Geotechnical Engineering Laboratory

The Geotechnical Engineering Laboratory of the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of Patras was established in 1985 covering teaching activities at undergraduate and postgraduate levels, research and specialised services in Geotechnical Engineering. Members of the lab teach or participate in the teaching of 7 undergraduate courses in the Department of Civil Engineering (Soil Mechanics I, Soil Mehanics ΙΙ, Foundations, Geotechnical Earthquake Engineering, Computational Geomechanics, Geotechnical Site Exploration Methods, Selected topics in Foundation Engineering). They also teach three postgraduate courses in the first specialisation area of the Postgraduate Programme ‘Design of resilient, sustainable and smart infrastructures’.

Research Activities

The current research activities of the Geotechnical Laboratory include:

  • Seismic site response analysis of soil deposits, dynamic soil-structure interaction, dynamic response of foundations, dams, slopes and undergraound works
  • Development and application of computational methods to study the constitutive response of geomaterials
  • In-situ and laboratory characterisation of dynamic soil properties
  • Computational Analysis of the response of offshore foundations
  • Monitoring of geotechnical inftastructure
  • Characteristation and analysis of geosynthtices and reinforced soils

Equipment

The experimental facilities include a range of both conventional and specialised equipment for:

  • standard laboratory soil mechanics testing (grain size analysis, Atterberg limits, permeability, consolidation, compaction, direct and triaxial compression)
  • specialised laboratory and field measurements in soil dynamics (resonant column, cyclic triaxial, cross-hole, surface waves spectral analysis)
  • performance monitoring instrumentation (inclinometer, piezometers, tiltmeters, water level indicator)
  • geosynthetics testing (physical, mechanical, hydraulic properties) and rock mechanics.

The laboratory has also computational facilities equiped with specilised geotechnical software for use by postgraduate and undergraduate students and a number of physical models for educational purposes.

PERSONNEL

Members of the Geotechnical Engineering Laborstory are the Assoc. Professor Stavroula Kontoe, Assist. Professor Panagiotis Pelekis, Emeritus Professors George Athanasopoulos and Dimitrios Atmatzidis, and Vasilis Christopoulos (Labortory Teaching Staff), postdoctoral partners, PhD candidates,postgraduate and undegrduates students who undertake their dissertation in Geotehnical Engineering Laboratory.

The Director of the Geotechnical Engineering Laboratory is Assoc. Professor Stavroula Kontoe (tel. 2610 996569, email skontoe@upatras.gr).

Youtube channel (in Greek):  https://www.youtube.com/@geolabupatras.civ.eng.1046/