborough University

This PhD will take advantage of the National Engineered Slope Simulator (NESS); a unique, large-scale (5×3×2 m, 45-tonne samples), configurable, climate-controlled testing facility for slope stability. A suite of instrumentation enables monitoring of stresses, strains, deformation, pore pressures, suctions, moisture content, photogrammetry and more.

Curriculum:

Depending on the selected PhD candidate’s strengths and interests, the project could take a range of directions:

• Soil mechanics of climate-driven deterioration, focussing principally on large- and element-scale laboratory testing.

• Diagnostic techniques for slope condition assessment, harnessing data fusion and AI analytics.

• Forecasting/prediction of slope failure using numerical simulations and/or probabilistic techniques.

• Low carbon slope rehabilitation/intervention strategies.