Applications of Electrokinetic Stabilisation to Treat Subsidence in Low-rise Buildings

Fine-grained soils pose significant challenges to the construction industry in the UK and globally. These soils are known for their problematic characteristics such as shrink-swell and compressibility behaviours, which can cause subsidence and excessive settlement to buildings’ foundations. Conventional ground improvement remediation methods are disruptive, costly, and temporary. Electrokinetic stabilisation (EKS), a method that is less adopted by the industry so far, is innovative and can offer a sustainable, cost effective and long-term solution to stabilise these soils. It combines electro-osmosis, electromigration, electrokinetic potential and migration potential phenomena that can improve strength and stability of these soils. However, these stages can be individually or collectively influenced by several factors such as soil properties, tree roots presence, groundwater characteristics and buried utilities and objects amongst others. This industry-funded PhD research to be undertaken at the School of Engineering , University of Birmingham, aims at optimising the effectiveness of EKS technology to treat subsidence in low-rise buildings considering ground and environmental factors, including monitoring and assessment of the treatment process. Experimental and numerical techniques will be applied during this research.

The project will be supervised by Dr Esdras Ngezahayo, Prof Ian Jefferson and Mr Jeremy Aitchison.

Interested applicants can contact Dr Esdras Ngezahayo (e.ngezahayo@bham.ac.uk) or Prof Ian Jefferson (i.jefferson@bham.ac.uk) for further details and guidance on how to apply.

Eligibility: Home students

Requirements: MSc/MEng degree in geotechnical engineering, geology, civil engineering, geophysics and geoenvironmental engineering. An upper second undergraduate degree in these areas with relevant work experience.