GREAT | 2019

Thermal deformations cause the particles of granular materials to rearrange. These microstructural rearrangements alter the physical properties of granular materials, influencing their ability to transfer heat, sustain loads, and allow fluid permeation. These effects, in turn, influence the behavior of granular materials.
Within this project, state-of-the-art experimental, analytical and computational techniques are employed to advance the current understanding of the influence of thermal perturbations on the physics of granular materials as well as to assess if such perturbations can be engineered in the form of thermal treatments to tailor the properties and behavior of granular materials for engineering applications.

Journal publications

→ Rotta Loria, A. F. and Coulibaly, J. B. (2020) Thermally induced deformation of soils: a critical overview of phenomena, challenges and opportunities. Geomechanics for Energy and the Environment. 15: 100193.
→ Pan, Y., Coulibaly, J. B. and Rotta Loria, A. F. (2020) Thermally induced deformation of coarse-grained soils under nearly zero vertical stress. Géotechnique Letters. 10(4), 486-491.
→ Coulibaly, J. B., Shah, M. and Rotta Loria, A. F. (2020) Thermal cyclic loading of granular materials: effects on material fabric and properties. Granular Matter. 22(80): 1-19.
→ Pan, Y., Coulibaly, J. B. and Rotta Loria, A. F. (2022) An experimental investigation challenging the thermal collapse of sands. Géotechnique In print.
→ Coulibaly, J. and Rotta Loria, A. F. (2022) Transient dynamics of the thermally induced deformation of sands. International Journal for Numerical and Analytical Methods in Geomechanics. 46(10): 1972-1988.

Journal publications

→ Pan, Y., Seo, D., Rivers, M., Buscarnera, G. and Rotta Loria, A. F. (2024) Microscopic insights into thermal cycling effects in granular materials via X-ray microtomography. Granular Matter. 26(98): 1–13.