ALERT Workshop 2024 – Call for abstracts

The ALERT Workshop 2024 should be held in Aussois from 30th September to 2nd October, 2024. Abstracts can now be submitted for the 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 May 24, 2024. For any communication about your participation to the workshops, please contact the coordinators of the workshop sessions directly.

Here is a reminder of the workshop sessions that are opened to abstract, as well as a short description of each of them:

  • Session 1: “Emerging properties in geomaterials across the scales
    Organizers: Antoine Wautier, Farhang Radjai and Francesco Froiio.

    Geomaterials exhibit a wide range of complex behaviors that are of crucial interest for engineering scale applications or for mitigating natural risk hazards. Such behaviors are often accounted for through continuum mechanics concepts such as constitutive behavior, yield surfaces, hardening law, permeability, shear or compaction bands… Given the complexity of the macroscopic behavior of geomaterials, a current strategy is to use a multi-scale approach either in the lab or in the virtual lab (with DEM, molecular dynamics, X-ray tomography, SEM…), to identify sub-components with simpler behavior. However, in the change of scale, some properties are lost and some emerge.
    In the upscaling, we face the issue of emerging properties fundamentally different from those at lower scales. For instance, sand is usually modeled as non-deformable solids interacting through elastofrictionnal contact laws, but the internal friction angle (macroscale) does not corresponds to the contact friction (micro scale) but incorporate geometrical properties of the microstructure.
    On the contrary, the huge number of degrees of freedom that exist at the microscale is compressed into a much more limited number of macroscopic degrees of freedom. For instance, the displacements and the rotations of thousands of sand grains reduce to the strain tensor (and possibly its derivatives for enriched continuum mechanics) at the representative elementary volume scale. For the stress, the well-known Love-Weber formula, compress contact based information into a second order tensor.
    Working on the mico to macro link is probably the key for a wise use of phenomenological constitutive models (e.g. physics based justification of the parameters) and for an efficient use of multiscale strategies (e.g. FEMxDEM methods save probably too much microscale information).
    In addition, fundamental knowledge on the micro/macro link may prove crucial to anticipate future use of geomaterials subjected to unprecedented loading conditions. Among other conditions, we can think of temperature rises, thawing permafrost, chemical creation or dissolution of bonds, diffusion of pollution, cyclic loadings, recycling materials, varying degrees of saturation…


  • Session 2 (half-day): “Geomechanics at the submicron-scale
    Organizers: Katerina Ioannidou and Gilles Pijaudier-Cabot.

    Geomaterials usually exhibit complex mechanical behavior across several length and time scales. The submicron scale is relevant for understanding the microstructure and mechanical response of various geomaterials such as rocks, soils, sediments etc. Such materials are usually porous or granular and have been formed under different environmental conditions. At the submicron scale, nanoscale effects become significant. This includes phenomena such as surface roughness, intermolecular forces, pore structure, and distribution of defects which can influence the mechanical behavior of geomaterials. Moreover, processes such as fluid flow through nanopores, adsorption and desorption of fluids on mineral surfaces, and chemical reactions at mineral-fluid interfaces are important for the formation and aging of the microstructure of geological materials.
    This session aims to elucidate processes at the submicron scale either with numerical or experimental techniques that are important for geomechanics. 
    We invite contributions related to, but not limited to, the following topics:
    – Multiscale modeling and simulations of geomechanical processes
    – Fluid-solid interactions and nanopore-scale transport phenomena
    – Nanoindentation and atomic force microscopy (AFM) studies of geological materials
    – Microstructure characterization and imaging techniques at submicron scales
    – Fracture mechanics and crack propagation in geomaterials
    – Applications of submicron scale geomechanics in petroleum engineering, geotechnical engineering, environmental science, and materials science
    – Experimental techniques and instrumentation for studying geomechanics at small length scales
    – Advances in nanotechnology for geomechanical applications 



  • Session 3: “Continuum-based particle methods
    Organizers: Claudio Tamagnini, Lorenzo Sanavia, Matteo Ciantia and Antonia Larese.

    Until relatively recently, most of the mathematical formulations proposed for modeling multiphysics geomechanical problems relied on the assumption of linearized kinematics, i.e., the deformation of the soil mass is sufficiently small such that the current and the reference configurations of the soil body are virtually indistinguishable. However, geometric non-linearity may play an important role in some practical applications. A number of important failure and flow problems are indeed characterized by significant changes in the soil mass geometry and very high deformation levels. A non-exhaustive list of practical applications which require both mechanical and geometrical non-linear characterization of soil behavior include: the evaluation of pile bearing capacity of offshore platforms; the modeling of subsidence phenomena associated to hydrocarbon extraction and sinkhole formation; the study of the effects of pile driving; the interpretation of cone penetration tests under undrained or partially drained conditions; the modeling of slow slope deformations in presence of significant modifications of the slope geometry. The workshop intends to bring together researchers working in these fields to provide an overview of a number of relatively recent numerical methods (for example: MPM, PFEM, Peridynamics, SPH) capable of dealing with extreme deformations as well as non-linear material behavior of the soil mass, still remaining within the realm of continuum mechanics of porous granular materials.

ALERT Workshop & School 2024

Dear ALERT members,
Dear colleagues,

I am pleased to announce to you the themes and dates of the ALERT Workshop and School 2024.

ALERT WORKSHOP 2024
Dates of the ALERT Workshop 2024: 30th September to 2nd October 2024

ALERT SCHOOL 2024
Dates of the ALERT School 2024: 3rd October to 5th October 2024

  • Numerical methods in geomechanics
    Organizers: Claudio Tamagnini, Lorenzo Sanavia and Manolo Pastor.

Hoping to see you in Aussois !

GOING TO AUSSOIS BY TRAIN – LAST UPDATE – BUS LOCATION

Dear colleagues,

For those of you coming by train to Aussois this year, we have booked a transportation by bus between the Chambéry station and the Centre Paul-Langevin. Here are the final information:

  • Sunday 24/09 at 18:30, a bus will leave the station. There is space for 100 people so don’t worry, you’ll get on the bus!
  • Wednesday 27/09 at 18:45, a bus will arrive at the station. It should therefore leave the Centre Paul-Langevin at around 16:45. Of course, the bus will come back to the Centre with the people coming for the doctoral school.
  • Saturday 30/09 at 15:00, a bus will arrive at the station. It should therefore leave the Centre Paul-Langevin at around 13:00.

The bus will meet you at the “Gare Routière de Chambéry”, 250m from the Station “Challes-Les-Eaux”. You can see the plan below for more detailed instructions.

We hope this solution suits everyone, see you in Aussois!

Going to Aussois by train: Update

Dear colleagues,

For those of you coming by train to Aussois this year, we have booked a transportation by bus between the Chambéry station and the Centre Paul-Langevin. Here are the final information:

  • Sunday 24/09 at 18:30, a bus will leave the station. There is space for 100 people so don’t worry, you’ll get on the bus!
  • Wednesday 27/09 at 18:45, a bus will arrive at the station. It should therefore leave the Centre Paul-Langevin at around 16:45. Of course, the bus will come back to the Centre with the people coming for the doctoral school.
  • Saturday 30/09 at 15:00, a bus will arrive at the station. It should therefore leave the Centre Paul-Langevin at around 13:00.

We hope this solution suits everyone, see you in Aussois!

Information about ALERT Doctoral School 2023

Dear participants,

We are looking forward to welcoming you to the 2023 ALERT Doctoral School on “Machine Learning in Geomechanics”.

Don’t forget to bring your laptop and refresh your knowledge in Python.

Please also fill out the following survey, which will be very helpful for the teachers:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdR7_LVY4s0fNfl6d-Imuw6PLBYfuUV5uah4AqWAU3dsahFog/viewform

Best regards, Felix Darve and Ioannis Stefanou

Going to Aussois following the landslide

Dear ALERT members,

Many of ALERT Workshop and School participants already contacted us about the difficulty to get a train connection to Aussois. Some of you received a message related to the cancelling of their train ticket.

The reason of these canceled trains is the rock slope instability that occured in the Maurienne Valley on Sunday 27th August (see a French article here). As a researcher in geomechanics, this instability problem is really interesting.

However, its consequence is the following: the train connections, the highway and the regional roads are currently closed due to this instability.

We may hope that the highways will be open very soon but it will not be the case for the train lines. That means that the travel by car to Aussois at the end of September should be possible.

The Bureau is in contact with the Center Paul Langevin to try to find a solution to the problem.

For the people coming from France to Aussois (by train), we propose you to take a train to Chambéry and we will organise a bus between Chambéry station and Aussois the Sunday 24th at 6:30 pm.

We will organise also a bus connection between Chambéry station and Aussois the Wednesday 27th at 6:45 pm. The same organisation will be foreseen at the end of the workshop (Wednesday 27th at 6:45pm at the station) and school (Saturday 30th at 3pm at the station) .

We will send directly a message to the participant that declared to come by train to Aussois.

We will do our best to organize the transfer.

For the people coming from Italy to Aussois, the situation is a bit more complex and we would suggest to organize your travel to Aussois by car.

We will of course keep you informed in case of any changes.

Thank you again for your support and hoping to see you in Aussois!

Best regards,
Frédéric COLLIN.

Reminder – ALERT Poster Session 2023

The ALERT Poster session will be held during the ALERT Workshop from September 25 to September 27, 2023 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@inrae.fr) and Antoine Wautier (antoine.wautier@inrae.fr) using the attached abstract form (Template).

This year, the ALERT Committee has decided to award a prize (€500) to the poster that demonstrates the greatest originality, aesthetics and clarity, as well as the best scientific content, both in the poster and the abstract.

The deadline for the submission of the abstract is the September 10, 2023For those wishing to participate to the competition, please send your poster (in pdf format) at the same time as your abstract.

LAST WEEK Reminder – ALERT Workshop and School 2023

Dear ALERT community,

It is your last chance to register to attend the ALERT Workshop and School 2023 in Aussois! The deadline for the registration is the September 08th!

The preliminary programme for the School and the Workshop can be accessed here.

In the continuity of last year edition, a remote access to the doctoral school is proposed at the same price as the on-site option. However, this remote option only gives access to the passive attending of the presentations, and no questions could be asked.

This year, the ALERT Bureau has decided to offer one day of accomodation to:

  • all PhD students attending the doctoral school and belonging to an ALERT member institution (in a double room only);
  • all retired researchers attending the workshop.

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 2023.

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 meeting you in Aussois!