CGS Colloquium Tour: Kathy Kalenchuk, Ph.D., P.Eng.

This colloquium has been prepared to achieve two objectives.  The first objective is to provide a discussion of the practical limitations of numerical modelling in the field of geomechanical engineering. Too many discussions of numerical methods in geomechanical engineering are centered on the impressive ability of numerical tools to conduct complex and sophisticated analyses with relative ease and efficiency.  Practitioners need to have a grounded conversation of numerical modelling with the reality that geomechanical designs are often data limited, with high degrees of uncertainty. When data limits and uncertainty are overlooked geomechanical engineers are at risk of introducing unforeseen fatal flaws in our engineering design.  The second objective is to provide ‘how to’ guidelines for model calibration using a variety of ground reaction data types.  Model calibration is truly the only means to reduce numerical uncertainties.  Formal training in numerical modelling is often focused on software utilization and sometimes computational methods, however there are few opportunities for formal training on how to calibrate a model for practical engineering applications.  This colloquium provides workflow guidelines for calibration methods and procedures.