Abstract: Centrifugal modeling technology has been applied to geotechnical engineering for more than half a century. It has been an important and indispensible means to simulate the geotechnical behavior because it can reflect the actual stress level. In this paper, the principle, advantages and deficiencies, as well as the main applications and history of centrifugal modeling technology are reviewed. Successful application examples in common engineering structures including soil slope, earth rock dam, deep foundation pit, underground structure, soft foundation treatment, reinforced structure with geosynthetics, antiseismic engineering, ocean platform, and harbor engineering are described in details. Moreover, experiences of using centrifuge in solving geotechnical research problems are presented, such as the dumping density of weathered sand in deep water, frozen soil engineering, blasting and earthquake and tsunami simulation, pollutant transport, and rock mechanics. Finally, the future development of centrifuge in China is also presented.

Key words: geotechnical engineering, engineering prediction, centrifugal model test, centrifugal modeling technology, development and prospect