The research was organised into 5 programmes:
dynamics of geomaterials;
localisation phenomena in geomaterials;
reinforced geomaterials;
thermohydromechanical coupling;
benchmarks and geomaterials modelling.
The main results and achievements were as follows:
application of mesh adaptivity in finite elements codes for dynamics modelling, plastic strain localisation in partially saturated soils, development of errors estimaters, application to impact loading;
application of tomodensitometry techniques to experimental characterising of localisation, development of enriched continua for an objective modelling of shear banding, use of incrementally non-linear constitutive relations in order to properly describe progressive failure mechanisms;
realisation of a trial wall in reinforced soil in order to test and validate numerical models, application of homogenisation techniques for geocomposites modelling, a benchmark procedure has been successfully carried out for reinforced concrete in order to compare different constitutive models;
a computer programme for coupled THM behaviour of geomaterials has been developed and tested, a thermo-plastic constitutive model for unsaturated materials has been validated by means of experimental results obtained on a temperature and suction controlled equipment;
micro-mechanical measurements have been performed on a Schneebeli material in a shear box apparatus, the undrained behaviour of loose sands has been studied through a benchmark procedure, instabilities of geomaterials and liquefaction of loose granular materials have been analysed by mechanical criteria, a discrete element model has been successfully developed.