LMS receives an “Innovation in Tradition” funding, by LOMBARDI S.A.

Lombardi S.A., a leader company for engineering services in Switzerland, with strong international presence, has selected the Laboratory for Soil Mechanics (LMS) of EPFL, for receiving a funding over a period of two years for the project entitled «Large-scale implementation of soil bio-improvement for a series of engineering applications». The funding comes after the company’s call for project proposals entitled “Innovation in Tradition”.

Prof. Lyesse Laloui and his PhD student Dimitrios Terzis found that this call for projects perfectly matches the concept of soil bio-improvement. Indeed, engineering the bio-improved geomaterial is about innovating in the field of ground improvement, where few “traditional” tools exist that offer limited solutions to the increasing needs of modern engineering works.

An experimental plan will be undertaken by LMS starting from October 2016, which foresees to contribute to the ultimate passing of the soil bio-cementation mechanism from the laboratory scale, to the scale of real engineering applications. The funding comes at a great timing for the project since the research carried out at LMS during the past two years has succeeded, not only in producing bio-cemented geomaterials of different origins, but most importantly in determining a concept which allows controlling and adapting the mechanism. Controlling and adapting the mechanism is the key towards meeting the needs of different engineering problems and extending the potential that lies in the technique.

The EPFL’s laboratory for Soil Mechanism wishes to involve a Master student of the Civil Engineering program of EPFL in the implementation of the project. Students can find more details on their IS-Academia online portal. For more information please contact dimitrios.terzis@epfl.ch