Dear Geo-Fellows,
Welcome to the 48th edition of our bulletin—the first of the calendar year! This issue showcases the outstanding achievements and key milestones from the past trimester. Let’s take a moment to recognize these successes together!
Don’t hesitate to share this bulletin 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.
GCER 2024-2025- Internships!
- In February, master internships started — 9 of which involve supervisors from our team: Alissar Alrifai with Alice, Lucas Coelho Alves Da Silva with Orianne et al., Abu Yousuf Farhad with Alice, Syed Murtaz Haider Kazmi with Dominique et al., Khuong Duy Nguyen with Cyrille and Cino Viggiani, Tae Sakuma with Cyrille and Cino, Shaymaa Shbib with Christophe et Florent Vieux-Champagne, Mohammad Shoushan with Olga et al., Jesus Alberto Silva with Christophe et al.
Visits!
- Farewell to Yanyan Zhou and Suleyman Demir
On January 23, Yanyan Zhou went back to China — after one year at 3SR. Yanyan is a PhD student from Chang’an University, she has been using x-ray tomography to study the mechanisms of localized deformation and failure of loess upon deviatoric loading. Her work in Grenoble was supervised by Olga, Alessandro and Cino.
Also, on March 31, Suleyman Demir returned to Turkey after spending just over a year with our team. As a postdoctoral researcher, he collaborated with Alice Di Donna and Alessandro Tarantino (University of Strathclyde, UK) on the “Fundamentals of Thermo-Mechanical Behavior of Clays.”
- Cino AND China In February, Cino visited (again!) China for two weeks — he was at Tsinghua University in Beijing and at Shandong University in Jinan.
- Welcoming Mukesh Singh Bisht!
Mukesh Singh Bisht (an indian researcher who obtained his PhD from the University of Sydney in Australia) will join our team at the end of March (official start in April). He will stay with us for two years on a postdoctoral posiiton, in the framework of the ANR project PlantCom (of which Vincent R. is the PI for 3SR). Mukesh will work mainly on DEM simulations of particles that can fragment, and will also use X-ray tomography to characterize particles fragmentation.
Nicolas Espinoza, from the University of Texas at Austin is currently at 3SR as an invited visiting professor — he has arrived on March 7 and he will stay with us until April 4. Nicolas’ project at 3SR deals with crystallization-driven fractures in porous media. For that, he has interacted with Alessandro and Cino — plus a few colleagues at ISTerre. He will come back in May for a few experiments at NeXT Grenoble (ILL).
Publications!
- Volcy, S.H.E., Sibille, L., Chareyre, B., Dano C., Hosseini-Sadrabadi H. (2025) – An adaptative discretization to model boundary value problems with discrete element method. Granular Matter 27, 41.
- Cui J., Karapiperis K., Andò E., Viggiani G., Andrade J. (2025) – Deciphering Necking in Granular Materials: Micromechanical Insights into Sand Behavior during Cycles of Triaxial Compression and Extension. Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids.
- Nagayama T., Anselmucci F., Lenoir N., Sibille L., Mukunoki T., Otani J., Viggiani G. (2025) – Experimental measurement of root growth and root-soil interaction in a bilayered sand using x-ray tomography. Géotechnique Letters, Vol. 15, No. 1, 1-22.
- Pinzón G., Andò E., Tengattini A., Viggiani (2025) – An x-ray tomography analysis of particle morphology influence on granular deformation processes. Open Geomechanics, article no. 2.
- Demir, S., & Cabalar, A. F. (2025). Undrained Triaxial Compression Testing of Sand-Low Plastic Silt Mixtures. Transportation Geotechnics, 50, 101482.
Seminars, Workshops and Conferences!
- GAIA, a novelty in the toolbox
GAIA, the Geomechanics Alliance in Asia, has been created as a platform for Asian students and young researchers in geomechanics to exchange knowledge and ideas, fostering the development of a lasting research network. The first GAIA Workshop took place from February 22 to February 24 in Atami, Shizuoka, Japan. Cino and Cyrille attended. Cino gave a keynote titled “Six memos for the next generation of researchers in geomechanics” — it has been recorded and can be found here.
- March Seminars at 3SR: Advances in Geomechanics and Soil Model Visualization”
March 14: Nicolas Espinoza (the University of Texas at Austin, USA): Geomechanics: Recent Advances for Energy and the Environment.
March 28: Gertraud Medicus (University of Innsbruck, Austria): Animating soil models open educational resources for visualizing soil.
Celebrating three new successful HDR defenses at 3SR: Orianne, Alessandro, and Alice!
- Orianne JENCK publicly defended her HDR (Habilitation à Diriger des Recherches or accreditation to direct research) on 15 January 2025 on the university campus of Grenoble – Saint-Martin-d’hères, in front of a jury made up of Pierre BREUL from Clermont-Auvergne University (president of the jury), Emmanuel BOURGEOIS from Gustave Eiffel University (reviewer), Olivier DECK from Lorraine University (reviewer), Hussein MROUEH from Lille University (reviewer), Farimah MASROURI from Lorraine University (examiner) and Sabine ROLLAND DU ROSCOAT from Grenoble Alpes University (examiner).Dr. JENCK presented a summary of 20 years’ work (including 15 years at the 3SR laboratory) on the study of geotechnical structures using physical and numerical modelling, current works and projects, as well as the many research prospects.The presentation focused on the mechanical behaviour of geotechnical structures with strong soil-structure interactions and subjected to complex loads (cyclic, multi-axial…) linked to environmental and operating conditions, in the context of sustainable land-use planning (transport infrastructure in particular) and the development of low-carbon energy production structures (tidal turbines, wind turbines, etc.). The experimental and/or numerical approaches developed aim to make progress in understanding, analysing and modelling the behaviour of structures, with a view to developing tools and methods for designing and optimising structures and techniques.After the jury’s deliberations and the announcement of the award of the diploma, a convivial drink was offered to all those present, jury, colleagues and family.
- On January 25, Alessandro succesfully defended his HDR, titled “Thermo-hydro-chemo-mechanical couplings for the energy and the environment: a 5D imaging (3D+time+x-rays and neutron) and micro-to-macro modelling approach”.
- On March 25, Alice succesfully defended her HDR, titled “Role of geotechnical engineering and geomechanics to underpin the development of energy technologies”.
