Announcement and Call for Abstracts

  MINISYMPOSIUM ON COMPUTATIONAL MECHANICS OF TUNNELING

  Fifth U.S. National Congress on Computational Mechanics
University of Colorado at Boulder, CO, USA,  August 4-6, 1999

Organizers of the Minisymposium: G. Beer and G. Hofstetter

Tunnel construction still relies to a large extent on experience and
on-site measurements. Important reasons for this fact are the commonly
encountered wide variation of mechanical, rheological and hydraulic
properties of the ground, the complex mechanical behavior of the
ground and supports (shotcrete) and the complicated construction
sequences. Nevertheless, numerical simulations of tunneling can
contribute significantly to a better understanding of the response of
the soil and rock mass and the supports to tunnel excavation.

Prerequisites for a successful numerical simulation are

- knowledge of geological conditions,

- reliable constitutive models for the materials involved,
  such as soil, rock, shotcrete and rock bolts,

- modeling strategies for the idealization of construction methods,
  excavation sequences, ground support and construction aids,

- efficient numerical algorithms, especially for three-dimensional
  nonlinear analyses, and visualization and evaluation of results,

- verification of numerical results by measurements and back-analysis.

Contributions are solicited on the above mentioned topics or, since
this list is by no means complete, on a related topic. In addition,
challenging practical applications of numerical models of tunneling
are welcome.

Submission Instructions:

If you are interested in contributing to this Minisymposium, please
submit a one-page abstract of up to 400 words by e-mail to one of the
two organizers by January 15, 1999. Abstracts should contain the
e-mail addresses of all authors. Notification of acceptance will be
given by e-mail until March 15, 1999.

Final versions of accepted abstracts for the book of abstracts
will be due on May 15, 1999. They are to be sent directly to the
Congress e-mail address following the instructions posted on the
Web-Site
(http://civil.colorado.edu/usnccm99/Abstracts.d/Instructions.html).

Addresses of the organizers of this Minisymposium:

Prof. G. Beer
Institute for Structural Analysis
Technical University of Graz
Lessingstrasse 25
A-8010 Graz, Austria
Tel: ++43 316 873 6180
Fax: ++43 316 873 6185
E-mail: gernot.beer@ifb.tu-graz.ac.at

Prof. G. Hofstetter
Institute for Strength of Materials
University of Innsbruck
Technikerstrasse 13
A-6020 Innsbruck, Austria
Tel: ++43 512 507 6720
Fax: ++43 512 507 2908
E-mail: Guenter.Hofstetter@uibk.ac.at