Research and development are an essential part of our work and are the best way to drive technological advancement in our company. We are intensively engaged with structural design and modelling methods for tunnelling. We also develop our own software for tunnelling-specific applications. IGT also encourages staff to apply their knowledge and experience in the development of standards and guidelines.

Tunnel Structural Design

The work of a tunnel structural designer requires a broad knowledge base. Complex simulations use powerful software, but this never replaces the value of technical competence and experience.

Powerful finite element packages are used (e.g. MSC.Marc, ZSoil) together with detailed material and constitutive laws, which describe how soil, rock and sprayed concrete behave under load and deformation. Aids for model construction and graphical representation of results are also important tools for the structural designer of tunnels.

Our research aims to continuously improve the material laws and to refine our modelling methods.

Software Development

Around sixty percent of all software packages fail or are remain incomplete. To date, our software belongs without exception to the remaining forty percent.

Interdisciplinary

One of the many reasons for our success is our effort on interdisciplinary work. We constantly strive for optimisation thorough work with universities, external organisation from other branches, and also our own employees.

Software architecture

This is an engineering discipline with many points of contact with design. While the pattern language of the architect Christopher Alexander established itself in the design of software, it remained largely unknown in the construction industry.

Standards & Guidelines

We aim to bring our knowledge and experience to bear in standards and guidelines and participate in numerous technical committees and panels.

Publications & Presentations

Our colleagues participate as speakers at congresses, conferences and seminars. Our priority here is the exchange of ideas with the international technical community.

Many publications from our staff have appeared in technical literature. Feel free to look through the extensive list of our publications and presentations. If you are interested in a particular article, please contact us at salzburg@igt-engineering.com.