Grouting, particularly, permeation grouting, can be a very cost-effective solution for significant infrastructure challenges and ground improvements. The use of grouting is becoming increasingly important as existing dams and levees, and other aging infrastructure, are upgraded to meet new performance design criteria. The current state of practice in grout, however, relies heavily on the field operation experience, whereas the science behind grout flow is not well understood from a fundamental perspective. This Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award will build on the extensive field experience from practitioners to develop new grouting models that can transform grouting from its current state of practice to more scientifically-based engineering design. This goal will be achieved through a comprehensive material characterization and element testing program along with physical and numerical modeling to investigate the flow of suspensions in heterogeneous granular media. The effects of the rheological and filtration properties of suspensions on their flow through heterogeneous granular media will be investigated through element testing under controlled conditions. The mechanisms governing the stability and persistence of the grouts in the pores will be addressed for post grouting analysis and long term evaluation of grouts. The research will lead to developing better models that can predict the groutability, filtration, penetration depth and long-term behavior of grouts based on the engineering properties of the grout and porous media. The impact of this study is expected to be wide-reaching to various environmental, geotechnical, agricultural and petroleum engineering areas. Moreover, the outcome from this research will have a significant impact on the application of permeation grouting in the field. The flow and filtration properties, along with the sustainability of suspensions, will be instrumental for understanding grout flow in porous media and beyond (such as rock fracture grouting, short-term support for tunnels and excavations, contamination transport, and NAPL mobilization, etc.) and will pave the way for engineering ?smart? grouts that can be tailored to site-specific applications.
The PI is committed to integrate this research into his education and outreach activities at UT-Austin through: 1) collaborating with the UTeachEngineering program where the PI will mentor a K-12 teacher for two years, including active participation in the ongoing research over two summers, to develop presentations and activities for in-class use in high schools; 2) developing educational web-based and physical modules for graduate/undergraduate/high-school classes. These models will be hosted on the UTeachEngineering library website and will be made available to the public; 3) mentoring of graduate and undergraduate students and helping recruit under-represented students into the engineering program; 4) adding a new graduate class covering ground improvement from the basic science governing success of ground improvement to field applications; and 5) incorporating the research in other undergraduate/graduate classes. The PI will also work closely with the grouting community through ASCE Grouting Committee to translate the research outcomes to practitioners in addition to disseminating the findings in the appropriate research outlets such as scholarly journals and conferences.
