ABSTRACT
The major early development of geotechnical modelling in the centrifuge occurred in the USSR following independent proposals made by Davidenkov and Pokrovskii in 1932. All other geotechnical structures are mechanically more complex, involving elements such as retaining walls, piles, anchors and/or external forms of loading other than soil body forces. The rapid developments in the fields of instrumentation and computing in other countries led to a period in which both centrifuge modelling and numerical analysis of geotechnical problems developed in parallel. The nature of geotechnical materials with their complex and as yet poorly understood constitutive relationships precluded the rejection of physical experimentation which many numerical hegemonists have repeatedly predicted. The US Army is currently building what will probably be the largest geotechnical centrifuge in the world with a specification and potential capability which open up new avenues for the future in both military and civilian applications.
