Instructors/Speakers Prof. Y.M. Cheng1, and Dr. N Li2 1:Associate Professor, 2:PhD Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering The Hong Kong Polytechnic University Abstract Based on the principle of molecular dynamics, the American scholar Cundall proposed the discrete element method, which is a discontinuous numerical simulation method for the analysis of geotechnical mechanics problems. The discrete element method is first proposed for the analysis of geotechnical mechanics, and then it has developed rapidly and applied more and more widely. The discrete element method has a certain advantage in the analysis of discrete matter, and has become an effective numerical simulation method to solve the problem of discontinuous medium in recent years. Today DEM is becoming widely accepted as an effective method ...

Instructors/Speakers Dr. Han-Lin WANG Research Fellow College of Civil Engineering, Hunan University Abstract For the French conventional railway lines, a layer, namely interlayer, was created in the substructure mainly by the interpenetration of ballast grains and subgrade soils. The in-situ investigation indicated that the content of coarse grains decreases over depth. In this presentation, the mechanical behaviors of the unsaturated lower part interlayer soil were investigated at six volumetric inclusion contents fv (volumetric ratio of dry coarse grains to the whole sample) by carrying out monotonic and cyclic triaxial tests. The results reveal the existence of a characteristic fv-cha, separating two zones of the variations of mechanical behaviors with different inclusion effects. To verify this observation, X-ray microcomputed tomography (μCT) ...

Instructors/Speakers Prof. Kenny KWOK Professor School of Civil Engineering University of Sydney Australia Abstract The recent economic development in Asia is driven by unprecedented growth in industrial and manufacturing activities. The growth in wealth also witnesses a rapid urbanisation and widespread construction of high-density high-rise commercial and residential buildings in major cities around the world. The air pollution generated by these activities are often poorly control and result in a decline of air quality which is exacerbated by vehicular and other undesirable emissions. This presentation examines the role of wind-structure interaction in air ventilation and air pollution dispersion in urban environment. The results of studies of the pedestrian level wind conditions and dispersion of haze fog and communicable disease around ...