Publications related to Engineering geology

Mechanics, Modeling, and Upscaling of Biocemented Soils: A Review of Breakthroughs and Challenges

Lyesse Laloui, Dimitrios Terzis, Ray Harran

Biogeotechnical research has inspired revolutionary ideas to claim the status of a distinctive branch of geotechnical engineering. Most notably, underground carbonate mineralization, most commonly referred to as microbially induced carbonate precipitation ...

ASCE-AMER SOC CIVIL ENGINEERS2023

Pore-pressure coefficients for unsaturated soils: generalized effective stress approach

Lyesse Laloui, Alessio Ferrari, Angelica Tuttolomondo

Geotechnical problems with total stress changes occurring rapidly relative to the soil consolidation time can be conveniently addressed using an effective stress-based approach. For saturated states, analytical formulations of pore-pressure coefficients ad ...

CANADIAN SCIENCE PUBLISHING2023

Geotechnical Engineering in the Digital and Technological Innovation Era

The book collects the keynote contributions and the papers presented at the “8th Italian Conference of Researchers in Geotechnical Engineering 2023, CNRIG’23”. The conference was held on July 5–7, 2023, at the University of Palermo (Italy), and it was orga ...

Springer2023

A fully-coupled highly-parallelized geomechanical simulator for assessing induced seismicity

Jean-François Molinari, Brice Tanguy Alphonse Lecampion, Guillaume Anciaux, Nicolas Richart, Emil Gallyamov

Induced seismicity caused by anthropogenic modification of the subsurface effective stress state has been observed in a number of industrial applications -- from hydrocarbon extraction (e.g., Groningen [1]), drilling waste-water disposal (e.g., [2]) to the ...

2023

Addressing the challenges of homogeneity, quality control and waste handling in soil bio-cementation: A large-scale experiment

Lyesse Laloui, Dimitrios Terzis, Ray Harran

In an attempt to go beyond the conventional laboratory experiments widely reported in literature around the emerging technique of soil bio-cementation, this work addresses key challenges related to its large-scale application. Precisely, a state-of-the-art ...

JAPANESE GEOTECHNICAL SOC2023

Energy geotechnology: A new era for geotechnical engineering practice

Lyesse Laloui, Melis Sütman

Energy geotechnology provides low carbon, cost-effective and local energy solu-tions to structures and infrastructures, which opens a new era for the geotechnical engineering practice, by extending the conventional role of structural design to the ...

CRC Press2023

Data-driven 1D wave propagation for site response analysis

Jean-François Molinari, Antonio Joaquin Garcia Suarez, Sacha Zenon Wattel

Prediction of ground motion triggered by earthquakes is a prime concern for both the seismology community and geotechnical earthquake engineering one. The subfield occupied with such a problem is termed site response analysis (SRA), its one-dimensional fla ...

WILEY2023

Failure mechanism of fine-grained soil-structure interface for energy piles

Lyesse Laloui, Elena Ravera

The response of the soil-structure interface can significantly affect the performance of any geotechnical structure. Thermal cycles are a new factor that influence the response to all structures that have an energy function in addition to the structural on ...

2022

Investigation of the effect of mineral dissolution on the geomechanical behaviour of geomaterials

Taeheon Kim

Geotechnical engineering scenarios engaged in internal erosion or mineral dissolution were found worldwide, from CO2 sequestration projects to internal erosion of earth dams. Materials subjected to loss of solid phase from their internal fabric vary from s ...

EPFL2022

Data-driven numerical site response

Jean-François Molinari, Antonio Joaquin Garcia Suarez, Sacha Zenon Wattel

Prediction of ground motion triggered by earthquakes is a prime concern for both the seismology community and geotechnical earthquake engineering one. The subfield occupied with such a problem is termed site response analysis (SRA), its one-dimensional fla ...

2022

Mechanical performance and upscaling of bio-improved soils

Ray Harran

Ecological awareness, pressing climate considerations and rising need for soil stabilization push forward the quest for alternative solutions in geotechnical engineering such as Microbially Induced Carbonate Precipitation (MICP). Precipitated crystals serv ...

EPFL2022

A mathematical theory for mass lumping and its generalization with applications to isogeometric analysis

Annalisa Buffa, Espen Sande, Yannis Dirk Voet

Explicit time integration schemes coupled with Galerkin discretizations of time-dependent partial differential equations require solving a linear system with the mass matrix at each time step. For applications in structural dynamics, the solution of the li ...

2023

Performing arts as a tool for university education during a pandemic: Moving from an in vivo to an in vitro modality

Simon Nessim Henein, Joëlle Valterio, Ramiro Tau

This paper analyses how a course on improvisation and collective creation in engineering addressed to master's students in Switzerland moved online. The course offers an experience in the field of performing arts, through embodied and situated activities, ...

2021

Design and temporal issues in Soil Bioengineering structures for the stabilisation of shallow soil movements

Giovanni De Cesare, Massimiliano Schwarz

In the last decades, soil bioengineering has gained considerable popularity worldwide, especially in hillslope, riverbank, and earth embankment stabilisation works. The use of plants as a building material transfers the plant multifunctionality within engi ...

2021

Shear Response of Wet Weak Carbonate Rock/Grout Interfaces Under Cyclic Loading

Eleni Stavropoulou

The development and construction of offshore wind farms requires the correct estimation of the friction that can be mobilised at the rock/grout interface. In conventional studies, the shear behaviour of a joint is usually investigated with laboratory tests ...

2021

Three-dimensional and real-scale modeling of flow regimes in dense snow avalanches

Johan Alexandre Philippe Gaume, Betty Sovilla, Xingyue Li

Snow avalanches cause fatalities and economic loss worldwide and are one of the most dangerous gravitational hazards in mountainous regions. Various flow behaviors have been reported in snow avalanches, making them challenging to be thoroughly understood a ...

2021

Magneto-active elastic shells with tunable buckling strength

Pedro Miguel Nunes Pereira de Almeida Reis, Matteo Pezzulla, Dong Yan, Arefeh Abbasi

Shell buckling is central in many biological structures and advanced functional materials, even if, traditionally, this elastic instability has been regarded as a catastrophic phenomenon to be avoided for engineering structures. Either way, predicting crit ...

Nature Research2021

Advances in the Soil-Structure Interaction Analysis -- from Surface Footings to Thermoactive Deep Foundations

Cristiano Garbellini

Mutual interactions between soil and foundation play a fundamental role in the overall behaviour of constructions. Therefore, it is not surprising that soil-structure interaction has been the subject of numerous research works. This doctoral thesis is a th ...

EPFL2021

Mechanical principles of engineering fibrous tissues with programmable shape

Erik Mailand

The form and structure of biological tissues define their function. The emergence of tissue morphology during development is one of the wonders of nature. Cells mechanically probe and manipulate their surroundings while constructing structures from the ext ...

EPFL2021

Accurate isogeometric methods for trimmed shell structures

Luca Coradello

Shell elements derived from the Kirchhoff-Love theory have experienced a renaissance in the Finite Element community since the advent of isogeometric analysis. Despite numerous promising advancements in the field, several questions need to be addressed to ...

EPFL2021