This work is important not only for its utility in analysis and design, but also because it can be valuable in explaining the fundamental mechanisms of complex and often nonlinear physical phenomena important in many engineering problems. In addition to our research in discretization methods, we are also undertaking research in new directions that aim at synthesizing exact analytical and numerical methods leading to new and powerful techniques for many problems in structural mechanics. Our group is also actively involved in interdisciplinary research bridging departments such as Mechanical Engineering , Electrical Engineering , Materials Science and Engineering , and the School of Medicine . Examples of research presently being undertaken in the area of geomechanics include developing constitutive models for geomaterials using particulate mechanics theory, modeling the nonlinear response of soil-structure interaction systems, and modeling the transient flow of fluid through porous media. The work combines the power of the finite element, boundary element, and distinct element methods to model and study some of the more recurring geotechnical engineering phenomena such as soil liquefaction, localization of deformation, and wave propagation through geologic media.
Emphasis is placed on the effect of material and geometric nonlinearities in the modeling procedure.
The geomechanics group is involved in bridging interdisciplinary research with the Mechanical Engineering and the Geological and Environmental Sciences departments. While it is generally acknowledged that parallel supercomputing offers considerable promise for solving very large problems of practical interest, it is important to recognize that new algorithms and data structures have to be developed to exploit the new discretization methods and also to attack the intrinsic difficulties of the physical problem being addressed. Adaptive solution schemes based on error estimation also provide unique challenges for solver technology. Current work in our group related to parallel and distributed computing involves the development of new solution algorithms for statics and dynamics problems. It is expected that research in this area will continue to grow, as evidenced by the explosion of new parallel computers, and networked workstations available in the last few years.