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Cambridge University (CU)

Engineering Department

Brief profile

The Engineering Department of the University of Cambridge teaches and conducts research in all the main branches of engineering except for Chemical Engineering which is a separate department. There are more than 1,000 undergraduate and 300 postgraduate students in the Department; the standard of both undergraduate and graduate entry is exceptionally high. The present staff of the Department consists of 17 Professors, 10 Readers and about 90 Lecturers and Assistant Lecturers.

STRICE related research falls within the scope of the Geotechnics and Petroleum Engineering groups. The Geotechnics group are led by Professor Robert Mair FEng FICE and Professor A.C. Palmer and includes 1 reader, 4 lecturers, 3 research workers and more than 20 research students. This group developed and applied the ’cam-clay’ theory for the mechanical behaviour of a frictional aggregate of interlocking soil particles. A consequence of this theory is that good model tests can be made at reduced scale and increased acceleration.

The group’s Geotechnical Centrifuge Centre places Cambridge University at the forefront of centrifuge modelling. The Centre’s centrifuges have been used to study
many practical problems, including e.g.

  • jack-up leg fixity in the deployment of mobile offshore platforms in the North Sea,
  • ground liquefaction in earthquakes,
  • thaw-induced settlement or frost heave of pipelines in permafrost,
  • sea bed scour of iceberg keels damaging sub-sea oil and gas pipelines, pipeline uplift resistance and backfill process dynamics
  • and soil-structure interaction theories.
In environmental geotechnics, the mechanisms of heat and contaminant transport in ground water have been modelled and centrifuge tests have been used to calibrate numerical codes and support fundamental studies. A new review is being undertaken on the micromechanics of transport processes and of deformation in granular solids. Fractal analysis will allow interpretation of critical state concepts and their transformation into elastic mechanics, and provides a link with reservoir engineering studies.
 

Involvement in and contributions to the STRICE project

CU contributes to the work packages End user workshop (WP 1), Correlation of existing and new data with predictions (WP 6), Recommendations towards codes (WP 7) and Reporting and dissemination of results (WP 9).
 

Contacts
 
Cambridge University
Engineering Department (CU)

Trumpington Street 
Cambridge CB2 IPZ, UK 
 
 
Tel.: +44 1223 33 27 18
Fax.: +44 1223 33 26 62
WWW: http://www.eng.cam.ac.uk

For information regarding CU's participation in 
the STRICE project: 

Prof. Dr. Andrew C. Palmer
Professor at Cambridge University
Engineering Department Civil, Structural and
Environmental Engineering Division Petroleum Group
 
Tel.: +44 1223 33 27 18 
Email: acp24@eng.can.ac.uk

Professor John Dempsey (Clarkson University) works
together with CU as Senior Researcher on fracture 
mechanics aspects in the STRICE project. 
He is principally concerned with scaling, with
interactions between ice response and hydrodynamics
during icebreaking, and with lead formation. 		 Prof. Dr. John Dempsey
Professor at 
Clarkson University
P.O. Box 5710
Potsdam, N.Y. 13699-5710, USA
 
Tel.: +1 315 2 68 65 17
Email: john@clarkson.edu

Please visit also Cambridge University's and the Engineering Department's web sites for further information.
 
Back to the project's home page Last update: 2002-12-02

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STRICE Deliverable
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