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Jayantha Kodikara home
 
Jayantha Kodikara

Jayantha Kodikara

(Geomechanics Group)
Email:
Jayantha.Kodikara@monash.edu
Phone:
+61 3 990 54963
Office:
Room 139, Building 60, Clayton Campus
Qualification:
BSc (Engineering, First Class), PhD (Monash)

Professor Jayantha Kodikara's expertise is in the areas of Geotechnical, Geoenvironmental, Pipeline and Pavement Engineering. He received his BSc (Eng) degree (1st Class Honours and University Prize) from the University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka in 1983 and PhD degree in Geotechnical Engineering from Monash University in 1989. His PhD was on the side resistance development of piles socketed into Melbourne mudstone. He worked on finite element analysis of soil-structure interaction problems, as a Post-doctoral Research Fellow at the University of Newcastle from 1989 to 1991. Then he worked as a Senior Geotechnical Engineer with Golder Associates Pty. Ltd., Melbourne, Australia from 1991 to 1994, where he was responsible for engineering analysis of geotechnical and geo-environmental problems, management of projects including development and maintenance of computer programs.

After joining Monash in 2001, he has developed vigorous research programs into both fundamental and applied research in civil engineering. The fundamental research areas include modelling of unsaturated soil behaviour, atmosphere/ground/structure interaction, and soil and rock fracture and water flow. The applied research areas fall mostly in the themes of infrastructure resilience and energy, which include on-shore and off-shore pipelines, road pavements and smart monitoring using fibre optics.

He has published about 200 technical papers on a diverse range of topics. He has attracted about 20 million dollars in external and internal research grants, during his 20 year tenure as an academic. He has supervised successfully over 15 PhD students, some of whom are university lecturers and scientists in research organisations and principals in consulting companies.

He is a Fellow of Institution of Engineers Australia and a Chartered Professional Engineer in Australia.

He is an Associate Editor in Canadian Geotechnical Journal and the Journal of Environmental Geotechnics. He is also the technical leader of global project on Advanced Condition Assessment and Pipe Failure Prediction Project (see www.criticalpipes.com)

For more details navigate the headings given in the left of this page.

Research Interests:

Some key publications

  1. Kodikara, J.K. (2012). New framework for volumetric constitutive behaviour of compacted unsaturated soils, Canadian Geotechnical Journal (first e-articles), Vol. 49, pp. 1227-1243. (DP110104808, DP0773861)

    2. This work presents a radically new approach to a difficult problem incorporating the well-known "Proctor's compaction curve" into constitutive behavior of compacted porous material mixtures.

  2. Amarasiri, A., Kodikara, J. and Costa, S. (2011). Numerical Modelling of Desiccation Cracking, International Journal for Numerical and Analytical Methods in Geomechanics, Vol 35, Issue 1, pp. 82-96. (DP0773861)

    3. This presented first continuum based numerical modelling of desiccation crack evolution of clay. It is listed under the category of one of the top articles published in the journal webpage.

  3. Rajeev, P., Chan, D. and Kodikara, J. (2012). Ground-Atmosphere interaction modelling for long term prediction of soil moisture and temperature, Canadian Geotechnical Journal, Vol. 49, pp. 1059-1073. (LP0667936)

    4. This presents predictions of ground soil moisture variations down to the depth most buried structures are placed backed by field measurements. The paper was chosen as Editors Choice in 2012.

  4. Kodikara, J.K. and Moore, I.D. (1993). Analysis of tapered pile elastic-plastic ground. Journal of Geotechnical Engineering, ASCE, Vol. 119, No. 4, pp. 675-693.

    5. This provided the first detailed theoretical analysis of the axial response of tapered piles. It has been cited in subsequent developments in this field and is a landmark development.

  5. Gould, S., Pathmanathan, R., Kodikara, J., Zhao, X-L, Burn, S. and Marlow, S. (2011). A void ratio-water content-net model for environmentally stabilised expansive soils, Canadian Geotechnical Journal, Vol. 48, No. 6, pp. 867-877. (LP0667936)

    6. This paper presented the behavior of compacted soils when subjected to wet/dry cycles. The final state was first referred to as "environmentally stabilised state". (LP0667936)

  6. Amarasiri, A. L., Costa, S. and Kodikara, J. (2011). Determination of cohesive properties of Mode I fracture from compacted clay beams, Canadian Geotechnical Journal, 48, Issue 8, pp. 1163-1173. (DP110104808)

    7. This paper presented a method to obtain cohesive fracture properties from a beam test in clay for the first time.

  7. Kodikara, J.K., Nahlawi and Bouazza, A. (2004). Modelling of curling in desiccating clay, Canadian Geotechnical Journal, Vol. 41, pp. 560-566.

    8. This paper provided the first detailed theoretical analysis of curling of clay during desiccation. Geometrically and materially non-linear large deformation analysis was performed allowing for significant material non-linearity.

  8. Kodikara, J.K. and Moore, I.D. (1993). A general interaction analysis for large deformations. International Journal for Numerical Methods in Engineering, Vol. 36, pp. 2836-2876.

    9. This provided an advanced interaction analysis based on FEM for interacting bodies undergoing large deformations and separating bodies at interfaces. A sub-structure technique with arc-length control strategies was used.

  9. El Maarry, M.R., Kodikara, J., Wijesooriya, S., Markiewicz, W.J. and Thomas, N. (2012). Desiccation mechanism for formation of giant polygons on earth and intermediate-sized polygons on Mars: Results from a pre-fracture model, Earth Planetary Science Letters, 323-Vol. 324, pp. 19-26.

    10. This paper presented numerical analysis of formation of giant polygons on earth and mars; possible evidence for presence of water in mars.

  10. Costa, S. and Kodikara, J. (2012). Evaluation of J-Integral for clay soils using a new ring test, Geotechnical Testing Journal, Vol. 35, No. 6, pp. 1-9.

    11. This paper presented a novel technique for measuring fracture properties of clay during desiccation, for the first time.

  11. Kodikara, J.K., Rahman, F. and Barbour, S.L. (2002). Towards a more rational approach to chemical compatibility testing, Canadian Geotechnical Journal, Vol. 39, No. 3, pp. 597-607.

    12. Professor Kodikara (with other researchers) highlighted that both rigid wall and flexible wall permeameters may not correctly simulate the right boundary conditions for chemical compatibility testing.

  12. Gould, S., Rajeev, P., Kodikara, J., Zhao, X-L, Burn, S. and Marlow, D. (2012). A new method for developing equations applied to the water retention curve, Soil Science Society of America Journal, Vol.76 No.3, p. 806-814 doi:10.2136/sssaj2011.0260.

    13. This equation is different from other currently used equations (such as Van Genucheten, Fredlund and Xing) since it uses physical landmarks (saturated porosity, air entry value, residual water content) directly to represent the SWCC mathematically.

  13. Kodikara, J.K. and Johnston, I.W. (1994). Shear behaviour of irregular triangular rock-concrete joints. International Journal of Rock Mechanics and Mining Sciences & Geomechanics Abstracts, Vol. 31, No. 4, pp. 313-322.

    14. First experimental results and interpretation of irregular triangular rock-concrete joints.

  14. Kodikara, J.K., Seneviratne, H.N. and Wijayakulasooriya, C.V. (1986). Evaluation of plastic limit and plasticity index by cone penetrometer, Proceedings of the Asian Regional Symposium on Geotechnical Problems and Practices in Foundation Engineering., Vol. 1, Colombo, Sri Lanka, pp. 229-233.

    15. This publication introduced, for the first time, the use of log(d)-log(w) method of determination of plastic limit using the laboratory cone penetrometer. However, it did not receive much attention since it was published in a secluded conference. Later the method was used by other researchers to extend it further, as explained in the following Discussion to ASCE.

  15. Kodikara, J.K., Seneviratne, N. and Wijekulasuriya, W., (2006). Discussion on using a small ring and fall-cone to determine the plastic limit by Tao-Wei Wang, Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering, ASCE, Vol. 132, No. 2, pp. 276-278.