Joint research project with the University of Sydney

In the end of 2016, we successfully applied for a research grant from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) to start a cooperation with the research group (SciGEM) of Prof. Itai Einav from the University of Sydney, Australia.

Our project is entitled “An analytical method for X-ray tracking of contacts between rough sand particles”. The longterm focus, however, is a more general exchange of both research groups on the mechanics of granular materials (such as sands) – experimental observations, theoretic and constitutive modeling.

This project was initiated in the framework of our DFG project Micromechanical analysis of state variables for phenomenological constitutive models of soils. The main aim here is to follow the evolution of the fabric of granular materials upon chosen loading situations and to incorporate the findings into constitutive models. When dealing with Nano-Tomographies (3D images with very high resolution) different questions arose that will be tackled in this joint project.

In order to initiate the cooperation, Max visited Sydney in March and had numerous discussions with researchers at SciGEM – reaching his limits and exploring the limits of engineering approaches. The research group of Prof. Einav (SciGEM) mainly consists of physicists and even mathematicians and thus, enables a strong interdisciplinary exchange.