Development of hybrid simulation system for geotechnical engineering problems

The authors have developed a hybrid simulation system for dealing with various geotechnical engineering issues in terms of both static and dynamic aspects. In the hybrid simulation, the responses of soils to external force have been updated in real time in numerical analysis through repeated feedback between the computation and the element test. Through the procedure of hybrid simulation, the stress-strain behavior of the element test layers is not required, and furthermore, detailed soil responses including strong nonlinear behavior could be directly introduced into the numerical analysis. In this paper, therefore, two detailed applications, the consolidation of clayey soil and the liquefaction of sandy soil, are described to show the validity and possibility of the method in terms of both static and dynamic issues. Reasonable results were acquired through the laboratory simulation using clayey and sandy soil. Finally, we concluded that the proposed hybrid simulation system is an advanced and integrated method involving the techniques of soil sampling, element tests, and numerical analysis techniques. We expect that the development of this hybrid simulation system will contribute to various geotechnical engineering issues.