ABSTRACT
The use of geotechnical centrifuges in teaching has been increasing in recent years as various organisations have developed small centrifuges specifically for teaching purposes (e.g. Newson et al. 2002; Madabhushi & Take 2002; Dewoolkar et al. 2003; UKM 2009). The majority of these centrifuges have been purpose built for geotechnical applications. The lack of any supplier means that anyone considering this approach must develop their own device from scratch, or modify an existing design to accommodate local equipment. The cost and time is clearly a disincentive to all but committed centrifuge modellers, and the uptake of this technology for teaching is likely to be slow. A different approach has been adopted at the University of Sydney. We acquired a test-tube separation centrifuge that was surplus to requirements elsewhere in the university, at no cost, and have adapted this to enable geotechnical stability tests to be performed. This device has been used in undergraduate teaching for nearly 10 years. The modifications to the device to enable geotechnical testing are described in this paper. Although commercial bench top centrifuges have been used for geotechnical studies (e.g. McDermott & King 1998), their use seems to have been limited to consolidation studies, and the authors are unaware of other institutions which have adapted commercially available devices for foundation studies.
