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Topic · Civil and Structural Engineering

Geotechnical Engineering and Underground Structures

Geotechnical Engineering and Underground Structures is a research topic within Civil and Structural Engineering. Science Explorer counts 58k research works in it since 1950. 9.8% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

This cluster of papers focuses on the seismic design, analysis, and damage assessment of underground structures such as tunnels and pipelines under earthquake conditions. It covers topics such as soil-structure interaction, fault rupture propagation, centrifuge modeling, and the effects of liquefaction on tunnel behavior.

  • Seismic
  • Tunnel
  • Analysis
  • Earthquake
  • Damage
  • Pipeline
  • Fault
  • Soil-Structure Interaction
  • Centrifuge Modeling
  • Liquefaction
Research works
58k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
5.8k
per year above
Top-10% rate
9.8%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
+17%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
China
61% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Geotechnical Engineering and Underground Structures

Which countries lead Geotechnical Engineering and Underground Structures research?

By volume, China and India publish the most (6.7k and 1k works in 2022-now).

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 China 6.7k works
  2. 2 India 1k works
  3. 3 United States 1k works
  4. 4 Iran 397 works
  5. 5 Japan 337 works
  6. 6 United Kingdom 332 works
  7. 7 Canada 319 works
  8. 8 Türkiye 277 works
  9. 9 Australia 262 works
  10. 10 Italy 207 works

How concentrated that is

The same countries as shares of everything the list above accounts for. A node where two countries do two thirds of the work and one spread evenly across twelve read alike as a ranking and not at all alike here.

China: 61.3%India: 9.6%United States: 9.6%Iran: 3.6%6 others listed: 15.9%61%largest
China6,678 · 61.3%India1,049 · 9.6%United States1,045 · 9.6%Iran397 · 3.6%6 others listed1,734 · 15.9%

Shares of the rows listed above, not of the whole node.

Which institutions lead Geotechnical Engineering and Underground Structures research?

By volume in 2022-now, Tongji University publishes the most Geotechnical Engineering and Underground Structures research, followed by Southwest Jiaotong University and Central South University.

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Tongji UniversityChina 334 works
  2. 2 Southwest Jiaotong UniversityChina 203 works
  3. 3 Central South UniversityChina 201 works
  4. 4 Hohai UniversityChina 148 works
  5. 5 China University of Mining and TechnologyChina 132 works
  6. 6 Beijing University of TechnologyChina 130 works
  7. 7 Southeast UniversityChina 121 works
  8. 8 Tianjin UniversityChina 118 works
  9. 9 Zhejiang UniversityChina 115 works
  10. 10 Dalian University of TechnologyChina 112 works

Who are the leading researchers in Geotechnical Engineering and Underground Structures?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Geotechnical Engineering and Underground Structures include Wei Huang, Xiaogang Wang and Kai You Wang.

  1. 1 Wei Huang China 267k citations
  2. 2 Xiaogang Wang China 260k citations
  3. 3 Kai You Wang China 224k citations
  4. 4 Paul M. Thompson United States 196k citations
  5. 5 Vivekanand Jha India 180k citations
  6. 6 Han Zhang China 161k citations
  7. 7 Paul Elliott United Kingdom 154k citations

Ranked by citations received across their whole record, among researchers with at least three works on this topic.

What are the most cited papers in Geotechnical Engineering and Underground Structures?

The most cited paper in Geotechnical Engineering and Underground Structures is "Simplified Procedure for Evaluating Soil Liquefaction Potential" (H. Bolton Seed, Izzat M. Idriss, 1971), with 2,940 citations. Next come "P-SV wave propagation in heterogeneous media; velocity-stress finite-difference method" (2,834) and "Smoothed particle hydrodynamics" (2,753).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 Simplified Procedure for Evaluating Soil Liquefaction Potential H. Bolton Seed, Izzat M. Idriss · Journal of the Soil Mechanics and Foundations Division Sep 1971 2,940
2 P-SV wave propagation in heterogeneous media; velocity-stress finite-difference method Jean Virieux · Geophysics Apr 1986 2,834
3 Smoothed particle hydrodynamics Joseph J. Monaghan · Reports on Progress in Physics Open access 5 Jul 2005 2,753
4 The strength and dilatancy of sands Malcolm D. Bolton · Géotechnique Mar 1986 2,738
5 A meshfree method based on the peridynamic model of solid mechanics Stewart A. Silling, Ebrahim Askari · Computers & Structures 23 Mar 2005 2,550
All 99 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Geotechnical Engineering and Underground Structures research done?

The largest centres of Geotechnical Engineering and Underground Structures research in 2022-now are Beijing (China), Shanghai (China), Nanjing (China) and Chengdu (China). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Roorkee, Xuzhou and Dhanbad.

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 BeijingChina 1.1k works
  2. 2 ShanghaiChina 556 works
  3. 3 NanjingChina 418 works
  4. 4 ChengduChina 353 works
  5. 5 WuhanChina 336 works
  6. 6 ChangshaChina 315 works
  7. 7 Xi'anChina 267 works
  8. 8 HangzhouChina 242 works
  9. 9 TianjinChina 202 works
  10. 10 GuangzhouChina 202 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. RoorkeeIN · 87.6 works14×
  2. XuzhouCN · 135.3 works11×
  3. DhanbadIN · 26.3 works9.3×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in Geotechnical Engineering and Underground Structures than the world average.

See Geotechnical Engineering and Underground Structures on the map

Where is the best place to study Geotechnical Engineering and Underground Structures?

Among universities, judged by research, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Tongji University and Central South University score highest, combining excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.

0%10%20%30%mean 21.01%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →Hong Kong Polytechni…Central South Univer…Southwest Jiaotong U…Tongji University
above the meannear itbelow it

One dot per university in the first ten of the table below, at the default weights. The upper left is the interesting corner: small places doing unusually strong work.

Excellenceshare of its work in the world top 10%, 2022-now and all time averaged
40%
Specialisationhow much of its work is in this field, counted up to 10× the world share
10%
Sizeits output in this field, on a log scale
30%
Growthoutput growth, counted from -20% to +20%
10%
Internationalshare of its work with a co-author abroad
10%
Each slider sets a weight; the share it gets of the score is beside it.
#UniversityScoreTop 10%SpecialisationWorksGrowth
1Hong Kong Polytechnic UniversityChina 79.027.4%7.1×71 +91.9%
2Tongji UniversityChina 71.517.2%18.7×334 +16.9%
3Central South UniversityChina 70.118.7%8.9×201 +51.0%
4Southwest Jiaotong UniversityChina 69.718.5%22.7×203 +35.9%
5Beijing University of TechnologyChina 69.320.2%16.0×130 +97.8%
6Thammasat UniversityThailand 68.426.8%10.6×22 +260.4%
7Shenzhen UniversityChina 68.322.9%7.2×62 +313.9%
8Southeast UniversityChina 66.620.8%7.0×121 +67.5%
9Beijing Jiaotong UniversityChina 66.420.8%15.0×106 +33.2%
10China University of Mining and TechnologyChina 65.016.8%14.4×132 +52.0%

Universities only. The score blends excellence (40%), size (30%), specialisation (10%), growth (10%), international reach (10%), 2022-now; growth compares 2018-21 with 2022-25 and counts up to +20%, since a jump from a small base is mostly noise.

Every institution in Geotechnical Engineering and Underground Structures, country by country

Is Geotechnical Engineering and Underground Structures research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 17% higher than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2024. The fastest-growing topics are Geotechnical Engineering and Underground Structures.

still counting19801990200020102020
grewheldshrank

The same series as a ribbon: one cell per year, darker for more. The line above answers how much; this answers when.

Its share of all research

Growing output can still be a shrinking share: all of science grows. This is Geotechnical Engineering and Underground Structures as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.067% in 2024.

still counting0.025%0.050%0.075%Geotechnical Engineering and Underground Structures0.053% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Geotechnical Engineering and Underground Structures over all fractional works that year. How the balance of science has shifted.

How much of it reaches the world top 10%

Year by year.

still counting5%10%15%Geotechnical Engineering and Underground Structures9.7% in 2025200020102020

Of each year's works in it, the share that reached the world's 10% most cited for their field and year. A field is the world for its own topics, so there is no other line to hold it against.

Which topics inside it are moving

Growth and decline on one axis around a shared zero. Two lists side by side hide the thing that matters: whether the growth dwarfs the decline, or the other way round.

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