Centrifuges in modelling: principles and scale effects

Centrifuge model testing represents a major tool available to the geotechnical engineer since it enables the study and analysis of design problems by using geotechnical materials. A centrifuge is essentially a sophisticated load frame on which soil samples can be tested. The model is often a reduced scale version of the prototype and this is particularly true for centrifuge modelling. Modelling has a major role to play in geotechnical engineering. Physical modelling is concerned with replicating an event comparable to what might exist in the prototype. Centrifuge modelling is often criticised as having significant scaling errors due to the non-uniform acceleration field and also the difficulty of representing sufficient detail of the prototype in a small-scale model. In physical modelling studies, it is seldom possible to replicate precisely all details of the prototype and some approximations have to be made. The models should predict the same behaviour and thus provide a useful internal check on the modelling procedure.