Ken Kamrin, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
David Henann, Brown University
Jose Andrade, Caltech
Kenichi Soga, UC Berkeley
Granular systems such as those arising in geological and geotechnical contexts display phenomena that raise a variety of scientific questions, such as evolving volume compaction/dilatation, localized shear-banding, finite-size effects, fabric evolution, grain breakage, particle shape effects, rate-and-pressure-sensitive rheological behavior, segregation, and pore-fluid interactions. These phenomena challenge basic modeling approaches, and tackling these challenges requires developing a combination of novel experimental and theoretical tools as well as rapid simulation approaches to upscale the behavior of many billions of interacting grains. This symposium will bring together researchers working towards improved scientific understanding of the phenomenology of granular and geo-mechanical systems, predictive constitutive models, and novel simulation methodologies. We encourage submissions related to experimental, theoretical, and computational research. Modeling methods of interest include discrete-particle modeling, statistical mechanics of granular media, homogenization approaches toward continuum modeling, classical and higher-order continuum theories, finite-element modeling, multi-scale approaches, parallel computing architecture, and machine learning methods.