Monash home | Engineering home | Future students | Current students | Alumni | Partnerships | Staff (Intranet) | Contact Engineering |
Research | Departments and schools | Staff directory | A-Z index | Site map |
|
Jayantha Kodikara(Geomechanics Group)
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
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. 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. 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. 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. 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) This paper presented a method to obtain cohesive fracture properties from a beam test in clay for the first time. 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. 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. This paper presented numerical analysis of formation of giant polygons on earth and mars; possible evidence for presence of water in mars. This paper presented a novel technique for measuring fracture properties of clay during desiccation, for the first time. 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. 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. First experimental results and interpretation of irregular triangular rock-concrete joints. 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. |