Papers published in Environmental Geotechnics are eligible for awards from the Institution of Civil Engineers. Papers from any of the ICE journals can be nominated for several awards. In addition, each journal has awards dedicated to their specific subject area.
On Friday 6 October 2017, ICE president Tim Broyd presented an award to the following papers published in Environmental Geotechnics in 2016. The editorial panel nominated their best papers and an awards committee chaired by Nigel Wright allocated the awards.
Howard Medal (best paper in the journal)
The best paper was awarded to Md Abdur Rouf, Rao Martand Singh, Abdelmalek Bouazza, R. Kerry Rowe and Will P. Gates (2016) Gas permeability of partially hydrated geosynthetic clay liner under two stress conditions.
Abstract
The results of a series of gas permeability tests, with monitoring of gravimetric/volumetric moisture content and total suction, on a commercially available needle-punched geosynthetic clay liner (GCL) are presented. GCL specimens were partially hydrated with deionised water under 2 and 20 kPa confinement prior to testing. The tests were conducted at differential pressures ranging from 1 to 10 kPa. Gas permeability was found to decrease with an increase in gravimetric/volumetric moisture content and a decrease of suction. The effect of the preconditioning stress was found to be more pronounced at gravimetric moisture contents greater than 40% (25% apparent degree of saturation, 0·30 m3/m3 volumetric moisture content), and suctions less than 1·6 MPa.
