Deadline: Applications will be accepted at any time until the position is filled.

Standard approaches for monitoring earthwork stability involve installation of tilt sensors (inclinometers) and pore water pressure sensors into boreholes. The need to drill boreholes to install these at some depth makes them costly to install. Low-cost condition monitoring using near-surface sensors over long lengths of railway earthworks is very desirable, but there remain significant challenges to the reliability of such a system.

The project will investigate embedding low cost and rugged thick film (TF) electrodes in earthworks to see if they can detect changes in soil parameters such as soil conductivity/water content and total earth pressure (as opposed to pore water pressure), that could indicate earthwork displacement (or even the potential for displacement) in cuttings and embankments. A key part of the project will be in trying to determine the extent to which any detected changes in sensor outputs (conductivity, total pressure) are indicative of earth movement or incipient movement.

It is anticipated that gross, sudden or abrupt changes in sensor output are very likely to result from actual displacement of earthworks but it is also an aim of the project to try to establish whether sensor output changes can also be indicative of the likelihood of displacement occurring (such as differential pressure e.g. differences in readings recorded at the top and bottom of slopes).

The project will: i) design and print the TF sensor; ii) test it in the laboratory using soil column and sandbox tests; iii) install sensors in a real slope(s) to test their practical ability; and iv) propose a framework in which the sensors can be used to assess the risk of slope failure based on known properties (geometry, soil type, vegetation cover) of the earthwork.

The student will link to the EPSRC iSMART project, which is investigating failure and risk of failure within infrastructure earthworks. 

If you wish to discuss any details of the project informally, please contact Dr Joel Smethurst, Infrastructure research group, Email: J.A.SMETHURST<στο>soton.ac.uk , Tel: +44 (0) 2380 598454.

This integrated PhD project will be funded through the Center for Doctoral Training in Sustainable Infrastructure Systems http://cdt-sis.soton.ac.uk. The studentship comprises support from both EPSRChttp://www.epsrc.ac.uk and an industrial sponsor.