Research lays foundation for building on the Moon -- or anywhere else

"If you are going to build a large structure, you have to run a lot of tests on the building site to learn how the soil will behave in relation to the building's foundation," says Dr. Matt Evans, assistant professor of civil, construction and environmental engineering at NC State and co-author of a paper describing the research. "How stable is it? How much might the foundation settle over time? Traditionally, that testing process involves a great deal of equipment, time and money."

But in some situations, that equipment, time and money is not available. For example, it would be tough to transport the relevant equipment to the surface of the moon.

"We initiated this project, with funding from the North Carolina Space Grant, to answer questions that are essential to the construction of buildings on the moon," Evans says. "It's cost-prohibitive to do traditional testing on lunar sites, so we developed a technique for applying computer models that can use a tiny sample to tell us about the potential interface between moon soil and anything we might build."

And the model may also have applications closer to home. The model could potentially be used to assess soil conditions for remote building sites where traditional testing is impractical or unduly expensive. For example, it could be useful for military applications or for siting remote research facilities.

The paper, "Analysis of Pile Behavior in Granular Soils Using DEM," focuses on how the model can be used when incorporating Earth-specific variables -- such as gravity. However, those variables can be modified to account for conditions on the moon, or even on Mars.

The lead author on the paper is NC State graduate student Jeremy Kress. The paper will be presented Oct. 13 at the 35th Annual Conference on Deep Foundations in Hollywood, Calif.

NC State's Department of Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering is part of the university's College of Engineering.