Dear ALERT members,
Please find attached our Spring 2022 Newsletter. This newsletter sums up the activities of ALERT Geomaterials in the past year, and presents the new activities taking place in Aussois in the end of September.
The newsletters of recent years can be found in the archive.
See you soon in Aussois !
The deadline for the abstract submission has been extended to May 31, 2022 for the SESSION 1 ONLY. 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.
As a reminder, here are the workshop sessions:
Further information on this post.
The ALERT Poster session will be held during the ALERT Workshop from September 26 to September 28, 2022 in Aussois.
Those who are interested are asked to submit their abstracts (both word/openoffice and pdf files are required) by email to the coordinators Nadia Benahmed (nadia.benahmed@irstea.fr) and Antoine Wautier (antoine.wautier@irstea.fr) using the attached abstract form (Template).
The deadline for the submission of the abstract is the September 9, 2022.
The ALERT Workshop 2022 (32nd Edition) should be held in Aussois from 26th to 28th September, 2022. Abstracts can now be submitted for the three sessions. 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 April 30, 2022. For any communication about your participation to the workshops, please contact the coordinators of the workshop sessions directly.
As a reminder, here are the workshop sessions for which the call for abstracts is open:
Further information on this post.
From September 26 to September 28 in Aussois, France.
Session 1: “Mechanics of Hard Soils – Soft Rocks”
Coordinators: Claudia Vitone (claudia.vitone@poliba.it) (Politecnico di Bari, Italy), Nadia Benahmed (nadia.benahmed@inrae.fr) (INRAE, France), Elma Charalampidou (ec10@hw.ac.uk) (Heriot-Watt University Edinburgh, UK).
Outline
In the last decades, our community has dedicated to Hard Soils – Soft Rocks (HSSR) some fundamental Conferences, such as “The Geotechnics of Structurally Complex Formations” in Capri (1977), “The Geotechnical Engineering of Hard Soils and Soft Rocks” in Athens (1993), “The Geotechnics of Hard Soils and Soft Rocks” in Naples (1998) and, finally, the 15th ECSMGE in Athens, which was devoted to “The Geotechnics of Hard Soils and Weak Rocks” in (2011). Although these helped advance our understanding of HSSR materials, there are still questions that remain unanswered more than ten years later. For example, are HSSR still part of the main challenging materials of the new millennium? Are we fully aware of the multi-physics and multi-scale complexity behind their engineering problematic responses? Can we effectively enter their grey area to predict effectively their engineering behaviour?
The “Mechanics of Hard Soils – Soft Rocks” session intends to address these three questions by: i) enucleating distinct and special features of HSSR; ii) reviewing the most recent experimental evidence; iii) summing up the modelling strategies functional to recognise and interpret their peculiarities.
The one-day session will mainly focus on: 1) experimental evidence of the physical characteristics and geomechanical effects of stress-history, bond- and suction-induced soil structures of HSSR; 2) constitutive and numerical modelling strategies, which are physics-inspired and experimentally-driven; 3) recent emblematic cases of successful and unsuccessful predictions of their engineering behaviour to future research addresses.
Call for abstract: Abstracts are invited to be submitted to the organisers by the 30th of April 2022. Authors of selected abstracts will be invited to give a 20-minute presentation within the appropriate session.
Session 2: “Robot-Ground Interaction“
Coordinators: Raul Fuentes (raul.fuentes@rwth-aachen.de) and Itai Einav (itai.einav@sydney.edu.au)
Outline
The development of robots interacting with the ground has been steadily gaining traction in recent years. Initially focussing on robots and vehicles that moved over the ground, later research has also focussed on subterranean interaction using burrowing devices. In this workshop, we will concentrate in providing an general overview of the current research field.
The workshop has been divided into four main sessions covering different topics: 1) On the surface, 2) Burrowing, 3) Computational and 4) Granular dynamics. Each session will be delivered and moderated by two well-known invited speakers in the area. At the end of each session we will leave time to discuss and engage with the audience.
Session 3: “Multi-field approach of gravity-driven disasters in a global climate change context“
Coordinators: F. Nicot (francois.nicot@univ-smb.fr) (EDYTEM / USMB), F. Magnin (Florence.Magnin@univ-smb.fr) (EDYTEM / CNRS-USMB), S. Lambert (stephane.lambert@inrae.fr) (UGA – INRAE), F. Calvetti (francesco.calvetti@polimi.it) (Politecnico Milano)
Outline
Analysis and modeling of mass-driven natural hazards in mountainous areas stand as a major challenge in order to protect people and infrastructures. This is all the more strategic since mountain ranges assume great importance for tourism and economical stakes. Because there are major road and rail links given up to property developers, but also dominated by strong natural hazards, it has become expedient to establish a protection strategy against natural risks. Such phenomena are thought to become more striking in the context of a global climate change, marked by an evolution in both temperature and precipitation distribution. In particular, ice melting is observed at high altitude levels, above 3000 meters of elevation, modifying therefore the mechanical behavior of the escarpments (partially, or not, snow covered) and mountain slopes.
In this very challenging context for human society, this session attempts to shed light on the scientific related issues, including multiphasic constitutive modeling with phase transition, field survey and observations, thermo-induced failure modeling of (soil and rock) slopes. The college of speakers will focus on most advanced knowledge in the field, and will promote vigorous cross-fertilized discussions between experts from different communities such as geomechanics, natural hazard sciences, geophysics and quantitative geomorphology.
Dear ALERT community,
The ALERT Bureau and the Board of directors would like to wish you a happy new year 2022.
The year 2021, although far better than 2020, was still under the influence of the Covid-19 pandemic. Nonetheless, we had the chance to meet in person in Aussois. This year’s edition was organized in a hybrid mode, with presenters and participants being able to access the workshop and doctoral school remotely. It allowed a greater number of participants, which is great!
We hope that 2022 will allow us to further develop and strengthen the ALERT community, whatever the restrictions associated to Covid-19.
We wish you all the best for 2022,
See you all in Aussois.
Dear ALERT members,
Dear colleagues,
I am pleased to announce to you the themes and dates of the ALERT Workshop and School 2022.
ALERT WORKSHOP 2022
Dates of the ALERT Workshop 2022: 26th September to 28th September 2022
ALERT SCHOOL 2022
Dates of the ALERT School 2022: 28th September to 2nd October 2022
ALERT OZ Course 2022
There are still no propositions for the ALERT OZ Course 2022, so you are welcomed to send us your proposition!
Further information will arrive later.
Hoping to see you next year in Aussois !
Dear all,
For those of you who are registered to the workshop and school in Aussois, and come by train, a bus has been planned to pick you up at the station at around 19h00, Sunday 26 September.
A bus will also be planned to drive you back to the station at the end of the school but more information will arrive later.
See you soon in Aussois !
Dear ALERT community,
As you may know, the registration for the ALERT Workshop and School 2021 is open! The preliminary program of the Workshop and School is available here.
It was decided to propose you two alternatives for your registration to the workshop and doctoral school: either you can come and participate in Aussois, or you can attend those remotely.
UNFORTUNATELY, the number of participants that can come to Aussois is limited to 160, and has been reached. The only registration possible from now on is therefore remotely.
ABOUT THE SANITARY CONDITIONS
As a reminder, the restrictions for entering France will depend on your country of departure and your vaccination status (more information here and here).
Your stay (and access) at the CNRS “Centre Paul Langevin” where the event takes place is conditional on the presentation of a HEALTH PASS upon your arrival. This means that you must have at least one of the following documents:
More information can be found here. For members of “green list countries” (see the website), a sworn statement attesting to the absence of symptoms of covid-19 infection and contact with a confirmed case of covid-19 is also required. You can find it here.
Furthermore, the center has implemented a strict health protocol, providing for the wearing of masks in all premises and common areas in order to guarantee the safety of all. The full health and safety protocol can be accessed here, please read it before your arrival.
LAST REMINDER
Please read the hints in the registration form! After filling the form and pressing the button “Register”, a window will open with your invoice. Please print the window with the invoice for your records! You will also get an email with the registration data afterwards. If you are an ALERT members, the corresponding representative of your ALERT institution will receive the registration data too.
Click here to register for the ALERT Workshop and School 2021.
The deadline for the registration is the September 17th!
Looking forward to (safely) meeting you in Aussois!
Dear ALERT community,
I am pleased to inform you that the registration for the ALERT Geomaterials Workshop and School 2021 is now open! The preliminary program of the Workshop and School is available here.
As sanitary conditions are improving, it was decided to propose you two alternatives for your registration to the workshop and doctoral school: either you can come and participate in Aussois, or you can attend those remotely. Don’t worry, your choice can always be modified later on, as the sanitary conditions may change. As a reminder, the restrictions for entering France will depend on your country of departure and your vaccination status (more information here and here).
To enter the CNRS “Centre Paul Langevin” where the event takes place, you must be fully vaccinated and able to show a certificate stating this.
Please read the hints in the registration form! After filling the form and pressing the button “Register”, a window will open with your invoice. Please print the window with the invoice for your records! You will also get an email with the registration data afterwards. If you are an ALERT members, the corresponding representative of your ALERT institution will receive the registration data too.
Click here to register for the ALERT Workshop and School 2021.
The deadline for the registration is the September 17th! The accommodation in Aussois will be processed in the order of the registrations (see the hints in the registration form). Please note that the number of rooms in the CNRS “Centre Paul Langevin” is limited.
See also hints on how to get to Aussois.
Looking forward to (safely) meeting you in Aussois!