Publications associées à Numerical modelling of the hydrogeological and geomechanical behaviour of a large slope movement: The Triesenberg landslide (Liechtenstein)

Water weakening and the compressive brittle strength of carbonates: Influence of fracture toughness and static friction

Marie Estelle Solange Violay, Barnaby Padraig Fryer, Corentin Jean-Marie Rémi Noël

Water is ubiquitous within the pore space of rocks and has been shown to affect their physical and mechanical behaviour. Indeed, water can act on the rock strength via mechanical (i.e., reducing the effective stresses) or chemical effects (e.g., mineral di ...

2024

Data-driven statistical optimization of a groundwater monitoring network

Andrea Rinaldo, Gianluca Botter

We propose a comparative study of three different methods aimed at optimizing existing groundwater monitoring networks. Monitoring piezometric heads in subsurface porous formations is crucial at regional scales to properly characterize the relevant subsurf ...

Elsevier2024

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

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

A Depth-Averaged Material Point Method for Shallow Landslides: Applications to Snow Slab Avalanche Release

Bertil Trottet, Johan Alexandre Philippe Gaume, Denis Aloyse Joseph Steffen, Lars Kristoffer Uhlen Blatny, Louis Marie Cédric Guillet

Shallow landslides pose a significant threat to people and infrastructure. Despite significant progress in the understanding of such phenomena, the evaluation of the size of the landslide release zone, a crucial input for risk assessment, still remains a c ...

AMER GEOPHYSICAL UNION2023

Modeling the mechanics and rheology of porous and granular media: an elastoplastic continuum approach

Lars Kristoffer Uhlen Blatny

The complex mechanics of porous and granular media play a significant role in various industrial processes and natural phenomena. As an example, understanding the mechanics of how failure occurs, localizes and propagates in porous brittle solids under vari ...

EPFL2023

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

3-D contact and pore network analysis of MICP cemented sands

Dimitrios Terzis, Nimisha Roy

The study describes a comprehensive methodology to evaluate X-Ray micro-computed tomography data from sand samples and to characterize their 3D microstructural properties. Fine and medium-grained sands are analyzed in their natural and bio-cemented states. ...

SPRINGER2023

Influence of pore-scale heterogeneity on the precipitation patterns in Microbially Induced Calcite Precipitation (MICP)

Ariadni Elmaloglou

The principle of tailoring material properties to improve the mechanical behaviour of soils through compaction or cement grouting dates to the 60s. The increasing trends of urbanization worldwide require new solutions for the development of resilient and s ...

EPFL2023

Morphology and Transport Characterization of Catalyst Layers for CO2 Reduction

Sophia Haussener, Francesca Lorenzutti

Gas diffusion electrodes (GDEs) help to reduce transport limitations in devices for electrochemical CO2 reduction. Homogenized modeling of such devices requires input of morphological characteristics and effective transport properties of the porous structu ...

2023

Freezing-induced stiffness and strength anisotropy in freezing clayey soil: Theory, numerical modeling, and experimental validation

Gioacchino Viggiani, Edward Carlo Giorgio Andò

This paper presents a combined experimental-modeling effort to interpret the coupled thermo-hydro-mechanical behaviors of the freezing soil, where an unconfined, fully saturated clay is frozen due to a temperature gradient. By leveraging the rich experimen ...

WILEY2022

Inception of Regular Valley Spacing in Fluvial Landscapes: A Linear Stability Analysis

Shashank Kumar Anand, Sara Bonetti

Incipient valley formation in mountainous landscapes is often associated with their presence at a regular spacing under diverse hydroclimatic forcings. Here we provide a formal linear stability theory for a landscape evolution model (LEM) representing the ...

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

The effect of pore microstructure on strength and chloride ingress in blended cement based on low kaolin clay

Karen Scrivener, Diana Londoño Zuluaga

The objective of this study is to analyse the mechanical and durability properties of a high-performance mortars based on low grade kaolin clay and the effect of electrical conductivity and pore microstructure on the chloride penetration resistance. A tota ...

ELSEVIER2022

Life cycle environmental assessment of retaining walls in unsaturated soils

Alessio Ferrari, Gianluca Speranza

Retaining structures above groundwater level support soils that are usually in a state of partial saturation and subject to the actions of atmospheric agents. The current design approach considers the possible extremes of soil conditions - either totally d ...

ELSEVIER2022

Dynamic Effective Porosity Explains Laboratory Experiments on Watertable Fluctuations in Coastal Unconfined Aquifers

David Andrew Barry, Zhaoyang Luo

Watertable fluctuations are a characteristic feature of coastal unconfined aquifers. They interact with the vadose zone creating a dynamic effective porosity, for which a new (empirical) expression is proposed based on a dimensionless parameter related to ...

2023

Swelling and shrinkage of partially saturated gas shales: from laboratory tests to an effective stress framework

Jinwoo Kim

Gas shale swelling during hydraulic stimulation is one of the major challenges in unconventional gas development. It is hypothesized that the large volumetric strain upon water imbibition is a consequence of dramatic changes in capillary pressure and disjo ...

EPFL2022

Role of Stress History on the Swelling-Shrinkage Behavior of Compacted Scaly Clay

Alessio Ferrari

Compacted scaly clays are complex geomaterials widely used for the realization of dam cores and waste dump liners. This research aims to investigate the swelling/shrinkage behavior of these geomaterials subjected in an oedometric cell to complex hydromecha ...

ASCE-AMER SOC CIVIL ENGINEERS2022

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

Weakening effect of various pore fluids on the tensile strength of granite

Guanyi Lu

Laboratory three-point bending experiments are carried out to evaluate the effect of various fluids on the tensile strength of granite. The granite specimens were tested under both dry and saturated conditions. The fluids used to saturate the granite inclu ...

SPRINGER HEIDELBERG2022

Approximate analytical solutions for assessing the effects of unsaturated flow on seawater extent in thin unconfined coastal aquifers

David Andrew Barry, Zhaoyang Luo

This study develops approximate analytical solutions for seawater extent in unconfined coastal aquifers considering unsaturated flow, and assuming steady-state, sharp-interface conditions, for both constant flux (flux-controlled aquifers) and constant head ...

2022