CAREER: Mechanics of Geomaterials Exposed to Multi-Physical Perturbations: Innovating Science, Training and Education through Fundamental Principles

该学院早期职业发展(CALEAR)项目的研究目标是从根本上了解岩土材料在环境压力作用下力学性能恶化的机制，以及这种变化可能引发的变形/破坏事件。特别是，该项目旨在制定新的理论方法来量化由多个物理因素引起的故障风险，将理论与预测模型联系起来，并将这些工具用于解释和设计目的。为了实现这些目标，该项目将结合一系列方法来加强地质力学建模框架的物理基础，从而提高它们预测由多物理过程引起的均匀和局部变形的能力。更具体地说，该项目将涉及用于检测非机械强迫期间不稳定性开始的能量法、用于评估本构公式性能的创新的分叉分析、用于查明瞬变现象引起的非均质性的可能来源的计算分析以及将力学性质的演变与改变地质固体微观结构特征的水文、热和化学过程相结合的新战略。研究活动将与专门的教育计划结合起来，目的是协调教育、培训和外联工作。计划中的举措将涉及广泛的用户，从研究生和本科生到从业者、当地高中和普通公众。将通过一系列活动吸引如此广泛的受众，包括开发电子学习工具、本科生参与研究和国际化活动、为当地高中教师组织讲习班以及在全球传播研究成果。鉴于自然环境中多物理过程的普遍分布，该项目产生的研究成果可以通过支持对环境风险的定量评估以及安全和可持续地实施许多技术活动而造福社会。特别是，该项目制定的工具和方法将协助工程师和地球科学家解释、监测和预测岩土工程和地球物理方面的重大事件。突出的例子是自然灾害的预测、老化基础设施的管理、能源技术的优化以及危险物质(例如核废料或二氧化碳)的地下储存。因此，该项目的发现可能会对邻近的一些学科产生影响，如油藏工程、环境工程、地球物理、工程地质学和地貌学。此外，未来将上述进步纳入技术实践可以为一些具有挑战性的社会问题带来长期利益，例如迫切需要耐用的基础设施、减少城市化地区的伤亡和财产损失、自然资源的安全供应以及保护环境可持续性领域的公共投资。

The research objective of this Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) project is to gain a fundamental understanding of the mechanisms that deteriorate the mechanical properties of geomaterials subjected to environmental forcing, as well as of the deformation/failure events potentially triggered by such alterations. In particular, the project aims to formulate novel theoretical approaches to quantify the risk of failure induced by multi-physical agents, link theories with predictive models and use these tools for interpretation and design purposes. To achieve these goals, the project will combine a range of methods to enhance the physical foundations of geomechanical modeling frameworks, thus improving their ability to predict homogeneous and localized deformations initiated by multi-physical processes. More specifically, the project will involve energy methods for detecting the onset of instabilities during non-mechanical forcing, innovative bifurcation analyses for assessing the performance of constitutive formulations, computational analyses to identify possible sources of heterogeneity induced by transient phenomena and a novel strategy to couple the evolution of the mechanical properties with the hydrologic, thermal and chemical processes modifying the microstructural characteristics of a geological solid. The research activities will be integrated with a dedicated educational plan, with the purpose to coordinate education, training and outreach efforts. The planned initiatives will involve a wide range of users, ranging from graduate and undergraduate students to practitioners, local high schools and the general public. Such a wide audience will be engaged through a number of activities, including the development of e-learning tools, the involvement of undergraduate students in research and internationalization activities, the organization of workshops for local high-school teachers and the global dissemination of the research findings. Given the pervasive distribution of multi-physical processes in the natural environment, the research findings resulting from this project can benefit the society by supporting the quantitative assessment of environmental risks, as well as the safe and sustainable implementation of numerous technological activities. In particular, the tools and methods formulated by this project will assist engineers and geoscientists in the interpretation, monitoring and prediction of critical events in geotechnical and geophysical contexts. Prominent examples are the forecasting of natural hazards, the management of aging infrastructures, the optimization of energy technologies and the underground storage of hazardous substances (e.g., nuclear waste or carbon dioxide). As a result, the findings of the project can have an impact on a number of neighboring disciplines, such as reservoir engineering, environmental engineering, geophysics, engineering geology and geomorphology. In addition, the future incorporation of the above mentioned advances in the technological practice can yield long-term benefits for a number of challenging societal problems, such as the pressing need for durable infrastructures, the reduction of casualties and property loss in urbanized areas, the safe supply of natural resources and the safeguard of public investments in the area of environmental sustainability.