Dear Geo-Fellows,
Here we go with the 46th edition of our quarterly bulletin, as many of us are leaving on summer vacation. It provides an account of our great achievements over the last trimester of our academic year. Let’s just celebrate them!
Overall, enjoy and forward this letter to fellows and friends!
Anything you want to share in the next newsletter? Please, do not hesitate to contact us at: geomecanique.newsletter@3sr-grenoble.fr.
GCER 2023-2024!
- The 14 students of our international master program in geomechanics successfully defended their master thesis in the week of June 24.
Visits!
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Short stay of two Brazilian Professors for UFRJ – Rio de Janeiro
From 10 to 21 June 2024, we received the visit of Prof. Maria Cascao and Prof. Marcio Almeida, from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) in Brazil. This visit occurred in the frame of the ongoing French-Brazilian CAPES-COFEBUB project, devoted to marine and terrestrial geotechnical solutions for energetic transition. The 3SR lab and Université Gustave Eiffel are involved from the French side.
One objective of the scientific stay was to interact with Vincent Richefeu, regarding numerical modeling of submarine debris flows, to complement a physical study being currently performed in the geotechnical centrifuge facility at UFRJ, and to prepare the forthcoming one-year stay at the 3SR lab of a Brazilian PhD candidate working on the topic.
- Experimental campaign at the Technical University Darmstadt in Germany
Two members of our team, Rami Chalhoub (PhD candidate) and Khayri Al Katabi (Master intern) spent two intense months at the Technical University (TU) of Darmstadt in Germany, from April to June 2024, conducting the experimental campaign of the GEOLAB-SAM-WT project. Christophe Dano and Orianne Jenck, in charge of the project, shortly visited the site. The SAM-WT project, led by the 3SR lab (Geomechanics team), is entitled “Shared Anchor under Multidirectional Cyclic Loading for Floating Wind Turbines”. It involves conducting large-scale loading tests on a model pile in the pit of the Geotechnical Institute of TU Darmstadt. The project is funded by the European Union H2020 GEOLAB program and gathers the 3SR lab, the Gustave Eiffel University (Nantes and Marne-la-Vallée Campus), and the TU Darmstadt.This experimental phase promises scientific advances in knowledge of the behavior of anchor piles under complex loading, which our scientists are eager to share and promote in future presentations and scientific publications.
- Fostering scientific ties with Phayao in Thailand
On May 7, our team received a Thai delegation led by Suriyavut PRA-AI, formerly PhD student in the lab, from the University of Phayao in Thailand. The aim was to promote scientific exchanges between our two universities in the geotechnical field.
- Cino in Shandong
Cino spent about one month (from May 19 to June 15) at Shandong University in China, as an adjunct chair professor. During his stay in the Middle Kingdom, he also gave the opening lecture at GeoShanghai 2024.
Cino, giving the talk.
With Shandong PhD students.
- From Grenoble to Australia
In July, Alessandro and Cino were invited to join the Sandless workshop in Sydney, Australia. Among the participants in the workshop, there were also a few former PhD students from our group (Angela Casarella, Max Wiebicke, and Ilija Vego) as well as a Master student from this year (Enzo Louvard, who did his master project at Sydney University).
Nice colleagues
Weird colleague
Publications!
- Yade-DEM developers published a milestone paper presenting selected features released in recent years, with co-authors from thirteen different universities and research institutes.Angelidakis et al., YADE – an extensible framework for the interactive simulation of multiscale, multiphase, and multiphysics particulate systems. Computer Physics Communication, DOI:10.1016/j.cpc.2024.109293.
- Perrotta L., Vitale E., Arciero N., Roubin E., Tengattini A., Russo G., Viggiani G. (2024)- Microstructural insights into the mechanical behavior of Lightweight Cemented Soils using X-ray microtomography. Géotechnique Letters.
- Rossi C., Tengattini A. Viggiani G. (2024)- A constitutive model for lightly cemented granular materials. Computer and Geotechnics (accepted in June 2024, to be published online soon).
- Oji, U. K., A. Tengattini, L. Helfen, I. Manke, R. Cubitt, and N. Kardjilov (2024)- Polarized neutron imaging at NeXT (neutron and x-ray tomograph) at Institut Laue Langevin. Review of Scientific Instruments 95, no. 6.
- Nemati, Arash, Bratislav Lukić, Alessandro Tengattini, Matthieu Briffaut, and Philippe Séchet. Towards in-situ water quantification via neutron imaging: insights from NeXT-Grenoble. Measurement Science and Technology 35, no. 7.
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Martell, J., C. Alwmark, R. Woracek, S. Alwmark, S. Hall, L. Ferrière, L. Daly et al (2024)-Combined neutron and x‐ray tomography—A versatile and non‐destructive tool in planetary geosciences. Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets 129, no. 2.
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Felicetti, Roberto, Ramin Yarmohammadian, Stefano Dal Pont, and Alessandro Tengattini (2024). Fast vapour migration next to a depressurizing interface: A possible driving mechanism of explosive spalling revealed by neutron imaging. Cement and Concrete Research.
Seminars and Conferences!
- On Friday 14 June, just after the traditional weekly “Croissant” break, Prof. Marcio Almeida and Prof. Maria Cascao both gave us a joint talk, respectively on “offshore geotechnical solutions: from centrifuge modeling to applications to torpedo anchors” and on “offshore geotechnical solutions: from centrifuge modeling to applications for wind farms foundations“.
- On April 29, Ali Sadeghi, from Twente University, gave a talk on “Soft Robotics Confronting Hard Soils: Overcoming Exciting Challenges“.
- 3SR was at the 12th edition of JNGG (Journées Nationales de Géotechnique et de la Géologie de l’ingénieur), in Poitiers, from June 25 to June 28, through Fabrice EMERIAULT, Orianne JENCK, Antoine MERTZ, Ahmad El AYOUBI and Sébastien VOLCY. Three talks were given: on “mechanical behaviour of models gas pipelines buried in a granular material” by Antoine, on the “Investigation of interactions between a granular medium and a geogrid at loval scale” by Ahmad and on the “Limit Service State analysis through a penetrometer-based test” by Sébastien.
The 3SR delegation at the JNGG.
Awards!
- Alessandro has been appointed Junior member of the IUF (Institut Universitaire de France) for 5 years. He is the first 3SR researcher ever to be appointed to the IUF. During the related period, Alessandro will benefit from a 2/3 teaching discharge, and he will get €15,000 per year to develop its project on “Thermo-hydro-chemo-mechanical couplings for energy and the environment: a 5D imaging approach (3D+time+X-rays and neutrons) and micro-macro modelling“.