Centrifuge as a Didactic Tool in Geotechnical Engineering

离心机作为岩土工程的教学工具

• 批准号: 0341327
• 负责人: Dobroslav Znidarcic
• 金额: $ 15万
• 依托单位: University of Colorado at Boulder
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2004
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2004-02-01 至 2006-01-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0341327&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Centrifuge; Didactic; Tool; Geotechnical; Engineering

The project is targeted at undergraduate students taking introductory courses in geotechnical engineering where stability of slopes, retaining structures and foundations are studied. Digital image acquisition is used to monitor and analyze deformations of earth models in the instructional centrifuge. Several didactic units help the students to use the image processing software to obtain data from the experiments. A manual with detailed instructions on how to build and use the instructional centrifuge and how to perform the experiments is available to both students and faculty. A workshop is being organized in which the developed educational methodology will be presented to educators from other universities and the material offered for adoption in their courses.As the project results are adopted in undergraduate education the students have the opportunity to get involved in research like activities with hands-on experience in performing experiments, data collection and analysis. The project integrates and teaches the effective use of technology in solving engineering problems.The project has a broader impact on the education of future civil engineers as it brings a high tech component into an engineering discipline that is generally considered to be low tech. By demonstrating to undergraduate students that Geotechnical Engineering still provides a significant intellectual challenge we hope to motivate some of the talented candidates to choose it as their career path.

这项计划是为修读岩土工程入门课程的本科生而设，他们学习斜坡的稳定性、围护构筑物和地基。利用数字图像采集技术对教学离心机中土工模型的变形进行监测和分析。几个教学单元帮助学生使用图像处理软件从实验中获得数据。学生和教职员工都可以获得一本手册，其中详细说明了如何建造和使用指导性离心机以及如何进行实验。目前正在组织一个研讨会，将开发的教育方法介绍给其他大学的教育工作者，并将材料提供给他们的课程采用。由于项目成果被采纳到本科教育中，学生们有机会参与研究活动，并在进行实验、数据收集和分析方面有实践经验。该项目融合并教授如何有效地使用技术来解决工程问题。该项目对未来土木工程师的教育产生了更广泛的影响，因为它将高科技成分引入了通常被认为是低技术的工程学科。通过向本科生展示岩土工程仍然是一个重大的智力挑战，我们希望激励一些有才华的候选人选择它作为他们的职业道路。