A collaborative research programme between University of Bolton and Bradford University is investigating the effect of surplus carpet fibres on the strength as well as other important geotechnical properties of cohesive soils. Initial work concentrates on the manner in which the fibres affect the quick undrained properties of the reinforced soil. Four different surplus carpet fibre types are be...

Discrepancies in scale dynamics often make cohesive structural conclusions difficult, especially when dealing with ecological variance. We studied presence and abundance of grasshopper species in similar, yet distinct, montane habitat of southeast Wyoming and northern Colorado, USA. By limiting ecological variance, grasshopper species structure at two behavioral scales (grouped species dynamics...

The mechanical behavior of soils has been traditionally described using continuum-mechanics-based models. These are empirical relations based on laboratory tests of soil specimens. The investigation of the soils at the grain scale using discrete element models has become possible in recent years. These models have provided valuable understanding of many micromechanical aspects of soil deformati...

ABSTRACT: In this paper, shakedown limits of non-homogeneous soils in a half-space under rolling and sliding surface loads are investigated. The inhomogeneity of the soil is described by a power law for the variation of Young’s modulus with the depth. Mohr-Coulomb criterion is employed to characterise the cohesive-frictional behaviour of the soil. Analytical solutions to the elastic stress fiel...

The nature and danger of quicksand has been disputed since a long time. Despite widespread belief that humans can be swallowed or even sucked in, engineers of soil mechanics have typically asserted that, since the density of sludge is larger than that of water, a person cannot fully submerge. We investigated a specific type of quicksand at the shore of drying lagoons. Cyanobacteria form an impe...