Our research
A key aspect of this research cluster is use of the National Engineered Slope Simulator (NESS) facility.
NESS is a unique, large-scale configurable climate-controlled experimental facility for infrastructure slopes. The 45-tonne model slopes are subjected to accelerated wetting/drying to simulate seasonal weather-driven deterioration, and extreme events (wet / dry).
A suite of instrumentation enables unrivalled monitoring of hydromechanical behaviour, including stresses, strains, deformation and pore pressures.
NESS was designed to advance understanding of deterioration processes and climate change impacts; develop modelling capabilities, remediation strategies and new detection technologies; and inform design of new infrastructure.
Our team brings together multidisciplinary expertise spanning:
- Geotechnics
- Soil mechanics
- Transport infrastructure
- Infrastructure rehabilitation technologies
- Large-scale physical modelling
- Numerical analysis
- Microscopy and microstructure analysis
- Artificial intelligence and machine learning
- Geospatial techniques and digital twins
- Probabilistic techniques
- Sensors and instrumentation
- Robotics and automation