The organising committee of Advancements in Geotechnical Engineering: From Research to Practice (AGERP) Lecture Series is pleased to invite you to the 1st lecture of the 2nd edition of AGERP Lecture Series (AGERP’21). The first lecture will be on ‘Mechanically Stabilised Earth (MSE) Walls’. This Lecture will be jointly delivered by Professor Emeritus Richard J. Bathurst (GeoEngineering Centre at Queen’s-RMC, Canada) and Ms. Chaido (Yuli) Doulala-Rigby (Tensar International Corporation, UK).

Lecture 1 is scheduled to be hosted on 16th April 2021 (Australian Eastern Standard Time-AEST) with registration for this lecture closing at 00:00, 15th April 2021 (AEST).

You may find further info. and register (free but mandatory) here: https://www.age-rp.com/

For further information, please refer to the attached flyer.

Dr. Partha Mishra and Professor Sarat Das, Convenor, AGERP Lecture Series

Dear colleagues,

I hope you are keeping well!

The 14^th Euroconference on Rock Physics and Rock Mechanics will be in Scotland from the 30th of August to the 3rd of September 2021. Given COVID19 (travel restrictions and lockdown measures), the conference will take place virtually.

The session themes are:

1. Subsurface deformation processes: from fracturing to friction and beyond
2. Thermo-chemo-hydro-mechanical coupling
3. Non-destructive testing in rock mechanics and rock physics
4. Visualising and quantifying rock deformation and multi-phase flow interactions
5. From lab to field: scaling relationships
6. Energy storage: CO2, H, cold/heat
7. Energy Extraction: shallow/deep geothermal, oil/gas
8. UKGEOS: case studies and on-going research
9. Open session on Rock Mechanics and Rock Physics

The abstract submission is now open. To submit your abstract, please follow the instructions that can be found in our website: https://www.euroconference2021.org/

During the following days, our website will be populated with all other useful information related to the 14^th Euroconference on Rock Physics and Rock Mechanics.

See you all (virtually) on the 30^th of August for a fascinating week of science!

Best wishes,

Elma (On behalf of the organising committee)

Dear colleagues,

We are delighted to announce an online symposium on “Cement sheath integrity in oil & gas wells, current challenges and future solutions” in the afternoons (European time) of March 24-26, 2021, co-organized by Ecole des Ponts ParisTech and LafargeHolcim.

Registration is free but mandatory by March 14, 2021, on the website of the symposium: https://well-cem-integ.sciencesconf.org/

Granular materials such as soils, powders and pharmaceutical products constitute the most abundant form of solid matter on Earth. Composed of a large number of grains interacting via frictional contacts and/or cohesive forces, they defy the standard scheme of classification in terms of solid, liquid, and gas. Their complex behavior has been at the focus of contemporary research in physics, mechanics, chemistry and geosciences. Today, the models and methods developed for two decades in this field represent a vast potential for application to technological and societal challenges related to energy, materials and environment.

The aim of this course is to provide a general introduction to both classical and modern concepts, models and methods developed for granular materials with a view of application to research issues in energy and environment. To bridge the gap between basic concepts and applications, several environmental granular processes and the related research issues are covered. As numerical simulations play a crucial role in modern research on granular processes, several methods will be introduced. Furthermore, an important part of the course will be focused on the multiscale modeling of granular materials from particle interactions and particle-scale inhomogeneities up to their collective and rheological behavior at the macroscopic scale.

The next online gathering of the European Geoscience Union – EGU 2021 – will host a new session on the effects of plant-soil-atmosphere interaction on the slope stability.

The NH8.4 session is entitled ” Vegetation as nature-based solution for mitigating climate induced geo-hazards and associated consequences along slopes and streambanks” and is coordinated by Vittoria Capobianco (Norwegian Geotechnical Institute – NGI), Sabatino Cuomo (University of Salerno), Dominika Krzeminska (Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research – NIBIO) and Anders Solheim (Norwegian Geotechnical Institute – NGI).

Contributions documenting, both through numerical or experimental studies, how vegetation can be beneficial in slope stability and plant-soil-atmosphere interaction in the unsaturated zone are welcome.

Specific topics and research questions related to this session are:

• How the plant-soil-atmosphere interaction affects the unsaturated zone and thus the slope stability?
• Measuring and quantifying the effects of vegetation as NBS for mitigating climate induced geo-hazards and associated consequences at or near instable slopes and along stream banks – case studies at full scale or laboratory scale
• How to ensure interdisciplinary interaction for sustainability and mutual synergies for studies containing vegetation as NBS for mitigating climate induced geo-hazards and associated consequences at or near instable slopes and along stream banks.

Further information about the session can be found here: https://meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EGU21/session/38969

Interested participants are welcome to submit an abstract within 13 January 2021, which will be followed by an online presentation to be given during the virtual session.  

Additional info about abstract submission can be found at: https://egu21.eu/abstracts_and_programme/how_to_submit_an_abstract.html

#vEGU21: Engage • Discover • Inspire: https://www.egu21.eu/

We are pleased to inform you that a new session dedicated to shallow geothermal energy for building heating/cooling has been proposed in the context of the vEGU21: Gather Online (#vEGU21), the virtual event hosted by the European Geoscience Union EGU. The meeting dates are 19–30 April but all technical sessions are scheduled during the last week of April.

The ERE 2.6 session is entitled Shallow geothermal systems for heating and cooling: geoscience and engineering approaches, coordinated by Giorgia Dalla Santa (University of Padua, Italy), Fleur Loveridge (University of Leeds, UK), Jean De Sauvage (IFSTTAR Université Gustave Eiffel, France), Francesco Cecinato (University of Milan, Italy) and Witold Bogusz (Polish Building Research Institute, Warsaw, Poland).

Dear all,

I hope you and your families are keeping well!

On behalf of the organisation committee of the 14^th Euroconference on Rock Mechanics and Rock Physics, I have the pleasure to let you know that the

14^th Euroconference on Rock Mechanics and Rock Physics will take place from the 30^th of August to the 3^rd of September 2021 in Glasgow (Scotland).

The themes of the conference are presented in the following video:

Please note that this is a very first announcement for you to save the days, please. Further information on the conference (including the organisation committee, the registration fee and abstract submission) will follow towards the end of the year in the conference website.

Until then, it would be great if you could participate in the survey below and provide your feedback, please.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe0OOdlDoLOj61_LKojdFI-UUOojiv2jgwaS9xWp7mldUvchA/viewform?usp=sf_link

See you all in late summer 2021!

Best wishes,

Elma

The 4^th Granular Matter Series Webinar will take place next Tuesday, 24 November. The speaker is Ken Kamrin, the topic and abstract are: 

To the Continuum and Beyond!

The ability to predict granular flows efficiently has been a major challenge for years.  An accurate and robust continuum model would be ideal, as it could lead to fast simulation of industrial and geo-scale problems.  However, there are a number of granular flow behaviors that complicate the development of a continuum treatment including coupled history effects, nontrivial phase change, pressure-sensitive yielding, nonlocal effects, and shear banding phenomena.  Rather than attempt to combine all these effects together, this talk will begin by identifying a class of problems that tend to be well-predicted using a very simple continuum treatment.  These are problems based on intrusion, where the intrusive dynamics of solid objects (e.g. locomotion, impact) is the primary interest.  We then discuss two ways to extend this basic continuum framework with nonstandard “add-ons”, in order to handle various complications.  First, we will discuss the state of affairs in nonlocal modeling approaches, and focus on some new results pertinent to the physics of nonlocality.  Secondly, as an alternative to adding more complexity to the continuum model, we will discuss a hybridized DEM/continuum method that allows us to adaptively choose subdomains in a problem to be treated with continuum modeling vs discrete element modeling.  This allows us to keep a simple and fast-to-solve continuum model almost everywhere, while providing a more precise DEM treatment in zones that fall outside the scope of the continuum model. 

For more information, this is the landing page: https://www.springer.com/journal/10035/updates/18300828

And this is the link to the meeting room: https://global.gotomeeting.com/join/565338397