Lecture on “Mechanically Stabilised Earth” – 16th April 2021

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

Lecturer in Geotechnical Engineering at University of Sheffield (UK)

The Department of Civil & Structural Engineering at the University of Sheffield, UK is inviting applications from outstanding candidates for the position of Lecturer in Geotechnical Engineering, to help shape our research activity and taught programmes. While applications from all areas of geotechnics – whether numerical or physical – are welcome, we seek a talented individual who can relate their research vision to impact on key challenges such as infrastructure performance/resilience, adaptation of geotechnical systems for an evolving climate, low carbon development/management, decarbonisation of energy production, and integration of digital technologies.

The Department’s teaching is underpinned by international leading research, ranked top 4 in the UK for research excellence, and offers excellent laboratories and facilities for students. All undergraduate and postgraduate courses are accredited. The Department has particular expertise in resilient infrastructure, sustainability and carbon-neutral construction, digital technologies, characterisation of new materials, and management of risk and hazards. We build teams of people from different heritages and lifestyles whose talent and contributions complement each other to greatest effect. We believe diversity in all its forms delivers greater impact through research, teaching and student experience.

Further information and an application link can be found below:

https://www.jobs.ac.uk/job/CFB245/lecturer-in-geotechnical-engineering

The closing date for applications is 4th May 2021.

Informal enquiries can be made to Elisabeth Bowman, Reader in Geomechanics, at e.bowman@sheffield.ac.uk.

Postdoctoral position in geotechnical centrifuge modelling at the Hainan institute of Zhejiang University

The Hainan Institute of Zhejiang University invites applications for one postdoctoral position in Geotechnical Engineering. The Institute seeks applicants in all areas of Geotechnical Engineering with representative examples including but not limited to: offshore geotechnics, numerical and physically modelling of geo-materials. All candidates with advanced experience in geotechnical experiment and geotechnical centrifuge modelling will be considered.

About the Institute

Zhejiang University, one of the top universities in Asia, is one of the earliest institutions of higher education in China. It ranks 53th according to QS World University Rankings 2020.

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Postdoctoral Research Associate in Computational Geomechanics at University of Liverpool (UK)

This position is funded by the EPSRC New Investigator Award scheme. The aim of the project is to develop advanced computer models capable of predicting the mechanical response of carbonate sands at offshore foundations from the installation stage to the operational stage. In the project, a novel continuum numerical approach will be developed for analyzing large deformation soil-water-foundation interactions. Additionally, a self-learning simulation framework based on advanced deep-learning techniques will be constructed for training data-drive constitutive models for carbonate soils.

Please contact Dr Xue Zhang (email: xue.zhang2@liverpool.ac.uk) for all enquiries for the application. This post is open to international applicants.

More information in the attachment.

Postdoctoral Research Associate in Offshore Foundation Systems at Durham University (UK)

We are advertising a Postdoctoral Research Associate in Offshore Foundation Systems position. The postdoctoral research will be based at Durham University, UK, and will work on a British Council funded project entitled “Floating hybrid renewable energy systems in Turkey”. This project aims to develop a design for hybrid floating wind turbine solar energy foundation systems. The project involves collaboration with the Middle East Technical University and industry partners in Turkey.  The postdoctoral researcher will carry out advanced numerical simulations to predict the response of the foundations and the anchorage systems.

The employment contract will be up to 16/02/2023 (about 23 months). The deadline for the application is 22 April at midnight (GMT).  More details can be found at:

https://durham.taleo.net/careersection/du_ext/jobdetail.ftl?job=21000239&tz=GMT%2B00%3A00&tzname=Europe%2FLondon

ALERT Geomaterials Workshop 2021

From September 27 to September 29 (hopefully in Aussois, possibly online).

Session 1 “Forecasting landslide displacements”  

Coordinators: Sabatino Cuomo (UniSa), Jean Vaunat (CIMNE), Núria M. Pinyol (UPC)

Dear Colleagues,

the Workshop is organized in the framework of the agreement between ALERT Geomaterials and the international LARAM School (LAndslide Risk Assessment and Mitigation, University of Salerno).

Geomechanics-driven models will be presented, including issues like incrementally non-linear behaviour of soil, hydro-mechanical coupling, weathering process, rate- and thermal effects. These models are widely applied for slope analysis at local scale, especially for back-analysis of failures, individuation of the key factors for failure, investigation of triggering mechanisms, modelling of post-failure and tempo-spatial evolution of slopes. Contributions about small-strain approaches for cohesive soils, large-displacements approaches for slope failures evolving into flows, or landslide propagation analysis are welcome.

Engineering-oriented procedures will also presented in the context of landslide risk theory to provide relevant information for early-warning systems, urban planning maps, countermeasures against landslide movement and land control tools operational, both at slope scale and over wide areas.

The two classes of tools are really complementary and they should be ideally integrated to effectively tackle the forecasting of landslide displacements. And, in fact the Workshop aims at reinforcing the links between the scholars coming from ALERT and LARAM communities.

DEADLINE: 20 June 2021 to send title and abstract of presentations (only abstract respecting the format suggested by ALERT, can be accepted).

SUBMISSION: please send your abstract to: scuomo@unisa.it

Best regards, see you in Aussois

Sabatino, Jean and Nuria


Session 2 “ Machine Learning and Geomechanics ”  

Coordinators: Ioannis Stefanou (EC-Nantes) and Felix Darve (3SR)

Machine Learning (ML) is a promising ensemble of mathematical tools and methods that have already lead to astonishing results in science and technology.

The objective of this session is to demonstrate that machine learning can be used to bypass some of the current limitations of several experimental and numerical methods in the field of geomaterials, geomechanics and more generally in solid mechanics.

There is hope that this new approach may lead to more realistic, physics-based models with several applications in geo-energy resources (e.g. geothermal energy, oil and gaz extraction, …), in nuclear waste disposal, in CO2 sequestration, and in the prediction and prevention of natural risks (e.g. earthquakes, volcanoes, landslides, rockfalls, snow avalanches, debris flows, …).

The session will consist of invited talks only. Renowned invited speakers will share their experience on ML showing the large perspectives of the method in solid mechanics and geomechanics.


Session 3 “Bridging the gap between experiments and modelling: from laboratory testing to material models prediction” 

Coordinators: Béatrice Baudet (b.baudet@ucl.ac.uk) (University College London, U.K.), Federica Cotecchia (federica.cotecchia@poliba.it) (Politecnico di Bari, Italy), Cristina Jommi (cristina.jommi@polimi.it) (Politecnico di Milano, Italy) and (C.Jommi@tudelft.nl) (Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands)

At this point in time, when soil laboratory testing has advanced to the extent that we can determine the contact behaviour between two sand grains and coarse soils can be modelled at the microscale with realistic particle properties, it may be a good time to pause and ask: are we modelling real internal processes for either coarse or fine soils? This day session attempts to address this issue.

The sub-sessions will concern the laboratory testing providing evidence of a micro to macro behavioural framework. Both consolidated soils, either coarse or fine, whose structure developed through sedimentation and consolidation in saturated conditions and compacted soils, deposited and loaded in partially saturated conditions, are of interest. The afternoon sub-sessions will be focused on the modelling of micro- and macro-processes, including the differences between the micro-structure of consolidated and compacted soils, which will be emphasized with experimental data to serve as platform for the modelling. Examples of how some of that evidence is integrated in modelling should be provided. The morning and afternoon sessions will be centred around two invited lectures each, complemented by selected presentations. Extra discussion time will be scheduled.

Three sub-sessions are foreseen: 1. Experimental evidence of physical processes in soils and their experimental characterisation; 2. Modelling micromechanical properties and processes with discrete mechanics; 3. Continuum modelling of micromechanical processes with macromechanics. The modelling sessions should focus on models that actively account for experimental observations.

The organisers would like to invite you to participate in one of the sessions above in the form of a 20-minute presentation.

DEADLINE AND SUBMISSION: Abstracts are invited to be submitted to the organisers by 20 June 2021 (respecting the format suggested by ALERT). Authors of selected abstracts will be invited to give a presentation within the appropriate mini-session. 

ALERT Workshop 2021 – Call for abstracts

The ALERT Workshop 2021 (31st Edition) should be held in Aussois from 27th to 29th September, 2021. Abstracts can now be submitted. Please submit your abstracts by email directly to the coordinators using the Workshop abstract form (doc). If you wish to publish your presentation after the Workshop on the ALERT website, do not forget to agree by ticking the corresponding box in the abstract form.

Since time for the presentations is limited, only a part of the submitted abstracts can be chosen for the oral presentations. Therefore, we invite you to submit your abstract as soon as possible. The presentation can also be submitted as a poster. The abstracts of the posters will be published in a separate booklet (ISSN registered).

The deadline for the abstract submission is May 17, 2021. For any communication about your participation to the workshops, please contact the coordinators of the workshop sessions directly.

Note that if the sanitary situation does not allow us to meet in Aussois at the end of September 2021, the workshop will not be postponed again but will be held online.

PhD offer on granular materials under cyclic loading at Université Gustave Eiffel

We are looking for a PhD Student to collaborate with us on a project combining discrete element simulation and centrifuge modeling of cyclic loading of granular materials entitled:

Study of the behavior of granular materials under cyclic loading

under the supervision of  Riccardo Artoni, Patrick Richard, Bogdan Cazacliu, Luc Thorel, Matthieu Blanc a the Gustave Eiffel University (campus of Nantes)

Here’s the thesis offer: https://gpem.univ-gustave-eiffel.fr/fileadmin/redaction/GPEM/jobs/PhD_offer_granular_cyclic.pdf 

The application (available here: https://www.ifsttar.fr/offres-theses/sujet.php?num=2474&num_session=1 ) is open until the 23rd april 2021.

Please contact us before applying online.