New FWF Principal Investigator Project

At the last FWF Scientific Board meeting (September 29–30, 2025), one FWF Principal Investigator Project with a total budget of EUR 666.5k at our institute was approved by FWF’s Scientific Consultants. The project focuses on numerical simulations of scaly clay failure under large deformation.

Scaly clays, characterized by complex fabric structures at multiple scales, are widespread in sedimentary and tectonically active regions, such as the Apennine Mountains and the Mediterranean regions. Recent studies highlight that microstructural fabric evolution closely interacts with hydro-mechanical responses, encompassing variations in pore-air-fluid content, brittle fracture, and strain localization. In mountainous regions, slopes with outcrops of scaly clay are highly susceptible to rainfall-induced instability, landslides, and debris flows. However, the multiscale mechanisms of unsaturated scaly clay in large deformation behind these geohazards remain poorly understood. The overarching objective of MOSCALA is to develop a novel numerical framework for modeling unsaturated scaly clay in large deformation, which will be poised to provide a better understanding of multiscale failure and solid-to-fluid-like transition mechanisms within hydro-mechanical coupling environments.