Institute of Geomechanics and Geotechnical Engineering

Complete series of publications of IGB/IGG-TUBS now available for download!

07.01.2025

The entire publication series of the IGB/IGG (with the exception of a few older publications, which unfortunately were no longer available to us) can be downloaded free of charge. If you have any questions, please contact Dr.-Ing. Max Wiebicke.

Publication Series

Professor Marius Milatz is the new head of the IGG!

22.04.2024

On April 1, 2024, Univ.-Prof. Dr.-Ing. Marius Milatz took over as head of the Institute of Geomehanics and Geotechnical Engineering (IGG), replacing Univ.-Prof. Dr.-Ing. Joachim Stahlmann, who is retiring after almost 22 years. Marius Milatz studied civil and environmental engineering at Hamburg University of Technology (TUHH), graduating in 2011. In 2016, he completed his PhD at the Institute of Geotechnical Engineering and Construction Management at TUHH on the topic of “Investigations into the influence of capillarity on the hydraulic-mechanical behavior of granular base layers for traffic routes”. Marius Milatz was then a postdoc until 2023, from 2019 in a DFG-funded research training group at the TUHH. At the end of 2022, he successfully completed his habilitation on the topic of “Investigation of capillary effects on the grain scale by means of in situ experiments, imaging and numerical simulations” with venia legendi in the field of soil mechanics. On March 1, 2024, he was named as a university professor at TU Braunschweig and has since headed the IGG.

Next conferences of the IGG

15.01.2024

Every two years:

• Pile symposium (next event planned for 2025)
• Measurements in geotechnical engineering (next event planned for 2026)
• Steel in hydraulic engineering (next event planned for 2025)

More information under Conferences

We have changed our name!

18.12.2019

With the official announcement sheet No. 1282 of December 17, 2019 of the TU Braunschweig, the former Institute of Foundation Engineering and Soil Mechanics is now called the Institute of Geomechanics and Geotechnical Engineering (IGG).

To justify this renaming, the following are excerpts from the application submitted by Prof. Dr. Joachim Stahlmann in June 2019:

"The terms 'foundation engineering' and 'soil mechanics' are traditional but outdated terms and only partially cover the content of the Institute's teaching and research. These are oriented towards modern geotechnics, which has emerged through the further development and expansion of the fields of activity, with the areas of soil mechanics, rock mechanics, salt mechanics, foundation engineering, rock construction, tunnel construction, underground cavity construction, geomeasurement technology, environmental geotechnics, foundation engineering dynamics and numerical geotechnics.

This is reflected not least in the fact that the name of the compulsory module in the Bachelor's degree course was changed to 'Geotechnics' years ago. The professional association also changed its name from 'Deutsche Gesellschaft für Erd- und Grundbau' to 'Deutsche Gesellschaft für Geotechnik' back in the 1990s. In addition, almost all related institutes at the TU9 also use the term 'Geotechnics' in their names.

While in the 1990s the focus of geotechnical engineering was primarily on foundation engineering and rock engineering, with soil and rock mechanics accounting for a smaller share, the importance of mechanically-oriented fields has steadily increased in recent years. Geomechanics is still subsumed under the term ‘geotechnical engineering’, but this no longer corresponds to its current significance. In the field of research in particular, there has been a considerable increase in research projects with the development of modern, higher quality material models and their application in numerical analyses.

Nationally, the term ‘geomechanics’ is currently only introduced at the TU Clausthal in the Institute for Processing, Landfill Technology and Geomechanics. The Chair of Landfill Technology and Geomechanics, which is based at this institute, is primarily concerned with salt mechanics. In German-speaking countries, the Austrian professional organization goes by the name ‘Österreichische Gesellschaft für Geomechanik’ (Austrian Society for Geomechanics). Internationally, the names ‘Geomechanics’ and ‘Geotechnical Engineering’ are also used.

The courses offered by my institute cover all the above-mentioned areas of geomechanics and geotechnics. The compulsory module ‘Geotechnics’ and the compulsory elective module ‘Tunnel Construction’ are taught in the Bachelor's program. In the Master's program, the compulsory modules ‘Theoretical and Experimental Soil and Rock Mechanics’ and ‘Foundation and Rock Engineering and Soil Dynamics’ as well as the optional modules ‘Deep Geological Disposal (Toxic and Radioactive Waste)’, ‘Underground Cavity Construction’ and ‘Numerical methods in Geotechnical Engineering and Geotechnical Measurement Technology’ are offered.

My institute is currently working on two main areas of research. One is the foundation structures of offshore wind turbines, which are not part of classical soil mechanics and foundation engineering. The focus here is on the further development of material models coupled with their verification on large-scale model tests for the cyclic loading of these foundation structures.

On the other hand, extensive research is being carried out in connection with the final or deep storage of highly radioactive waste. As part of this research, material models for rock salt are developed, rock mechanical approaches to flow are pursued, numerical methods are applied, concepts for deep repositories are developed, etc..

This area, which is not represented in any way by the current name of the institute, is also of particular importance for the Braunschweig region. The region is located in the immediate vicinity of existing or future repositories for radioactive waste. Furthermore, the geological formations in Lower Saxony represent potential host rocks for a repository for highly radioactive, heat-generating waste, so that further research is also required in Lower Saxony as part of the site selection process. Some of the most important institutions for final disposal are located in the region: the Federal Company for Final Disposal (BGE and BGE Technology), the Society for Plant and Reactor Safety (GRS) and the Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources. In addition to these external conditions, the Institute's expertise and contacts have led to the topic of deep geological disposal, with all its aspects, assuming a high status in research and teaching at the TU Braunschweig and can be regarded as a flagship project in the German university landscape.

Future developments resulting from a shift in the focus of research would also be taken into account with this name change. For example, a new branch of research is currently developing in the field of dismantling or retrofitting offshore foundation structures. With regard to the energy transition, the construction of energy storage systems and forms is being discussed, which will present new challenges for geotechnical engineering. These fields of activity cannot be adequately described under the previous terms ‘soil mechanics’ and ‘foundation engineering’."