For the first time, two international research networks M2UN and GeoMech organize a joint workshop with the goal of identifying and proposing future directions of research in the field of multiscale modelling for important and strategic classes of materials such as cement, concrete, soil, steel and ceramics. This coordinated initiative aims at promoting a shift of paradigm that enables progress at the interface of physics and engineering for a large variety of critical problems that are at the core of current societal, environmental and economic concerns in connection with durability and sustainability in construction, transportation, energy and waste management.
The joint workshop will take place at LMGC in Montpellier (France), 2 - 4 September 2019.
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Important Dates
Abstract submission: June 15, 2019
**Abstract submission deadline extended to June 30, 2019
Notification of acceptance: July 20, 2019
Registration open now untilAugust 30, 2019August 20, 2019
Inter-GdRI: M2UN & GeoMech
The two networks (GdRI or Groupement de Recherche International) operate under the auspices of CNRS (since 2011 for M2UN and since 2017 for GeoMech) by organizing scientific exchanges through recurrent meetings, collaborations between the different teams involved including visits of PhD students, post-doctoral associates and faculty members. The idea behind the GdRI Multi-scale Materials Under the Nanoscope (M2UN) and GdRI Multi-Physics and Multi-scale Couplings in Geo-environmental Mechanics (GeoMech) is structuring the Physics, Chemistry, Mechanics and Materials Science communities on a common ground for developing an integrated approach (combining simulations and experiments) for the prediction of texture properties and time evolution of complex multi-scale materials.
The ambition of M2UN is formulating a conceptual tool named as the “nanoscope” that combines most advanced statistical physics numerical simulations (such as accelerated Molecular Dynamics) with experiments (such as X-Ray tomography and microscopy…). This “nanoscope” tool aims at elucidating the 3D texture of those multi-scale (and most of the time porous) materials from the scale of atoms to microns, focusing in particular on mechanical and transport properties. The coupling between numerical simulation and experiments is a major theme of the GDRI and is one of the most challenging issues in Material Science, Mechanics and condensed matter Physics. The aim of GeoMech is analyzing the instability and failure mechanisms on the scales ranging from the microstructure to large catastrophic failures in (marine or earth) soils. The transition from a solid-like behavior to an unsteady fluid-like behavior, together with the related flow issues, liquefaction and creeping mechanisms are thoroughly considered by means of modern developments in physics and micromechanics of granular materials with hydromechanical couplings. Rockfalls, landslides, snow avalanches, as well as earthquakes or tremors are some of the phenomena that are considered at the interface between geomechanics and earth sciences using micromechanical and discrete numerical modeling.
For this original workshop, we expect contributions on all aspects related to modeling and experimental approaches for porous materials, nanomaterials, granular materials, soft mechanics, flow and creep, confined fluids, multiscale mechanics, transport in nanopores, instabilities and hydromechanical coupling.
