Papers published in Geotechnical Research 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 Thursday 4 June 2020, an award was announced for the following paper published in Geotechnical Research in 2019. The editorial panel nominated their best papers and an awards committee chaired by Tim Broyd allocated the awards.
Thomas Telford Premium Prize
The Thomas Telford Premium Prize, presented for the best paper published in Geotechnical Research, was awarded to Iizuka et al. (2019).
Abstract
Although the soil, water and air coupling theory has been deductively derived from the three-phase mixture theory, assumptions and interpretations inherent in soil mechanics are also conveniently introduced in this theory. Mechanical properties of unsaturated soils are phenomenologically integrated into the constitutive equation for a deformation problem, with effective stress expressed as a combination of partial stresses acting on each phase of the mixture. The governing equations of two seepage problems describing the movements of pore water and pore air are formulated by a priori introduction of Darcy’s law. Consequently, the coupling theory consists of a deformation problem and two seepage problems, in which the soil-water retention characteristics play the role of a mediator connecting these problems. If the theoretical structure is clarified in this way, an extension of this theory is easily made. In this paper, the extension of the theory to each of four examples and their performance is demonstrated. The features of settlement caused by absorption of soil water due to vegetation; dissolution, advection and diffusion of substances in groundwater; desaturation and state change due to vaporisation of dissolved gas from pore water; and the liquefaction potential of unsaturated soil are presented.
