Year 2001 was a fruitful year for TC2. During the year, TC2 was involved in the organisation of several international meetings/workshops/symposia and the publication of the International Journal of Physical Modelling in Geotechnics. The 2002 TC2 speciality conference on Physical Modelling in Geotechnics also draws very encouraging responses for its Call for Papers from both centrifuge and non-centrifuge physical modellers. A summary of the above and other TC2 activities is presented in this report.

The Vicksburg site of the US Army Engineering Research and Development Center (ERDC) hosted an Advanced Concept Workshop on Centrifuge Modelling on Jan 31 and Feb 1, 2001, http://www.wes.army.mil/centrifuge/workshop/index.htm This workshop was organised with the assistance of Dr Goodings, a TC2 member. The Workshop attracted 43 participants from 5 countries and 7 discussion sessions. Many North American TC2 members were invited to attend and lead discussion at the Workshop.

From 8 to 13 July 2001, Prof Sarah Springman of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) who is a TC2 committee member successfully organised the International Workshop on Constitutive and Centrifuge Modelling: Two Extremes in Monte Verita, Ascona, Switzerland. The Workshop attracted 50 participants and 13 papers were presented at the Workshop to promote discussion. Many TC2 members were also invited to attend and make presentations at the Workshop. The Workshop reviewed the key past developments of constitutive modelling and centrifuge modelling, and generated challenges for each group by asking

• What are constitutive modelling needs that are thrown up by the observations made in physical models?
• What are the physical tests that can be used to choose between competing constitutive modelling strategies?
• Why do constitutive models, which are clearly inadequate in reproducing phenomena observed either in element or full-scale tests, appear to provide satisfactory predictions of physical geotechnical system performance?

The proceedings of this workshop may be published by Balkema.

During the 15^th International Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering held in Istanbul, TC2 organised a Workshop on Geotechnical Physical Modelling on 28 August 2001, http://www.engr.mun.ca/~ccore/cgs/tc2/tc2wshop.htm About 50 persons attended the Workshop. Prof Mark Randolph of University of Western Australia delivered an invited presentation on "An Overview of Geotechnical Physical Modelling" while Prof Malcolm Bolton of University of Cambridge talked on "Centrifuge Modelling – Some Achievements and Challenges". Dr S Iai of Port and Airport Research Institute Japan was invited to speak on "Shaking Table: Principles and Comparisons of Test and Field Data". Two short presentations were also made by participants from the Netherlands and the Czech Republic. There were also interesting discussions on various physical modelling issues after the presentations. On the same evening, TC2 also held its committee meeting to report and discuss current and future TC2 activities as well as to explore the possibility of providing guidelines for preparing sand and clay for physical modelling tests. Nine TC2 members and 6 observers were present at the meeting and many ideas and suggestions were made to further enhance the functions of TC2 and its publicity.

The International Symposium on Geotechnical Modelling and Networking – Focusing on the Use and Applications in the Pan-Pacific Region, http://www.ust.hk/~webgcmn/, was held at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology from 8 to 9 December 2001. TC2 is an official sponsor for the symposium. Invited presentations were made by Prof Neil Taylor, ISSMGE Secretary General and Dr Jacque Garnier of LCPC France. About 90 participants from 17 countries attended the symposium and 10 TC2 members were present. Besides the over 20 presentations on various physical modelling topics (notably the NECER and earthquake related studies), a special mandarin session was organised with presentations given in mandarin to specifically cater for the 20 participants from People’s Republic of China. This is noted to be effective in promoting physical modelling to researchers from non-English speaking countries.

The highlight of this year’s TC2 activity is the publication of the International Journal of Physical Modelling in Geotechnics, http://geotech.cv.titech.ac.jp/IJPMG/ with its inaugural issue published in March 2001. Prof Osamu Kusakabe of Tokyo Institute of Technology and a TC2 member is the Chief Editor of the Journal. Many TC2 members were on the Editorial Board of the Journal. For the year 2001, 4 issues with a total of 13 technical papers and 6 technical notes have been published. The authors were mainly from Australia, Japan and UK with several contributions from Europe, North America and Singapore. So far the Journal has about 150 subscribers and this is considered encouraging as a start. During the TC2 meeting at Istanbul, Prof Kusakabe highlighted the technical standard of the journal has been maintained high as all the papers went through a rigorous review process and the paper rejection rate is closed to 50%. He stated that the most urgent task for the Journal is to solicit more good quality paper submissions.

The other TC2 activities in the year 2001 are reported as follows:

1. Dr H Allersma of Delft University of Technology and a TC2 member continues to maintain the TC2 web site that is linked to other sites including ISSMGE, TC2 Physical Modelling Conference, and other TC2 sponsored conferences/symposia/workshops. The PowerPoint presentations for the TC2 Workshop on Geotechnical Physical Modelling held in Istanbul are also available for viewing at the TC2 web site.
2. There is an ‘on-line’ international database CLEOPATRE on physical modelling references that can be retrieved using keywords. TC2 is currently looking for an institution to maintain the database in the near future.
3. TC2 members continue to maintain close links with other technical committees of ISSMGE and other learned societies as well as several national technical committees.

The TC2 Official Conference on Physical Modelling in Geotechnics will be held in St John’s Canada from 10 to 12 July 2002, http://www.c-core.ca/icpmg Very good response has been received for the Call for Papers as 250 abstracts have been received and over 150 papers have been submitted for review, of which about 40 are from non-centrifuge modellers. The conference proceeding will be published by Balkema publishers of the Netherlands. There will be 4 keynote lectures at the conference and a workshop on the use of geotechnical physical modelling in education will be held and may be sponsored by National Science Foundation of USA on 9 July 2002.

The year 2001 has been a very active year for TC2 as it has sponsored or been involved in four international workshops in USA, Switzerland, Istanbul and Hong Kong respectively. This provides ample opportunities for physical modellers to interact with each other and to exchange ideas on the latest development on various issues concerning geotechnical physical modelling. In addition, the new International Journal on Physical Modelling in Geotechnics has successfully started its publication in 2001 with many quality papers published and an encouraging subscription rate. It is heartening to note that the 2002 International Conference on Physical Modelling in Geotechnics has received overwhelming responses for its Call for Papers and the National Science Foundation of USA is considering sponsoring a workshop on the use of geotechnical physical modelling in education at the conference. It is expected the 2002 speciality conference at St John’s would be a successful meeting to reinforce interaction among physical modellers. The conference proceedings would serve as a useful source of references for physical modellers and geotechnical engineers and researchers.

Reported by

Dr Ryan Phillips (TC2 Chair) and Dr Colin Leung (TC2 secretary) January 2002.