Géotechnique Special Issue - Time-dependent soil behaviour in multi-coupled problems: fundamentals and applications

Submit your abstract here

Introduction

Future sustainable design practises require the extension of the design lifetime or reuse of geotechnical structures and infrastructures worldwide. In this scenario, time-dependent soil behaviour will become an increasingly vital component of the design process. This challenge is further complicated when considering coupled effects related to chemical or thermal aspects, as well as aspects related to soil structural evolutions taking place over time.

Academics and practitioners play a crucial role in addressing these challenges by exploiting: (i) advanced laboratory and field testing, which explore soil behaviour at different spatial and temporal scales (e.g. tomography and geophysical investigations); (ii) innovative and less intrusive monitoring techniques (e.g. optical fibre and remote sensing); (iii) numerical tools developed in the recent years that have the potential for direct design applications (e.g. codes for Thermo-Hydro-Mechanical-Chemical, THMC, analyses and Discrete Element Methods, DEM); (iv) recent advances in constitutive modelling for application in continuum THMC analyses (e.g. thermodynamics-based approaches); (v) theoretical studies on the processes controlling the macroscopic response measured at continuum scale (e.g. processes taking place across scales).

This themed issue invites contributions aimed at exploring viscous effects and soil structural evolutions taking place over time and impacting the performance of geotechnical structures and infrastructures throughout and beyond their design lifetime. Soil structural evolutions are considered not only in terms of soil structural degradation, but also in terms of soil structure enhancement due to ageing processes. Viscous effects are referred to as those related to creep phenomena, stress relaxation and rate-dependent responses. Studies including the above time-dependent processes and how they are affected by multi-coupled processes, for instance due to chemistry and temperature, are welcome. Authors are also encouraged to submit contributions aimed at deciphering time-dependent soil behaviour through innovative testing, monitoring and modelling activities.

List of topic areas

Abstracts are invited for papers concerning, but not limited to, the following topics:

• Bespoke laboratory testing apparatuses developed for time-dependent soil behaviour investigations.
• Viscous phenomena accounting for multi-coupled processes.
• Rate-dependent soil responses at different scales.
• Ageing effects related to soil behaviour and soil-structure interactions.
• Advances and challenges in constitutive and numerical modelling accounting for time-dependent soil processes.
• Well-documented case studies, including those in which advanced monitoring allowed to capture time-dependent soil responses and assess the performance of geotechnical structures.

Submissions Information

You can submit your full paper here. Once you have registered, navigate to the journal that you wish to submit to. Choose article type "Themed Issue" and then the specific name from the drop-down menu on screen.

Submitted articles must not have been previously published, nor should they be under consideration for publication anywhere else, while under review for this journal.

Submit your full paper here

Key deadlines

Closing date for abstract submissions: Monday 18 May 2026

 Submit your abstract using this link

Closing date for manuscripts submission: Monday 21 September 2026