[Final year Master internship offer] On the role of extreme drying-induced surface soil degradation on contaminant transport in the vadose zone: A numerical investigation

An exciting 6-month internship opportunity (February–July 2025) is available at the Institut de Génie Civil et Mécanique (GeM), Ecole Centrale de Nantes, France. The project focuses on investigating the impact of extreme drying-induced surface soil degradation on contaminant transport using advanced numerical modeling techniques, coupling phase-field modeling and advection-diffusion equations. The position offers a stipend of approximately 600€/month (4.35€/hour) and requires strong skills in continuum mechanics, finite element methods, Python/Matlab programming, and proficiency in English. This internship is ideal for those passionate about vadose zone research and porous media mechanics. There is also a possibility to advance this work with a PhD thesis.

Interested candidates should read the pdf (attached) and email their CV & academic transcripts to Siddhartha H. Ommi at siddhartha-harsha.ommi@ec-nantes.fr

Postdoc on nature-based solution for geohazards

The geotechnical engineering group at the University of Sheffield is recruiting a postdoc for the funded project, “Rooting for Resilience – Forests as Physical Barriers to Landslide Runout”, on a 3-year contract. This project aims to develop a framework for assessing the capacity of forests to mitigate landslide hazards, particularly focusing on the interaction between landslides and trees, including the effects of tree failure and woody debris. The research integrates numerical modelling, laboratory experiments, and case studies to guide reforestation strategies for landslide hazard reduction.

More details and applications through the site:
https://www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DLG332/research-associate-in-geohazards

For more information, feel free to contact Alessandro Leonardi at a.leonardi@sheffield.ac.uk.

Call for research grant

Project title: Development of a new and original 3D finite element model to study the thermo-hydro-mechanical behaviour of multiphase porous materials, with application to the simulation of the initiation, propagation and deposition of landslides, including catastrophic landslides.

Supervision: Professor Lorenzo Sanavia, University of Padua, Italy; lorenzo.sanavia@unipd.it
Host institution: University of Padua, Italy

Grant: 24 months, gross remuneration of 24,589 Euro per annum.

Call deadline: January 7th, 2025 (at 15:00 CET).

Work plan:

1) Implementation of the non-isothermal elasto-plastic and multiphase porous media model available in the finite element code COMES-GEO (UniPD) into the open-source code KRATOS (CIMNE). The porous media model, based on the Hybrid Mixture Theory, allows for the description of the multiphase and multiphysics nature of porous materials and the interactions present between the phases (solid, liquid, and gaseous).
2) Validation of the implementation using test cases.
3) Numerical simulation of two experimental tests performed with SHIVA (Slow to High Velocity Apparatus) at INGV (National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology) in Rome on Vajont clays and comparison between experimental and numerical results.
4) Link of COMES-GEO with KRATOS.
5) Application (back-analysis) to the study of the thermo-hydro-mechanical conditions of initiation and propagation of the catastrophic Vajont landslide (October 9, 1963).

The activity will be carried out, primarily, at the Centre for Studies on Climate Change Impacts CRITICAL of the University of Padua located in Rovigo (Italy).

Knowledge of programming in at least two of the three languages is required: Fortran, C++ and Python.

See the attached files (Call with the description of the grant and the Instructions to participate in the call) for more information.

Further info at: lorenzo.sanavia@unipd.it

Call for abstract: Invited Session 015 at Int. Conf. Coupled Problems 2025 – Villasimius (Sardinia), Italy, 26-29 May 2025

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to invite you to present your work in the invited session on “Computational Models and Methods for Multiphysics Processes in Multiphase Porous Media” (Session Code: 015)

that we are organizing for the 11th International Conference on Coupled Problems in Science and Engineering – COUPLED PROBLEMS 2025, https://coupled2025.cimne.com/

This ECCOMAS thematic conference and IACM Special Interest Conference will be held on 26-29 May in Villasimius (Sardinia), Italy.

The summary of the invited session can be found in the attached PDF.

Continue reading

Post-doctoral position Hydromechanical behaviour of argillite-based sealing materials

The Soil Mechanics team at LEMTA (Université de Lorraine, CNRS ) is seeking a motivated postdoctoral researcher for a 12-month position starting April 1, 2025. The research focuses on the thermo-hydro-mechanical-chemical properties of clay-based materials for nuclear waste storage. This includes experimental and numerical studies to understand long-term stability and the effects of environmental conditions on these materials. The description of the position is attached in the PDF.

Invitation of speakers for MS at EMI 2025 IC

It is our great pleasure to invite you to participate and present your latest work in the Mini Symposium on “Advances in Constitutive Modeling of Soils and Parameter Determination” (MS-24) that will be held during the ASCE Engineering Mechanics Institute 2025 International Conference (EMI 2025-IC), at Tsinghua University in Beijing on Jul 17-20, 2025. 

The co-organizers of MS-24 include Rui Wang, Yan-Guo Zhou, Majid Manzari, Mahdi Taiebat, Kyohei Ueda, and Zhongxuan Yang.

This Mini Symposium aims to bring together researchers to discuss the needs, challenges, advances, and innovative paths forward for the development of constitutive models for soils and accurate parameter determination for advanced soil models.

Contributions are welcome on, but not limited to the topics below:

  • Constitutive modeling of soils under complex loading conditions
  • Constitutive modeling of special types of soils
  • Machine learning in constitutive modeling of soils
  • Optimization algorithms and machine learning methods in soil model calibration
  • Parameter determination using combination of laboratory and in-situ measurements
  • Validation and application of soil constitutive models and calibration methods

The deadline for the submission of abstracts is February 3, 2025, and we are excited to receive your abstract in due course. The link for abstract submission is https://emi-ic.asce.org/call-abstracts.

We look forward to your contributions soon.

EGU 2025 – Call for abstract for session EMRP1.7 “Laboratory characterization and numerical modelling of soft rocks”

Dear Colleagues, 

We are pleased to invite you to submit an abstract to the session EMRP1.7 “Laboratory characterization and numerical modelling of soft rocks” for the next EGU GENERAL ASSEMBLY 2025 which will be held in Vienna from April 27 to May 2, 2025.

The session will be convenered by Maria Lia Napoli (from the Department of Structural, Geotechnical and Building Engineering of Torino Polytechnic) and myself (Chiara Caselle, from the Department of Earth Science of Torino University) and will focus on the laboratory characterization and modeling of the thermal-hydraulic-mechanical-chemical (THMC) behaviour of weak/soft rocks and rock masses.

These rocks represent a challenge in several geoengineering contexts, due to their low strength, high heterogeneity, high proneness to drastic weathering or fracturing processes, and to the fact that they can develop time-dependent and water-interaction-dependent deformations (e.g., creep, swelling, squeezing).

Despite these materials raised big attention in the geotechnical and rock mechanics scientific communities in the last decades, several questions remain open about the understanding of the complexity that drives their behaviour, posing risks to the safety and longevity of infrastructures and to the stability of natural slopes and sea cliffs.

For these reasons, this session proposes to collect contributions about the THMC behaviour of soft rocks and rock masses, welcoming laboratory, modeling and case studies topics, with the objective of revealing our capability of effectively characterizing and predicting the behaviour of these materials. We hope that you wish to contribute to the discussion with your research!  

You can find more information at https://meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EGU25/session/51719 and the attached PDF.

The abstract deadline is January 15th (13:00 CET)!

We look forward to seeing you in Vienna!

Sincerely, 

Chiara and Maria Lia

Call for abstracts to EMI 2025 IC

We are pleased to invite you to participate in the mini-symposium “MS-19: Offshore Geotechnics and Wind Turbine Foundations” at EMI 2025 IC, scheduled for July 17-19, 2025 and hosted by Tsinghua University in Beijing, China. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

  • ●Soil-structure interaction
  • ●Pile installation techniques and their effects on short- and long-term pile capacities
  • ●Constitutive models for soils, particularly in capturing their high-cycle responses
  • ●Advanced numerical methods for simulating large deformations and long-term service responses of pile foundations
  • ●Model and centrifuge testing of pile foundations
  • ●Field and case studies
  • ●Future trends in emerging technologies in offshore geotechnics

Abstract submission is now open and will remain open until February 3, 2025. You can submit your abstracts here. Please ensure you select MS-19 for the MS Code during submission.

For more details about the MS, please refer to the attached PDF. We look forward to welcoming you in Beijing!

PhD Opportunity of offshore geohazards

A fully funded PhD position is available at the University of Sheffield on centrifuge modelling of submarine landslides. The project aims to address the challenges posed by underwater landslides to offshore infrastructure, including subsea power cables, and support renewable energy goals.

The research will be supervised by Alessandro Leonardi and Elisabeth Bowman. It offers full tuition coverage, a tax-free UKRI stipend (£19,237 per annum), a £4,500 research grant for project-related costs, and an industrial placement at Geowynd.

Application deadline: 29 January 2025

More details and application procedure at this link:
https://www.findaphd.com/phds/project/building-resilient-offshore-infrastructure-centrifuge-modelling-of-submarine-landslides-c3-5-mac-leonardi/?p178091

Call for abstracts to EGU2025 – EMRP1.2  Petrophysics and Geomechanics for the Energy Transition

The next gathering of the European Geoscience Union – EGU 2025 (Vienna, April 27 to May 2, 2025) will host the session on Petrophysics and Geomechanics for the Energy Transition, convened by Paul Glover (University of Leeds), Wenzhuo Cao (Utrecht University), Daniela Navarro-Perez (University of Southern Chile), Ashley Stanton-Yonge (UCL), Roberto Rizzo Utrecht University) and Eszter Békési (Hungarian Research Network).

Petrophysics and geomechanics have been critical tools in the exploitation of naturally occurring fossil fuels. Now that the world is transitioning away from fossil fuels towards sustainable energy and material sources, these same methods still have critical roles to play. The methods remain the same – it is only their applications that have changed, helping to drive the globe towards net zero and beyond. Conventional petrophysics and geomechanics are being applied to new challenges, ensuring that the wheel does not need reinventing.

The aim of this session is to explore and foster the contribution of petrophysics and geomechanics to improve development of sustainable energy and material resources in the transition to low-carbon energy and net zero.

Papers should show research or deployment involving theory, concept, measurement, modelling, testing, validation of the deployment of petrophysics and/or geomechanics, from/across angström to basin scales, that has the potential for driving us towards net zero, including pore-scale processes that link fluid flow, geochemistry and geomechanical properties, and studies linking petrophysical and geomechanical properties across multiple scales.

Applications include, but are not limited to, (i) carbon capture and storage, (ii) subsurface energy storage, (iii) geothermal energy, (iv) non-carbon gas exploitation (e.g. helium and white hydrogen), (v) wind energy, (vi) hydroelectric energy, (vi) solar energy, (vii) battery storage for smoothing of Intermittent Renewable Energy Sources (IRES). In each case including provision of critical minerals (e.g., lithium, cobalt, neodymium), engineering and groundwater flow are included.

Approaches may include laboratory measurement, field studies, multi-scale imaging, pore-scale and DRM modelling, reactive flow, reservoir modelling, 3D quantification and dynamic simulation, fracture modelling, heat flow quantification and modelling, reservoir integrity cap-rock studies, quantitative evaluation of porosity, permeability or any other properties or approach.

Interested participants are welcome to submit an abstract before January 15, 2025 (13:00 CET).

A short advertising video available at  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkI_yZsi1y8  

Submission of abstracts through: EMRP1.2 – Abstract submission (copernicus.org)