Publications
A main research focus at the Institute for Geotechnical Engineering is the understanding and the prediction of the interaction between foundation structures and the surrounding or supporting soil. Currently, the bearing behaviour of foundation elements of offshore wind energy converters (in particular monopiles and suction buckets) under cyclic loading is the main topic in research projects.
Another research focus since many years is the interaction of earth-buried district heating pipelines with the surrounding soil. Moreover, the Underground Construction department conducts intensive research on the bearing behaviour of deep salt caverns for oil and gas storage.
Corresponding to the strong experimental orientation of the Geotechnical Engineering discipline, our research methods usually consist of a combination of laboratory tests for the determination of the element behaviour of soil or rock samples, of model tests for the experimental determination of the system behaviour and of numerical simulations for the prediction of the system behaviour. For that, the IGtH is equipped with soil and rock mechanical labs, two testing halls and a powerful computer infrastructure. For large scale model tests, also the Test Center for Support Structures (Testzentrum Tragstrukturen, TTH) of the faculty with its large test pit can be used.
