Sixth Charles C. Ladd Memorial Lecture - Whole Geotechnical Design for Soft Soils: From Principles to Practice

Description

The concept of whole life geotechnical response (WLGR) is founded on the premise that more reliable, efficient, and resilient designs can be achieved by explicitly accounting for the cumulative effects of loading history and the evolving state of the ground over an asset life cycle. This lecture will introduce the engineering challenges that motivate the WLGR philosophy, with a particular focus on offshore infrastructure. Through a series of practical examples, it will demonstrate how consideration of whole life soil behavior can influence design outcomes, highlighting the benefits and implications of adopting a WLGR framework in engineering practice. The theoretical foundations of WLGR will be examined, alongside the physical modelling and numerical analyses that have enabled the approach to be validated and calibrated across a range of boundary value problems. The lecture will also explore methods for characterizing the soil parameters required as inputs to WLGR design and present a unified framework for predicting the evolution of geotechnical response through the operational life of an asset and beyond. The lecture will close with discussion of strategies to achieve adoption of WLGR in routine design practice, including freeware tools and incorporation in international standards and design codes.

Speaker:
Susan Gourvenec, FREng, FICE, FWES, PhD, BEng
Professor of Offshore Geotechnical Engineering, University of Southampton

Professor Susan Gourvenec is Professor of Offshore Geotechnical Engineering at the University of Southampton and holds a Royal Academy of Engineering Chair in Emerging Technologies. She leads the Centre of Excellence for Intelligent & Resilient Ocean Engineering (IROE) and serves as Deputy Director of the interdisciplinary Southampton Marine & Maritime Institute. Her research spans the full life cycle of ocean infrastructure, encompassing site investigation, soil characterization, design, in-service performance, and end-of-life considerations. She has particular interest in the interfaces of geotechnical engineering challenges and solutions with adjacent engineering requirements and with wider environmental, societal, regulatory, and policy considerations. Through collaborative research and consultancy, Susan works closely with industry, government and the third sector. In 2027, she will deliver the 8th McClelland Lecture at the Society for Underwater Technology's Offshore Site Investigation and Geotechnics Conference in London.

Register to attend this free lecture by Tuesday, December 1, 2026 by clicking Register and entering your contact information.