Pioneering Research
Professor Wu's research effort has made many original contributions to the development and applications of GRS. The following research work has been recognized by many researchers as pioneering research:
- An analytical model for evaluating compaction-induced stresses in a reinforced soil mass.
- An analytical model for determining load carrying capacity of soil-reinforcement composites and the required reinforcement stiffness and strength. The design equations based on the analytical model have been adopted in the newly published FHWA GRS-IBS manual.
- A pre-loading and pre-stressing technique for geosynthetic-reinforced soil retaining walls. The technique has been employed by the Federal Highway Administration in full-scale GRS bridge piers, Tennessee Foothills park GRS bridge abutment, Black Hawk steel arch GRS bridge abutment, and Japan Railway in the construction of bridge abutments for Shinkansen (high-speed bullet train).
- A confined load-deformation testing method of geosynthetics. The testing method has been adopted by FHWA as the test method for geosynthetics under soil confinement.
- Long-term creep characteristics of geosynthetics and GRS mass. I was the author of a “white paper” on the subject for the Transportation Research Board, National Research Council.
- A soil-geosynthetic interactive performance test. It is the only test method capable of simulating soil-geosynthetic interactive behavior in typical operation conditions of GRS structures.
- The CTI design method of GRS walls. It is one of the four most popular design methods used around the world for design of MSE/GRS walls.
- The Denver test walls, two large-scale (10-ft high) fully instrumented GRS walls in plane strain condition, are regarded by many as the best instrumented GRS walls, and have been the object of many doctoral dissertations and research studies.