Geotechnical Engineering Research Institute of Nanchang University 

The Geotechnical Engineering Research Institute of Nanchang University was established in 2009. To satisfy the development demands of Jiangxi Province and China, it focuses on addressing comprehensive technical challenges within the field of civil and hydraulic engineering industries. A platform that integrates academic research with education and industry has been built.This institute has great advantages in the study of multi-scale and multi-field characteristics of regional soils and its relative geotechnical disaster control. The faculty in the Geotechnical Engineering Research Institute included 4 Professors, 4 Associate Professors, 2 Lecturers, and 2 Laboratory Technician, among them 5 staffs were titled as PhD supervisors. All staffs are capable of undertaking national and provincial-level research projects, forming a well-structured, academically proficient, and research-competent team.

The staffs in the Geotechnical Engineering Research Institute provide undergraduate teaching, postgraduate training, academic research, and engineering practice within the field of Geotechnical Engineering. The main courses such as Soil Mechanics, Foundation Engineering, Engineering Geology and Tunnel Engineering, were included, among which there are 4 provincial-level courses. Additionally, the staffs have hosted 3 provincial-level teaching reform projects and compiled 3 textbooks.

The institute boasts excellent experimental facilities, capable of conducting varying tests: (i) static and dynamic characteristic tests, (ii) temperature-controlled static and dynamic tests on saturated and unsaturated soils, (iii) static characteristic tests on coarse-grained soils, (iv) triaxial compression tests under dry-wet cycles and freeze-thaw conditions, (v) large-scale soil dynamic tests, as well as (vi) microstructural analysis of geotechnical materials. The corresponding key experimental equipments are as follows: a temperature-controlled unsaturated dynamic triaxial testing system, a coarse-grained soil triaxial apparatus, a large-scale root-reinforced soil dynamic shear testing machine, a multi-gradient freeze-thaw testing system, high- and low-temperature test chambers, a rock breakthrough pressure tester, a geotechnical three-dimensional expansion measuring instrument, an unsaturated soil direct shear apparatus, a soil permeability testing system, a high-density resistivity measurement system, a fully automatic pore size analyzer (mercury intrusion porosimeter), a 3D laser scanner, and a full-field strain and deformation measurement system.