The University of Warwick (UWA) coordinates the EU FP7 International Research Staff Exchange Scheme project ‘Geohazards and geomechanics’.

UWA performed exchanges with Tongji University (Shanghai, China), Indian Institute of Science (Bangalore, India) and Tsinghua University (Beijing, China). The University of Warwick has organized the International Symposium on Geohazards and Geomechanics. The collaborative researches mainly focused on geo-hazards associated with exploitation of methane hydrate bearing sediments, strain localization and tunneling.

• Research activities/achievements within Geohazards and Geomechanics project

- Strain localization of cemented granular materials
- Evolution of slopes subject to weathering
- Disturbance of tunnel construction
- Lunar surface excavation

Distribution of shear strain at different loading stages (Jiang et al., 2013).

• Relevant Publications

Jiang M J, Zhang W C, Sun YG and Utili S (2013). An investigation on loose cemented granular materials via DEM analysis. Granular Matter, 15(1): 65-84.

Jiang M J, Zhu F Y, Liu F and Utili S (2014). A bond contact model for methane hydrate bearing sediments with interparticle cementation. International Journal for Numerical and Analytical Methods in Geomechanics, 38(17): 1823-1854.

Jiang MJ, Shen ZF and Utili S (2016). DEM modelling of cantilever retaining excavations: implications for lunar constructions. Engineering Computations, 33(2): 366-394.

Wang H N, Utili S, Jiang M J and He P (2015). Analytical solutions for tunnels of elliptical cross-section in rheological rock accounting for sequential excavation. Rock Mechanics and Rock Engineering, 48(5): 1997-2029.