ALERT GeomaterialsNEWSLETTER - April 2016N 14 - year 10 http://alertgeomaterials.com
In This Issue . . .EDITORIAL 1 ALERT Workshop 2016 4ALERT Workshop 2015 2 ALERT Doctoral School 2016 5ALERT PhD Prize 2015 2 ALERT Olek Zienkiewicz Course 2015 5Dedication of the ALERT PhD Prize 3 ALERT Olek Zienkiewicz Course 2016 6ALERT Doctoral School 2015 3 New Member of ALERT 6ALERT Special Lecture 2015 4
Impressions of AussoisPhotographs of the photo
competition 2012
EDITORIAL
Dear ALERT member,
our short and informal Newsletter, pub-lished in springtime, has always repre-sented in my mind a sort of annual “open-ing ceremony”, after the big event of theAussois meeting and the subsequent (rest-ing?) winter period. It is then my pleasureto welcome you in this new ALERT Geoma-terials year!!
As usual, many activities will be proposedduring this year, and you will find hereafterall the detailed information. This witnessesthe high vitality of our association, and thehard work of the organizers during the win-ter: many thanks to all the organizers fortheir effort!
As you may have noticed, this is my firstEditorial. In the past month of February,there was in fact a small change within theALERT Bureau. Due to his new position inthe Faculty of Civil Engineering in Dresden,Prof. Ivo Herle asked me to manage thecurrent affairs of the association, as ALERTDirector, for the remaining duration of thecurrent mandate of the Bureau. I congratu-late Ivo for his new high responsibility, andI thank him for the hard work he did inthese years and for the important contribu-
tion he accepted to still give to ALERT asVice-Director for Administration.
I would even take advantage from this myfirst Editorial to invite all of you to enrichthis newsletter: all contributions for thenext issues are welcome!
During the last meeting held in Aussois lastOctober, the Board of Directors acceptedthe application of Lund University as newALERT member. On behalf of the wholeassociation, I sincerely welcome the col-leagues from Lund, encouraging more andmore fruitful exchanges and collaborationswith the members of the ALERT communityat any level: personal, scientific, didactic.
I am strongly convinced that this is oneof the most important values that our as-sociation may be proud of, and that mustbe kept and developed over the years: thestrong willing of freely sharing, exchangingand developing knowledge. This is evenour only possible (but strong!) answer tothe uncertainties of our times.
Happy new “ALERT” year to all of you!!
Yours sincerely,
Andrea GalliDirector of ALERT Geomaterials
ALERT Geomaterials Page 2
AthensBarcelona
BariBochumCachan
DelftDresden
EdinburghGöteborgGrenoble
InnsbruckIRSTEA
LausanneLiègeLilleLyon
MadridMilano
MontpellierMontreal
NantesPadova
ParisPau
PerugiaPrague
SouthamptonStrathclyde
ThessalonikiTorino
TorontoTrondheim
TunisZürich
Non−Member
0 10 20 30 40
Number of Participants
Participants of the ALERTWorkshop 2015
ALERT Workshop 2015
In 2015 the annual ALERT Workshop was heldfrom Monday, 28th until Wednesday, 30thSeptember again in Aussois, France. The re-gional distribution of the participants fromthe institutional members of ALERT Geoma-terials is shown on the left hand side. In to-tal, 161 participants registered for the ALERTworkshop 2015.
As it was introduced in 2013, the session onTuesday lasted only half a day allowing theBoard of Directors meeting, the PhD-prize cer-emony and the Special lecture to be held inthe afternoon.
The three topics of the ALERT Workshop 2015are listed below:
1 From discrete methods to continuummethods: Applications, Problems andSolutionscoord. Y. Dafalias, L. Sibille & E. Andò
2 How should we teach geomechanics?coord. G. Viggiani & I. Herle
3 Fracturing and fractured reservoirscoord. E. Papamichos, H. Lewis & G. Cou-ples
We thank all active participants and coordina-tors for their effort.
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The presentations of the speakers can be downloaded from the ALERT website.
http://alertgeomaterials.eu/presentations-of-the-alert-workshop-2014/
Anna Ramon Tarragona(UPC Barcelona)
ALERT PhD Prize 2015
The jury of the ALERT PhD Prize 2015was composed of the professors ManuelPastor (Universidad Politécnica de Madrid),Hans Mühlhaus (University of Queensland),François Nicot (IRSTEA) and Jean Vaunat(UPC Barcelona). Only PhD students fromone of the institutions belonging to ALERTare eligible candidates for the prize which isdated to 1000 Euro.
The three finalists Anna Ramon Tarragona(UPC Barcelona), Dalila Vescovi (Politecnicodi Milano) and Ali Seiphoori (EPFL Lausanne)were chosen by the jury out of 11 applica-tions.
The jury awarded the PhD student AnnaRamon Tarragona for her work enti-tled
Expansion mechanisms in sulphatedrocks and soils
The thesis by Dr. Tarragona focused on theprediction of strains and swelling pressuresin sulphated formations. On that direction,the Thesis analyses and describes the mech-anisms and conditions leading to expansions
in sulphated rocks through the compilation ofreal cases showing the presence or absence ofswelling phenomena and the detailed investi-gation of three exceptional cases of damageinduced by expansions involving sulphatedformations in Spain: Lilla tunnel, Pont deCandí bridge and Pallaressos embankments.
A model has been developed for simulatingthe expansions in sulphated rocks due to gyp-sum crystal growth. The presence of solu-ble sulphated minerals and the occurrence ofprecipitation and dissolution of crystals havebeen considered in the formulations. The sen-sitivity analysis performed indicated that theinitial mineral content, solubility of gypsumand anhydrite and, especially, the confiningstress have a relevant effect on the swellingstrains calculated. The simulation of gypsumprecipitation and expansions has been suc-cessful in Pont de Candí.
The abstract of the PhD thesis of Dr. AnnaRamon Tarragona as well as her presentationin Aussois will be available on the ALERT web-site.
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ALERT Geomaterials Page 3
Dedication of the ALERT PhD Prize to Prof. IoannisVardoulakis
Starting from 2016, the ALERT PhD prize willbe entitled
Ioannis Vardoulakis PhD Prize
to commemorate Prof. Vardoulakis and hiscontributions to research and teaching in thefield of Geomechanics.
Further changes to the PhD Prize concern the
application. Starting this year, the applicationfor the PhD Prize has to be done completelyonline with a form on the ALERT website.
See the ALERT website for detailed informa-tion on the application:
http://alertgeomaterials.eu/alert-phd-prize/
AthensBarcelona
BariBochumCachan
DelftDresden
EdinburghGöteborgGrenoble
InnsbruckIRSTEA
LausanneLiègeLilleLyon
MadridMilano
MontpellierMontreal
NantesPadova
ParisPau
PerugiaPrague
SouthamptonStrathclyde
ThessalonikiTorino
TorontoTrondheim
TunisZürich
Non−Member
0 5 10 15
Number of Participants
Participants of the ALERTDoctoral School 2015
ALERT Doctoral School 2015
The ALERT Doctoral School 2015 lasted fromThursday, 1st October to Saturday, 3rd Octo-ber and was attended by 70 participants. Thetopic of the school was dedicated to
Coupled and multiphysics phenomena
The organization was carried out by BernhardSchrefler, Lorenzo Sanavia (both from Univer-sità degli Studi di Padova, Italy) and FredericCollin (Université de Liège, Belgium). Theaccompanying book, containing articles refer-ring to the lectures, can be downloaded fromthe ALERT website.
The lectures were presented by
• Lorenzo Sanavia (Università degli Studi diPadova)
• Frederic Collin (Université de Liège)• Pierre Delage (Ecole des Ponts ParisTech,
Navier/CERMES)• William Gray (University of North Car-
olina)• Manuel Pastor (Universidad Politécnica de
Madrid)• Jacques Huyghe (Bernal Institute, Univer-
sity of Limerick)
In order to tackle this topic, the school wasdivided into three main parts:
• the description of the couplings in multi-physics phenomena, including the experi-mental developments;
• the mathematical modelling of all thesecoupled processes, with an introductionto the constitutive modelling taking intoaccount the dilatancy, which characterizesthe mechanical behaviour of geomaterials;
• the numerical implementation of themathematical models, comprising consti-tutive equations as well as balance equa-tions and finally numerical modellingthrough advanced applications.
On behalf all the ALERT members we wantto thank the lecturers and the organizers fortheir commitment.
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The accompanying book, containing articles referring to the lectures, as well assome books of previously held doctoral schools can be downloaded from the ALERTwebsite.
http://alertgeomaterials.eu/publications/
ALERT Geomaterials Page 4
The ALERT Special Lecturer 2015Prof. Hans Mühlhaus
Special Lecture 2015: Prof. Hans Mühlhaus
The ALERT Special lecture 2015 was deliv-ered by Prof. Hans Mühlhaus from the Uni-versity of Queensland in Australia.
The title of the lecture was:
Mechanical and hydraulic instabilitiesin Geomechanics
The lecture was digitized during the presenta-tion and will be available for downloading onthe ALERT website soon.
The Special lecture during the comingALERT Workshop 2016 will be presented byProf. Takashi Matsushima from University ofTsukuba, Japan. He will talk about
Planetary geomechanics
On the ALERT website an abstract of his pre-sentation will be published soon.
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Organising Institutions of theALERT Workshop & School 2016
ALERT Workshop 2016
The ALERT Workshop in 2016 will be orga-nized from Monday, 3rd October to Wednes-day, 5th October. The workshop will againtake place in the Centre Paul Langevin in Aus-sois, France.
The focus of the three workshop sessions andthe responsible coordinators are listed below:
1 New trends in micromechanical ap-proaches of Particulate Materials - ex-periments and modelling aspectscoord. M. Karstunen, N. Benahmed &M. [email protected]@[email protected]
2 Mechanics of multiphase porous me-dia in modelling cementitious materi-als: from early ages to durability issues
coord. F. Pesavento, M. Briffaut &
L. [email protected]@[email protected]
3 Geomechanics of faults, with applica-tions spanning from earthquake nucle-ation to landslidescoord. M. Veveakis, I. Stefanou,K. Regenauer-Lieb & J. [email protected]@[email protected]@enpc.fr
The deadline for the submission of abstractsis 30th April 2016.
The online registration for the ALERT Work-shop & School will open in June 2016 on theALERT website and will be announced in ad-vance again.
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Please do not forget to submit your abstract by email directly to the coordinatorsusing the abstract form which can be downloaded at the ALERT site:
http://alertgeomaterials.eu/2016/02/alert-workshop-2016-call-for-abstracts/
ALERT Geomaterials Page 5
Organising Institutions of theALERT School 2016
ALERT Doctoral School 2016
The workshop is followed by the ALERT Doc-toral School which will be hosted from Thurs-day, 6th October to Saturday, 8th October alsoin Aussois. The topic of the ALERT School willbe dedicated to
Modelling of instabilities andbifurcation in Geomechanics
and will be organized by J. Sulem (ENPCParis), I. Stefanou (ENPC Paris), E. Papami-chos (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki) andM. Veveakis (UNSW Sydney).
A tentative programme is the following
• Thursday– In situ and laboratory evidence of in-
stabilities– Fundamentals of bifurcation and sta-
bility analysis– Material instability and strain localiza-
tion analysis– Experimental investigation of strain lo-
calization
• Friday– Numerical modelling of strain localiza-
tion– Applications (Borehole stability, rock
bursting, multilayer buckling . . . )– Multiphysics couplings and instabili-
ties– Numerical modelling of Multiphysics
couplings and strain localization• Saturday
– From theory to practice: supervisedgroup exercisesBased on existing templates, the partic-ipants will develop a numerical codefor analyzing by themselves some illus-trative examples such as spring slidermodel under multiphysics couplings,strain localization analysis etc.
The online registration for the ALERT Work-shop & School will open in June 2016 on theALERT website and will be announced in ad-vance again.
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Impressions of the ALERT OlekZienkiewicz Course 2015
ALERT Olek Zienkiewicz Course 2015
The 7th ALERT Summer school 2015 was heldfor five days in May in Barcelona, Spain. Theschool focused on the
Mechanics of Unsaturated Soils,from Fundamentals to Applications
The objectives of the course were to pro-vide PhD students and researchers with anoverview of the current knowledge in Unsatu-rated Soil Mechanics as well as some insightsinto current issues and advanced topics. Lec-tures were divided in four sessions of one day:
• Fundamentals of Unsaturated Soil Me-chanics
• Experimental techniques• Numerical methods• Some advanced topics and current issues
and taught by the following lecturers: E.Alonso, Y.-J. Cui, P. Delage, A. Dono, A. Gens,C. Jommi, D. Mašín, S. Olivella, J. M. Pereira,
E. Romero, J. Vaunat and A. Yerro.
The fifth day was devoted to presentations byinvited speakers on current applications of Un-saturated Soil Mechanics, including founda-tions, deep excavations, landslides, dams, em-bankments, engineered barriers and gas flowproblems in unsaturated soils. The school wasclosed by the lecture on “Mixed Fluid condi-tions in Geoenergy Energy Engineering” byProf. C. Santamarina, who provided an ex-cellent overview of current and forthcomingissues related to coupled problems in geoen-ergy and their relationship with UnsaturatedSoil Mechanics concepts.
The school was attended by 70 participantsfrom 17 countries. Besides the lectures, theycould enjoy one hands’on session on the use ofa Finite Element code for coupled flow and de-formation problems in geological media andthe visit of UPC Soil Mechanics Laboratory.
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ALERT Geomaterials Page 6
Organising Institutions of theALERT Olek Zienkiewicz Course
2016
ALERT Olek Zienkiewicz Course 2016
The 8th edition of the ALERT OlekZienkiewicz Course will be held from Mon-day, 5th September to Friday, 9th September2016 at University of Salerno. The topic ofthe school is
Geomechanics of landslides
Within the framework of an institutionalagreement, this year the ALERT OZ Coursewill be held jointly during the first week ofthe LARAM School (LAndslide Risk Assess-ment and Mitigation). Our students will havethe great opportunity to share scientific andtechnical knowledge with other colleaguescoming from LARAM School! The school willbe organised by Leonardo Cascini (Universitàdi Salerno) and Claudio di Prisco (Politecnicodi Milano).
Lectures covering the following topics as wellas tutorials on some of them will be delivered:
• Risk theory• Landslide Susceptibility• Soil characterization for landslide analysis
• Constitutive modelling in rainfall-inducedlandslides
• Constitutive modelling in earthquake-induced landslides
• Thermo-mechanical coupling in fast catas-trophic landslides
• Diagnosis of landslide processing in clayeysoils
• Modeling of rock slides and rock falls• Modeling of landslides in coarse-grained
soils• From geomechanics to landslide suscepti-
bility analysis• Landslide susceptibility deterministic anal-
ysis• Landslide susceptibility statistical analysis
Due to pedagogic reasons, the number of par-ticipants to the 8th ALERT Geomaterials OlekZienkiewicz Course is limited to 25. The dead-line for registration is 15th June 2016. Theonline registration form will soon be put on-line on the ALERT website.
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Further information can be found here:
http://www.laram.unisa.it/initiatives/alert2016http://alertgeomaterials.eu/category/oz-course
New institutional Member ofALERT
New Institutional Member of ALERT
During its meeting in Aussois, held in Septem-ber 2015, the ALERT Board of Directors ap-proved the application for the membership inALERT Geomaterials of
Lund Universityrepresented by Stephen Hall
Unfortunately, the members Université Lille1 and the University of Toronto did not re-new their participation to ALERT activitiesand they were excluded from ALERT.
With these decisions, the present number ofmembers of ALERT Geomaterials is 33!
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Max Wiebicke