Mohmad Mohsin Thakur, a doctoral student in geotechnical engineering who is studying under Professor Dayakar Penumadu, was invited to compete in the Geo-Poster Challenge of the Geo-Congress 2019, held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, March 24–27. The international congress brings together researchers, practitioners, students, and policy makers from around the world to share their geo-accomplishments and carry on the tradition of using case histories to cultivate engineering judgment.
The Geo-Poster competition showcases student research in geotechnical engineering topics. The competition is open to national and international students, with 18 presentations selected this year.
Thakur’s presentation, entitled “Capillary Suction Measurements in Granular Materials from Experiments and Direct Numerical Simulations Using X-ray Computed Tomography Microstructure,” is based on his research that aims to improve the fundamental understanding of multiphase flow behavior in granular materials at pore scale. X-ray CT imaging provides a non-invasive way to capture heterogeneities in grain and pore microstructure which can be used to better understand material behavior in the mathematical framework known as constitutive modeling.
Thakur has been to many other conferences in addition to Geo-Congress, thanks to encouragement from Penumadu.
—Mohmad Mohsin Thakur
Besides presenting his work, he also attended high-quality talks from renowned experts in the field and attended committee meetings for unsaturated soils, which he says was an unparalleled experience. Other national competitions at the event included Geo-Wall, Geo-Prediction, Geo-Video, and Geo-Shirt.