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Recent Advances in Nature-Inspired Solutions for Ground Engineering (NiSE)

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Abstract

The ground is a natural grand system; it is composed of myriad constituents that aggregate to form several geologic and biogenic systems. These systems operate independently and interplay harmoniously via important networked structures over multiple spatial and temporal scales. This paper presents arguments and derivations couched by the authors, to first give a better understanding of these intertwined networked structures, and then to give an insight of why and how these can be imitated to develop a new generation of nature-symbiotic ground engineering techniques. The paper draws on numerous recent advances made by the authors, and others, in imitating forms (e.g. synthetic fibres that imitate plant roots), materials (e.g. living composite materials, or living soil that imitate fungi and microbes), generative processes (e.g. managed decomposition of construction rubble to mimic weathering of aragonites to calcites), and functions (e.g. recreating the self-healing, self-producing, and self-forming capacity of natural systems). Advances are reported in three categories of Materials, Models, and Methods (3Ms). A novel value-based appraisal tool is also presented, providing a means to vet the effectiveness of 3Ms as standalone units or in combinations.

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Acknowledgements

This contribution partly reports the outcomes of the first NiSE Workshop (NiSE1) that took place online from London, UK, 11–12th February 2021. The workshop organisers thank Prof Catherine O’Sullivan and Prof Hassan Abdalla for opening the sessions. They also thank Prof Volodymyr Ivanov, Dr Victor Stabnikov, Dr Gil H. Ochoa-González, Dr José Manuel Ramírez León, Prof Liz Varga, Prof Darryl Newport, Dr Bamdad Ayati, Dr Bilal Kaddouh, Dr Mehran Eskandari Torbaghan, Dr Munsamy Logan, Dr Sohrab Donyavi, Dr Aryan Hojjati, and Dr Ching Hung for their contributions to the workshop.

Funding

This paper is made available through contributions of authors to the NiSE1 Workshop, which was helped through financial assistance of the National Research Foundation, Department of Science and Technology South Africa, and The Royal Society UK, through the Newton Fund DST-NRF NFPF170627245562 grant.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Engineering and Construction, University of East London, London, E16 2RD, England, UK

    Arya Assadi-Langroudi

  2. Department of Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland

    Brendan C. O’Kelly

  3. Edinburgh Napier University, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK

    Daniel Barreto

  4. Politecnico Di Bari, Bari, Italy

    Federica Cotecchia & Vito Tagarelli

  5. University of Leeds, Leeds, England, UK

    Henry Dicks

  6. Middle East Technical University, Güzelyurt, Cyprus

    Abdullah Ekinci

  7. University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA

    Fernando E. Garcia

  8. Cardiff University, Cardiff, Wales, UK

    Michael Harbottle

  9. University of Birmingham, Birmingham, England, UK

    Ian Jefferson

  10. University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada

    Pooneh Maghoul

  11. Newcastle University, Newcastle, England, UK

    Enrico Masoero & Helen Mitrani

  12. University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, Scotland, UK

    Gráinne El Mountassir

  13. Washington State University, Pullman, USA

    Balasingam Muhunthan

  14. Warwick University, Coventry, England, UK

    Xueyu Geng

  15. National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan

    Soheil Ghadr

  16. Central Queensland University, Melbourne, Australia

    Mehdi Mirzababaei

  17. Arizona State University, Phoenix, USA

    Leon van Paassen

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  1. Arya Assadi-Langroudi
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Contributions

AAL steered the discussions amongst the team and wrote up the paper. BCO edited the paper and co-steered discussions amongst the team. DB, FETG, AE, and MH provided inputs on analytical methods. IJ and AAL developed the conceptual framework. HD led, wrote and edited the philosophical backgrounds of NiSE. SG, MM and XG fed in, and contributed to, discussions on nature-inspired materials and laboratory-scale methods. FC and VT led the field-scale methods. LvP, HM, BM, and GEM led on, and fed into the bio-mediated methods. PM contributed to multiple sections and offered a second round of editing. EM led on mesoscale advanced models. All the authors reviewed the paper and supported AAL in getting the work to the presented state.

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Correspondence to Arya Assadi-Langroudi.

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Assadi-Langroudi, A., O’Kelly, B.C., Barreto, D. et al. Recent Advances in Nature-Inspired Solutions for Ground Engineering (NiSE). Int. J. of Geosynth. and Ground Eng. 8, 3 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40891-021-00349-9

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