The TGC 18 wins the Roberval Prize !

The prize was handed by the president of the French Academy of Sciences in the prestigious setting of the National Institute of France in Paris, in the presence of 150 guests (link towards the video).

The Roberval Prize is an international competition for the promotion and distribution of science and technology in French language.

This year the work of the professors of the EPFL: Laurent Vulliet, Lyesse Laloui and Jian Zhao (now at the University Monash in Australia), published by " Presses polytechniques et universitaires romandes " in 2016 is awarded.

Soil mechanics and rock mechanics are disciplines generally treated separately in the literature. For the first time, a book combines these two specialties, integrating also the knowledge of subsurface flows and thermal transfers. At the same time theoretical and practical, this work proposes a detailed description of the nature and the composition of soils and rocks, deals with the modelling of boundary conditions problems and presents the tests allowing to characterize grounds and rocks. The problems of unsaturated soils and multiphase flows are also approached. A particular attention is given to the laws of mechanical behavior and to the determination of their parameters by in situ and laboratory tests. The work offers also a detailed description of the soil and rock classification systems, as well as the behavior of foundations, pressures on walls, stability of slopes and underground cavities. Specifically designed in a spirit of engineering, this unprecedented publication refers in an international perspective to the most recent standards. The book addresses to professionals of the construction, geotechnical engineers, geologists, persons in charge of test laboratories and to the students in civil engineering, geology, mechanics, Earth sciences, mine engineering, environment and pedology.