Soil and Foundation

Geotechnical engineering is a branch of civil engineering that examines the mechanical behavior of the earth in general and the soil, rock, and structures constructed with them in particular. Due to the fact that every type of structure has direct connection with the earth, this field of study plays a significant role in the construction industry, dam, tunnel and road construction. Investigating the resistance and strengthening of the foundation of structures is directly related with seismic geotechnics and knowledge of soil behavior and rock under dynamic loads such as earthquakes. Seismic geotechnics studies the mechanism of earthquake in earthquake hotspots and investigates how earthquakes move in different earth structures, and determines the design earthquake for a site. In the field of energy, this field is absolutely vital. For example, this field of study examines the application of geothermal energy, oil and gas storage, as well as oil engineering. The development of hydraulic failure in the last few decades, or in fact a mechanical examination of liquid or gas interactions, has had a tremendous effect on recent oil and gas production. In addition, the use of geothermal energy is not usually effective without the production of hydraulic cracks. Geotechnical engineering plays an important role in the field of atomic waste landfill, which is a toxic substance, an issue which requires competent geotechnical specialists to study the interaction of soil and rock mechanical behavior and thermal transformations. Another application of geotechnical engineering is in defense projects of the country. In particular, the stability of an underground structure due to explosive loads should be studied and this requires geotechnical specialists who are familiar with the mechanical behavior of materials at high loading rates. Additionally, this field requires familiarity with the nonlinear numerical model, the dynamics, and the change in the massive shapes. One of the important goals of the geotechnical department of Tarbiat Modares University is to build advanced laboratory facilities for conducting research of Ph.D. students and other specialized key projects. In this regard, this department has managed to manufacture a large number of devices to equip its geotechnical laboratory. The Geotechnical Engineering Department of Tarbiat Modares University was founded in 1991 in order to train geotechnical engineers. In 2008, the department began admitting Ph.D. students and succeeded in providing a large number of geotechnical specialists to the scientific community of the country.
This department has been involved in a significant number of industrial projects, such as developing CA software for numerical analysis of soil and rock materials (in cooperation with the Research Center for Building), managing and participating in the design of several large earth and landfill and RCCs dams in the country, contributing to the design of a significant number of tunnels, metro stations and underground structures, participating in the design and construction of advanced structures and modern technology such as cable bridges, segmental bridges, super-frame buildings, designing and executing a large number of deep excavations of structures with skidding techniques, anchoring, mutual sustainability, etc., designing and constructing large volumes of reinforced long walls in urban, bridge and road construction projects, etc. In addition, faculty members of this department have managed to publish several books which are accessible to interested individuals.

Educating and training graduate and postgraduate students in order to meet the needs of industry and higher education systems of Iran
Providing advanced tools for on-site and laboratory testing
Providing powerful software for the analysis of soil and stone structures with the goal of self-sufficiency in this area
Providing specialized services to other educational and industrial centers of the country, such as consulting engineering companies
Establishing contact between industry and university by carrying out projects and defining new applications in geotechnical engineering