Design and Management of Environmental Infrastructures

This laboratory conducts research on the design and maintenance of agricultural irrigation facilities and social infrastructure facilities—such as dams, reservoirs, and irrigation tunnels—through numerical simulations, experiments, and field investigations. For example, efforts are being made to assess the condition of these facilities by understanding their density distribution using “muography,” a technique that estimates soil density based on cosmic-ray muons arriving on Earth from space.

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	Prof. NISHIMURA Shinichi E-mail: theg1786 [at] cc.okayama-u.ac.jp geotechnical engineering/irrigation and rural engineering   Directory of Researchers

I have studied the geohazards. Particularly, the risk evaluation approach has been studied for the diagnostics and the maintenances of the aged and deteriorated earth-fill dams against the breaching caused by the earthquakes and heavy rains. Related to the approaches, ground survey and the simulation techniques are developed here. (Shin-ichi Nishimura)

	Assoc. Prof. SHIBATA Toshifumi E-mail: tshibata [at] cc.okayama-u.ac.jp) geotechnical engineering/numerical analysis   Directory of Researchers

The maintenance of damaged irrigation tunnels has become a major social concern; and thus, evaluating the damage conditions of current tunnels is of crucial importance. Voids behind the tunnel lining may be created during or after construction by the conventional method, and these voids are the main factors in its failure. Hence, it is imperative to comprehend the behaviors of the ground, the tunnel lining and the voids. This study presents model tests of the interacting behaviors between the ground and a tunnel lining with voids under loading conditions.