Session report: similitude, scaling and education

The session on ‘Similitude, scaling and education’ at the 8th International Conference on Physical Modelling in Geotechnics 2014 contained papers covering history of centrifuge modelling, scaling and modelling issues as well as the use of centrifuge modelling in education. A recurrent issue in this session was how realistic should one be, or can one afford to be, in physical modelling.