January 22, 2024
1st Gruner Geotechnics Prize Awarded at ETH Zurich
Eva Brunschweiler is the inaugural recipient of the new Gruner Geotechnics Prize at ETH Zurich. Her work, which focuses on the finite element modeling of structures built on soils prone to liquefaction, impressed the jury from the Institute of Geotechnical Engineering (IGT).
Since last year, ETH Zurich graduates have had the opportunity to compete for the Gruner Geotechnics Prize. This annual award is given to a Master's degree graduate in Civil Engineering who has produced an exceptional thesis in the field of geotechnical engineering. The IGT jury evaluates the theses based on the originality of the proposed solutions and their practical applicability. The prize comes with a cash award of CHF 2,000, donated by Gruner to support the education of future engineers.
Soil liquefaction during earthquake events can cause significant damage: even well-constructed structures can tilt or sink several meters into the ground. These risks can be mitigated with specific foundation strategies, such as pile construction or soil improvement techniques (e.g., vibro-compaction columns). Accurate predictions of soil liquefaction and its effects are essential for these measures to be effective. Eva Brunschweiler's research focused on finite element modeling of strip foundations on liquefaction-susceptible soil layers using the widely-used PLAXIS 2D program. She validated her results against those from centrifuge experiments and performed an extensive comparison with another simulation program, FLAC 2D. Her findings confirmed that modeling with PLAXIS 2D achieves sufficiently accurate results.
We extend our congratulations to Eva Brunschweiler for her exceptional work and for being awarded the Gruner Geotechnik Prize.
