Thermomechanics of clays and clay barriers, 3rd international workshop on clay barriers, ISMES, Bergamo, Italy, October 22-24, 1993 - introduction

The international workshop organized at ISMES, in Bergamo, Italy in October 1993 has been the third of such workshops which are geared towards understanding the thermo-mechanical behavior of clay formations. The workshop tackled the following specific subjects: overview of research needs and current efforts; modeling thermo-mechanical behavior of clay skeleton; coupled thermo-hydro-mechanics of clay with consideration on a two-phase medium around a heated underground opening; effects in nonsaturated clays; and a systems approach to the modeling of three-phase behavior of clay barriers. The workshop discussions highlighted the importance of international cooperation in the area of validation of numerical models.