Geotechnical Engineering research mainly focuses on the areas which interface with two critical fields of hazard and energy. Research interests include geomechanics in energy applications (e.g., oil/gas, enhanced geothermal systems and carbon sequestration), application of geophysical methods and remote sensing techniques in geo-systems health monitoring and geohazard assessment, geosynthetic- reinforced earth structures, geotechnical earthquake engineering, and design of embankment dams and levee systems. Research projects are being performed using analytical, numerical and experimental methods.
Geotechnical involves the application of laboratory-determined physical properties of soils to the planning, investigation, analysis and design of diverse foundation construction problems. Because of its close association with the Mississippi Department of Transportation and the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers Engineering Research and Development Center (ERDC) in Vicksburg, a considerable number of interesting and exotic research projects and laboratory experimentation are being conducted at Mississippi State University.
A state-of-the-art soil mechanics laboratory supports the experimental part of research projects and cutting-edge high performance computing resources through MSU’s High Performance Computing Collaboratory (HPC2) are utilized to perform fully coupled numerical simulations and rigorous analytical solutions. Recent research projects include developing a multi-scale health monitoring system for earth dams and levees, numerical simulation and studying induced seismicity due to CO2 and fluid injection in storage and utilization operations, seismic design and analysis of unreinforced and reinforced earth structures, effect of sample preparation technique on fully softened shear strength of clay shale, and use of geosynthetics for various geotechnical engineering applications.