Innovation and Technology

Our teams remain on the leading edge of the market in terms of methods, means and technology used.

Evolution of the Product

Surface [tRaxMIT] is a software developed at RMIT University in collaboration with Intrax Consulting Engineers, Melbourne. It aims to addresses the issue of displacement demands imposed by expansive soils on structures by developing site-specific soil suction profiles with estimated probabilities between 0.6 and 0.99. The software requires minimal inputs from practitioners and researchers to provide solutions for Smoluchowski’s one-dimensional diffusion equation, allowing for better estimations of site-specific displacement demands compared to existing methods. tRaxMIT aims to offer a user-friendly yet robust approach that provides greater confidence in predictions for practitioners and researchers dealing with expansive soils in geotechnical engineering applications.

Current Version

The benefits of the Surface tRaxMIT software, include:

1. Assists in addressing the long-standing issue of displacement demands imposed by expansive soils on structures.

2. Enables the site-specific soil suction profiles to be developed with estimated probabilities between 0.6 and 0.99.

3. Coupling the soil suction profile with building code recommendations to estimate site-specific displacement demand.

4. Providing a user-friendly approach with only a few inputs required from practitioners.

5. Developing solutions for Smoluchowski’s one-dimensional diffusion equation to model suction behavior in practice.

6. Providing a greater degree of confidence for practitioners and researchers compared to existing complicated methods with unquantified uncertainties.

These benefits highlight how the tRaxMIT software simplifies and improves the estimation of displacement demands caused by expansive soils, making it more accessible and reliable for practitioners and researchers in geotechnical engineering and related fields.