TY - JOUR

T1 - Bio-inspired Geotechnical Engineering

T2 - principles, current work, opportunities and challenges

AU - Martinez, Alejandro

AU - DeJong, Jason

AU - Akin, Idil

AU - Aleali, Ali

AU - Arson, Chloe

AU - Atkinson, Jared

AU - Bandini, Paola

AU - Baser, Tugce

AU - Borela, Rodrigo

AU - Boulanger, Ross

AU - Burrall, Matthew

AU - Chen, Yuyan

AU - Collins, Clint

AU - Cortes, Douglas

AU - Dai, Sheng

AU - DeJong, Theodore

AU - Del Dottore, Emanuela

AU - Dorgan, Kelly

AU - Fragaszy, Richard

AU - Frost, J. David

AU - Full, Robert

AU - Ghayoomi, Majid

AU - Goldman, Daniel

AU - Gravish, Nicholas

AU - Guzman, Ivan L.

AU - Hambleton, James

AU - Hawkes, Elliot

AU - Helms, Michael

AU - Hu, David

AU - Huang, Lin

AU - Huang, Sichuan

AU - Hunt, Christopher

AU - Irschick, Duncan

AU - Lin, Hai Thomas

AU - Lingwall, Bret

AU - Marr, Alen

AU - Mazzolai, Barbara

AU - McInroe, Benjamin

AU - Murthy, Tejas

AU - O'Hara, Kyle

AU - Porter, Marianne

AU - Sadek, Salah

AU - Sanchez, Marcelo

AU - Santamarina, Carlos

AU - Shao, Lisheng

AU - Sharp, James

AU - Stuart, Hannah

AU - Stutz, Hans Henning

AU - Summers, Adam

AU - Tao, Julian

AU - Tolley, Michael

AU - Treers, Laura

AU - Turnbull, Kurtis

AU - Valdes, Rogelio

AU - van Passen, Leon

AU - Viggiani, Gioacchino

AU - Wilson, Daniel

AU - Wu, Wei

AU - Yu, Xiong

AU - Zheng, Junxing

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2021 Published with permission by the ICE under the CC-BY 4.0 license.

PY - 2022/8

Y1 - 2022/8

N2 - A broad diversity of biological organisms and systems interact with soil in ways that facilitate their growth and survival. These interactions are made possible by strategies that enable organisms to accomplish functions that can be analogous to those required in geotechnical engineering systems. Examples include anchorage in soft and weak ground, penetration into hard and stiff subsurface materials and movement in loose sand. Since the biological strategies have been ?vetted? by the process of natural selection, and the functions they accomplish are governed by the same physical laws in both the natural and engineered environments, they represent a unique source of principles and design ideas for addressing geotechnical challenges. However, prior to implementation as engineering solutions, the differences in spatial and temporal scales and material properties between the biological environment and engineered system must be addressed. Bio-inspired geotechnics research is addressing topics such as soil excavation and penetration, soil?structure interface shearing, load transfer between foundation and anchorage elements and soils, and mass and thermal transport, having gained inspiration from organisms such as worms, clams, ants, termites, fishes, snakes and plant roots. This work highlights the potential benefits to both geotechnical engineering through new or improved solutions and biology through understanding of mechanisms as a result of cross-disciplinary interactions and collaborations.

AB - A broad diversity of biological organisms and systems interact with soil in ways that facilitate their growth and survival. These interactions are made possible by strategies that enable organisms to accomplish functions that can be analogous to those required in geotechnical engineering systems. Examples include anchorage in soft and weak ground, penetration into hard and stiff subsurface materials and movement in loose sand. Since the biological strategies have been ?vetted? by the process of natural selection, and the functions they accomplish are governed by the same physical laws in both the natural and engineered environments, they represent a unique source of principles and design ideas for addressing geotechnical challenges. However, prior to implementation as engineering solutions, the differences in spatial and temporal scales and material properties between the biological environment and engineered system must be addressed. Bio-inspired geotechnics research is addressing topics such as soil excavation and penetration, soil?structure interface shearing, load transfer between foundation and anchorage elements and soils, and mass and thermal transport, having gained inspiration from organisms such as worms, clams, ants, termites, fishes, snakes and plant roots. This work highlights the potential benefits to both geotechnical engineering through new or improved solutions and biology through understanding of mechanisms as a result of cross-disciplinary interactions and collaborations.

KW - anchors & anchorages

KW - piles & piling

KW - penetrometers

KW - in situ testing

U2 - 10.1680/jgeot.20.P.170

DO - 10.1680/jgeot.20.P.170

M3 - Journal article

VL - 72

SP - 687

EP - 705

JO - Geotechnique

JF - Geotechnique

SN - 0016-8505

IS - 8

ER -