Jiangxi Provincial Key Laboratory of Hydraulic and Geotechnical Engineering Safety

The Jiangxi Provincial Key Laboratory of Hydraulic and Geotechnical Engineering Safety of Nanchang University was approved to be established in June 2024. The laboratory addresses the needs of major strategic engineering projects such as Jiangxi Province's ‘Ten-Hundred-Thousand’ Project Action Plan, YX Hydropower Development, and the National Water Network. Focusing on the stability of rock and soil masses and the safety of reservoir and dam systems in water conservancy and hydropower engineering. The focus is on conducting scientific research and technological breakthroughs in four major areas: multi-field and multi-phase coupling effects of complex rock and soil masses, performance evolution and control of hydraulic rock and soil masses, reliability assessment and risk control of reservoir and dam systems, and intelligent perception and digital twin for hydraulic and geotechnical engineering. The specific details are as follows:

(1) Multi-field and Multi-phase Coupling Effects in Complex Rock and Soil Masses: Establishing an experimental platform for multi-field and multi-phase coupling in complex rock and soil masses, advancing fundamental theories of multi-field and multi-phase coupling in hydraulic and geotechnical engineering, and developing numerical methods for multi-field and multi-phase analysis of hydraulic geomaterials.

(2) Performance Evolution and Control of Hydraulic Rock and Soil Masses: Innovating analysis theories for deformation, stability, and seepage control of hydraulic rock and soil masses, establishing lifecycle performance evolution evaluation methods for hydraulic rock and soil masses, and construct the performance evolution control technology of reservoir and dam systems throughout their life cycle.

(3) Reliability Assessment and Risk Control of Reservoir and Dam Systems: Establish risk assessment and intelligent diagnostic methods for hydraulic geotechnical engineering and reservoir and dam systems, set up a risk management system and control standards for reservoir and dam systems, and break through the theory and technology for enhancing the toughness of hydraulic geotechnical engineering and reservoir and dam systems.

(4) Intelligent Perception and Digital Twin for Hydraulic and Geotechnical Engineering: Developing integrated intelligent sensing technologies for disaster monitoring in hydraulic and geotechnical engineering, researching and developing a digital twin platform for full-lifecycle performance evaluation, monitoring, and early warning, and proposing intelligent early warning methods driven by the integration of models and data.

The laboratory has a team of over 30 full-time researchers specializing in hydraulic geotechnics and hydraulic structure safety. The team includes 1 Academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, 4 national-level high-caliber young talents, and 4 provincial and ministerial-level talents. Middle-aged and young key researchers constitute over 80% of the staff. Additionally, the laboratory hosts more than 80 postdoctoral fellows, doctoral candidates, and master's students, forming a high-level research team with a rational talent structure and strong innovative capacity. The laboratory occupies over 2,000 square meters of space. It possesses advanced software and hardware capabilities in areas such as macro and micro-scale physical and mechanical properties of geotechnical media, multi-scale multi-field coupling characteristics of complex geomaterials, and refined numerical simulation of geotechnical engineering. The total value of its instruments and equipment exceeds 35 million.

Through the construction of the laboratory, a high-end scientific research platform for the safety of hydraulic geotechnical engineering will be established. A group of influential high-level talents at home and abroad will be gathered to conduct research on key scientific and technological issues in the mechanics of hydraulic rock and the safety of reservoirs and dams, achieving theoretical breakthroughs and technological innovations in the coordinated control of deformation and seepage in hydraulic geotechnical engineering. Make it the source of applied basic theoretical innovation, the base for the transformation of scientific and technological achievements, the center for science and education services, and the center for talent cultivation in the field of hydraulic and geotechnical engineering, providing scientific and technological support for comprehensively enhancing the safety guarantee capacity of hydraulic and geotechnical engineering in Jiangxi Province and even the whole country.