The fourteenth session of the European Graduate School Geomaterials year 2002 is entitled Numerical Modelling in Geomechanics . Numerical modelling has originated a deep revolution in the available tools and methods in geomechanics and the present situation is certainly just a beginning… Among the various numerical methods (finite elements, discrete elements, finite differences, boundary integrals…) this School focuses only on the first ones, which are certainly the most utilized today. In this wide domain, many aspects are considered: brittle and ductile materials, water saturated and partially saturated geomaterials, small and large strains, steady state and transient problems, soil dynamics, strain localization and some applications related to natural hazards. This School is organised and coordinated by Manuel Pastor (Cedex and Polytechnical University of Madrid) and Claudio Tamagnini (Universita di Perugia). Besides, this session is the third one which is organised jointly with the French Réseau Doctoral Génie Civil which is leaded by Daniel Boissier (Université Blaise Pascal, Clermont-Ferrand). In the framework of a joint programme (Programme Pluriformation), the French Ministry of Education and Research decided to support the local accommodation fees of all the students and the publication of the lecture notes in english by Hermès as a special issue of the Revue Française de Génie Civil. This support is gratefully acknowledged. This school would not have been such a success without the fantastic framework of Aussois, this small village in the heart of the French Alps, and the warm welcome to the Paul Langevin Centre of the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique.
The fourteenth session of the European Graduate School Geomaterials year 2002 is entitled Numerical Modelling in Geomechanics . Numerical modelling has originated a deep revolution in the available tools and methods in geomechanics and the present situation is certainly just a beginning… Among the various numerical methods (finite elements, discrete elements, finite differences, boundary integrals…) this School focuses only on the first ones, which are certainly the most utilized today. In this wide domain, many aspects are considered: brittle and ductile materials, water saturated and partially saturated geomaterials, small and large strains, steady state and transient problems, soil dynamics, strain localization and some applications related to natural hazards. This School is organised and coordinated by Manuel Pastor (Cedex and Polytechnical University of Madrid) and Claudio Tamagnini (Universita di Perugia). Besides, this session is the third one which is organised jointly with the French Réseau Doctoral Génie Civil which is leaded by Daniel Boissier (Université Blaise Pascal, Clermont-Ferrand). In the framework of a joint programme (Programme Pluriformation), the French Ministry of Education and Research decided to support the local accommodation fees of all the students and the publication of the lecture notes in english by Hermès as a special issue of the Revue Française de Génie Civil. This support is gratefully acknowledged. This school would not have been such a success without the fantastic framework of Aussois, this small village in the heart of the French Alps, and the warm welcome to the Paul Langevin Centre of the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique.