Per Gunnvard

About me

Per Gunnvard is a Civil Engineer, specialised in Soil and Rock Engineering, from Luleå University of Technology in Luleå, Sweden. He is currently an Associate Senior Lecturer at the Division of Mining and Geotechnical Engineering at Luleå University of Technology. His research encompasses physical, numerical, and analytical modeling based on data from field measurements, focusing on pile-supported embankments, timber piles, and geosynthetic reinforcement.

Per is currently leading a research project funded by the Swedish Transport Administration (Trafikverket) through the funding program Branschsamverkan i grunden (BIG:s webpage External link.), aimed at developing recommendations for pile-supported embankments using untreated timber piles. Timber piling is not only more environmentally friendly than concrete and steel piling but also often cheaper, making it a more sustainable solution. However, the current design requirements still entail relatively high resource consumption, raising the question of optimising the method. The project aims to verify and further develop preliminary guidelines from previous research. This is being done using data from field measurements of a timber pile-supported road embankment (E4 Råneå, Norrbotten) and scale model experiments in a laboratory environment, along with supplementary numerical modeling.

The current research project, B2020-17 Verification of Arching Effect in Timber Pile-Supported Embankments, is a continuation of two previous projects funded by the Swedish Transport Administration through BIG:

• B2015-21 Optimal Design of Timber Piling
• A2020-17 Use of Geosynthetics as Reinforcement in Light Embankment Piling