On the afternoon of September 9, 2024, Professor Sun De'an from the School of Civil Engineering at Shanghai University was invited by School of Urban Railway Transportation to give an academic lecture entitled Unsaturated Soil Mechanics and Its Engineering Applications in Conference Room 8A521 of the Modern Transportation Engineering Center. This lecture attracted numerous teachers and students to participate with a lively atmosphere. The lecture was hosted by Professor Wang Lei, Vice Dean of School of Urban Railway Transportation.
At the beginning of the meeting, Professor Wang Lei solemnly introduced Professor Sun De'an and warmly welcomed his arrival on behalf of the college.
In the lecture, Professor Sun De'an first reviewed the basic theory of saturated soil mechanics, and then introduced in detail the basic concepts and theories of unsaturated soil mechanics. Professor Sun explained the hydraulic and mechanical properties of unsaturated soil, emphasizing the importance of unsaturated soil in civil engineering. He pointed out that in arid and semi-arid regions, surface soil is mostly unsaturated soil, but traditional saturated soil mechanics theory cannot be fully applied to this type of soil. Therefore, new theoretical and experimental methods are needed to study the properties of unsaturated soil. Professor Sun explained the basic theory of unsaturated soil in a clear and concise manner, and provided a detailed introduction to the testing methods for the engineering properties of unsaturated soil. He presented multiple experimental data and illustrated the importance and application prospects of unsaturated soil mechanics through practical engineering cases. Through a detailed analysis of the hydraulic and mechanical properties of unsaturated soils, Professor Sun pointed out that traditional soil mechanics models often have limitations when dealing with unsaturated soils. Therefore, developing new constitutive models is of great significance for engineering design and construction.
During the interactive session, teachers and students actively asked questions and had intense discussions. Professor Sun patiently and meticulously answered everyone's questions and had in-depth communication with the attendees. Professor Sun also encourages young scholars to continue exploring in the field of unsaturated soil mechanics, promoting innovation in relevant theories and technologies to address complex engineering challenges.
Professor Sun De'an's outstanding contributions in the field of unsaturated soil mechanics have been widely recognized. He is a professor and doctoral supervisor at Shanghai University. My main research direction is unsaturated soil mechanics and soil constitutive theory. Published over 200 SCI journal papers and has been consistently selected for the China Highly Cited Scholars list by Elsevier, the top 100000 scientists list in the Global Scholar Database, and the top 2% of global scientists list in the past 4 years. The keynote speaker of Huang Wenxi's lecture in 2023 (the 26th lecture) won the second prize of the the State Natural Science Award in 2023 (ranking the second), and won the second prize of the Ministry of Education or Shanghai Natural Science Award for more than five times as the first or main completion person (ranking the top three). Hosted 6 general projects funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China. Vice Chairman of the Soil constitutive Relationship and Strength Theory Professional Committee of the Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering Branch of the Chinese Society of Civil Engineering, and Vice Chairman of the Unsaturated Soil and Special Soil Professional Committee. Editorial board member of Canadian Geotechnical Journal, Acta Geotechnica, Journal of Geotechnical Engineering, and Geotechnical Mechanics.
This lecture not only deepened the understanding of unsaturated soil mechanics among teachers and students, but also provided new ideas for future research. Professor Sun's in-depth lectures and extensive exchanges have further promoted the academic research and cooperation of the School of Urban Rail Transit in related fields, broadened the academic horizons of teachers and students, and promoted the in-depth development of academic exchanges and cooperation.