Dear Geo-Fellows,

Welcome to the 52nd edition of our bulletin!

The past few months have been particularly busy, with a prestigious medal, the end of the master’s year, conferences, new publications, a PhD defence, and new people joining our team. Here are some of the highlights from the past few months!

As always, don’t hesitate to share this newsletter with your colleagues and friends!

Anything you want to share in the next newsletter? Please, feel free to contact us at: geomecanique.newsletter@3sr-grenoble.fr.

Master “Geomechanics, Civil Engineering and Risks”

The master defenses took place at the end of June. A total of 21 students defended their master projects, and at least five of them will now continue with a PhD, including three at 3SR.

A great barbecue on July 1st marked the end of the academic year.





The new batch of master students will start on September 14. There will be about 30 students, coming, as usual, from many different countries.

Publications!

• Luan, J.-Y., Li, M.-C., Wang, J.-P., Dadda, A., & Viggiani, G. (2026) – Micro-Scale Experimental Insights into the Hydro-Mechanics of Unsaturated Granular Materials: an X-ray Tomography study. Computers and Geotechnics, Volume 198, October 2026, 108290.
• Karimiazar, J., Vitone, C., Romero, E., Petti, R., Torres-Serra, J., Fraccica, A., Viggiani, G., & Pinzón, G. (2026) – The fascinating complexity of beached Posidonia oceanica fibres: insights from bio-chemo-hydro mechanical analysis for their reuse as soil reinforcement. Scientific Reports, accepted June 2026.
• Zhou, Y., Yu, B., Fan, W., Viggiani, G., Tengattini, A., Stamati, O., Dijkstra, T., & Charrier, P. (2026) – Effect of microscale heterogeneity on shear band formation in Malan loess: insights from in-situ X-ray tomography. Engineering Geology, Volume 372, Part A, 108931.
• Liang, X., Gu, X., Viggiani, G., Tengattini, A., & Hu, J. (2026) – Is elastic wave velocity a proxy for fabric evolution under shear in quartz sand? An experimental study using X-ray tomography and ultrasonic transducers. Géotechnique, accepted July 2026.
• Fridman, D.G., Stamati, O., Prezzi, M., Salgado, R., Combe, G., Viggiani, G., Adari, S.K., & Charrier, P. (2026) – Particle-Scale Insights into Sand Deformation during Open-ended Pile Installation using DIC and X-ray CT. Géotechnique, accepted July 2026.

A medal for Tomoya and his supervisors!

As already announced in the previous edition, Tomoya and his supervisors have been awarded the prestigious 2026 Sir Benjamin Baker Medal by the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE). The achievement was celebrated at ICE’s headquarters in London on July 2, 2026. As promised, here is a picture from the ceremony!

PhD Defence: Nicolas Zalamea!

On July 6, Nicolas Zalamea successfully defended his PhD thesis, entitled “Multi-scale Modelling of the Thermo-Hydromechanical Behaviour of Argillaceous Rocks.”

His research, supervised by Pierre Bésuelle, with Alice Di Donna and Stefano Dal Pont as co-supervisors, focused on the multi-scale modelling of the thermo-hydromechanical behaviour of argillaceous rocks.The examination committee highly appreciated the scientific quality of the work and Nicolas’s thorough knowledge of the subject.

The Geomechanics team warmly congratulates Nicolas on the successful completion of his PhD and wishes him all the best for the next stage of his career!

Two conferences in Vienna!

In June, many of us attended the 21st International Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering (ICSMGE) in Vienna. It was a huge conference, with more than 2,200 delegates!

Cino delivered a keynote lecture entitled “From Oedometer to Computed Tomography: 100 Years of Experimental Soil Mechanics.”





The following week, still in Vienna, some of us also attended the 13th International Workshop on Bifurcation and Degradation in Geomaterials (IWBDG).

Visits!

In late May, our former 3SR colleague Eddy Andò spent a few days with Cino, having fun with X-rays!

New people in the team!

Criss Zanelli, a PhD candidate from the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú (PUCP), Lima, will spend one year at 3SR as part of a joint IRD-UGA/PUCP doctoral programme. She is joining the Geomechanics team in late August, supported by a scholarship from the Franco-Peruvian doctoral school (IRD-PUCP).

Her research focuses on improving the structural design of pircas — traditional dry-stone retaining walls in Peru — to enhance their seismic performance in the context of climate transition. She will develop a discrete element model incorporating the backfill, building on previous work by Paola Ita (PUCP), who spent four months at 3SR in 2023 and defended her PhD at PUCP in 2024.

Welcome to the 51st edition of our bulletin!

As always, this issue highlights some of the main activities, achievements, and milestones of the past trimester. It has been another lively few months for our team, with good news, new people, visits, projects, and publications to share.

Don’t hesitate to share this newsletter with your colleagues and friends!

Anything you want to share in the next newsletter? Please, feel free to contact us at: geomecanique.newsletter@3sr-grenoble.fr.

Master “Geomechanics Civil Engineering and Risks 2025-2026″

Four of the twenty-one students of the master program “Geomechanics, Civil Engineering and Risks” have been working, since February, at their research project within our team: Shakil (from Bangladesh) with Alice, Mattia (from Italy) with Ritesh and Alice, and Konstantina (from Greece) and Juliana (from Nigeria) with Olga, Cyrille, and Cino. Raphael (from France – yes it happens!) is currently in Tsukuba, Japan – working with Takashi Matsushima. For the last two months of his project (May and June) he will be back to Grenoble, and he will work with Quentin and Cyrille.

This year the master defenses will take place from Monday, June 29 through Wednesday, July 1st. On Wednesday evening, the traditional barbecue will celebrate the end of their master year.

You are all invited — please save the date!

Publications!

• Pirrone, S. R. M., Del Dottore, E., Just, G., Mazzolai, B., & Sibille, L. (2026) – The effect of tip design on technological performance during the exploration of Earth, Lunar, and Martian soil environments. Journal of Field Robotics, 43(1), 387–408.
• Richefeu, V., Combe, G., Amarsid L., Prat, R., Vanson, J., Nezamabadi, S., Mutabaruka, P., Delenne, J., Radjaï F. (2026) – Advanced strategies for discrete simulations with three-dimensional R-shapes in rockable framework. Computer Physics Communications, 320(109997).
• Wang, S., Luan, J.-Y., Wang, J.-P., Shang, H., Li, M., Ge, S., & Viggiani, G. (2026) – Drying of partially saturated granular materials: a combined study using X-ray tomography and Lattice Boltzmann modeling. Acta Geotechnica, March 2026.
• Cárdenas-Barrantes, M., Renouf, M., Azéma, E., Ovalle. C., (2026) – Comparing granular and fragmentation-driven silo DEM models for block caving.Powder Technology, 122409.

A medal for Tomoya and his supervisors!

We are thrilled to announce that the paper “Experimental Measurement of Root Growth and Root-Soil Interaction in a Bi-Layered Sand Using X-Ray Tomography” by Tomoya et al. has been awarded the prestigious 2026 Sir Benjamin Baker Medal by the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE).

The award ceremony will take place at the ICE headquarters in London on July 2, 2026. Most likely, Tomoya and Cino will attend the ceremony — and of course, they will take pictures!

Projects!

Pilot energy pile coupled with a photovoltaic system installed in Torino, Italy

In the context of the LEG-DHC project, aiming to assess the feasibility of heat storage through energy pile, the UGA team (Mattia GARZA, Ritesh GUPTA and Alice DI DONNA) installed a pilot energy pile (12m length and 60 cm outer diameter) coupled with a photovoltaic system in Turin, Italy.

The photovoltaic system is based on an innovative technology developed and patented by the industrial partner Free Energy Technology (FET). This novel technology is easy to install on traditional environments, as roof tiles.

In the pile, a novel two-helical-loops heating tube system was implemented, following the design developed through numerical model in COMSOL multi-physics ©. The novel two loop system is proposed to enable simultaneous heat storage and extraction, or storage only or extraction only, depending on the meteorological conditions and seasonal energy demand.

The pile was equipped with temperature sensors and is now being connected to the photovoltaic system. Monitoring data will follow in the coming months.

Seminars, Workshops, Meetings and Conferences!

• Upcoming national conference on geotechnics and engineering geology in Grenoble!

  Colleagues from the Geomechanics group (Pierre Bésuelle, Cyrille Couture, Christophe Dano, Fabrice Emeriault, Orianne Jenck, Quentin Rousseau), in collaboration with INRAE (Stéphane Lambert) and ISTerre (Grégory Bièvre), are organizing JNGG 2026 (Journées Nationales de Géotechnique et Géologie de l’Ingénieur), which will take place in Grenoble from April 7 to 10.

  More than 250 participants are expected to attend the conference. The program includes 3 plenary sessions, 18 parallel sessions, and a technical exhibition. The last day will be devoted to technical visits.

  Members of the Geomechanics team — including PhD students, post-docs, and staff — will present their work during the conference.
  More information can be found on: jngg2026.sciencesconf.org

  Stay tuned — we will report back on the event in the next newsletter!

• Art and Science
  Cino is participating in the science communication project “Granular Perspectives”, which showcases the work of our colleague Gerti Medicus (University of Innsbruck) and her brother, the artist Thomas Medicus. The project is funded by the Austrian Science Fund.

  This initiative also builds on Cino’s earlier experience with projects such as “Essere vento” by Giuseppe Penone about ten years ago (see 3sr.univ-grenoble-alpes.fr/en/node/109).

  In February, Cino spent a few days in Innsbruck together with Eddy Andò (formerly at 3SR, now at EPFL) and Mehdi Pouragha (Carleton University, Canada) to meet with all project participants and define the main directions of the project.

  The project will culminate in a public glass sculpture inspired by the microscopic world of sand, to be installed on the Innsbruck campus.

  
  
  
• Cino in China (again!)

  Since March 8, Cino has been travelling across China, visiting Shandong University in Jinan, Tsinghua University in Beijing, Chang’an University in Xi’an, and Westlake University in Hangzhou.

  He will attend two workshops: one in Jinan at the end of March, and another in Xi’an on April 12–13.
  In Jinan, he is joined by Michela Arciero, a former PhD student from our team. Together, they are collaborating with colleagues at Shandong University on research into the mechanics of fiber-reinforced sand.

  
  
  

Visits!

• Like every January since 2011, our colleague Francesco Silvestri from the University of Naples visited 3SR to deliver his 20-hour Soil Dynamics course to our master’s students. As always, the course was highly appreciated — thank you, Francesco!
  
  
  
• Colleagues from Tensar visit 3SR
  We have recently started a collaborative project with the company Tensar, aimed at studying the interaction between geogrids and granular soils using X-ray tomography. The researchers involved in this project are Olga, Cyrille, and Cino.

  Two master projects are currently underway as part of this collaboration, and a PhD project may begin in the fall, funded by Tensar.

  On January 20 and 21, three colleagues from Tensar — Yuli Doulala-Rigby, Mark Wayne, and Andrew Lees — visited us to discuss the project.

  
  
  
• Palermo meets Grenoble
  Following his visit to the University of Palermo in June last year, Cino invited Maurizio Ziccarelli, Marco Rosone, and Alessio Ferrari to Grenoble for two days (February 11–12) to exchange ideas about our respective work and explore possible collaborations.
  We spent two very pleasant days at 3SR, with presentations from both sides and many interesting discussions.
  
  
  
  
  
  

New people in the team!

• Since February, Arina Pautova, a student in the Master in Environmental Mineralogy (Graduate Program EUR IMACS, Université de Poitiers), joined our Geomechanics group and the ANR LOCCO project to prepare her master’s thesis. Arina is working on the finite element modelling of calcite dissolution in caprock formations in the context of CO₂ sequestration, under the supervision of Quentin Rousseau and Pierre Bésuelle.
• A new PhD student has joined the group! After completing her master’s degree at the National Technical University of Athens, Georgia Laskari started her PhD at 3SR in January. Her project is titled “Micro-inspired study of damage and breakage in cemented granular materials”, and is supervised by Cyrille, Alessandro, and Cino.
• Since January, we are also happy to host Shaohan Wang, a PhD student from Shandong University, China, who will stay at 3SR until the end of the year. Shaohan is studying soil cementation by Microbially Induced Calcium Carbonate Precipitation (MICP). His work at 3SR is supervised by Bruno, together with Antoine Naillon from the CoMHet team.
  
  
  
• In January, Manuel Cárdenas-Barrantes joined our team for a one-year postdoc funded by the direction of 3SR. Manuel has recently applied for a CNRS researcher (CR) position with a project titled “Active Granular Materials”. It would be great to welcome him as a permanent member of our team — fingers crossed!

  
  
  

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