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The ground is a natural grand system; it is composed of myriad constituents that aggregate to form several geologic and biogenic systems. These systems operate independently and interplay harmoniously via important networked structures over multiple spatial and temporal scales. This paper presents arguments and derivations couched by the authors, to first give a better understanding of these intertwined networked structures, and then to give an insight of why and how these can be imitated to develop a new generation of nature-symbiotic ground engineering techniques. The paper draws on numerous recent advances made by the authors, and others, in imitating forms (e.g. synthetic fibres that imitate plant roots), materials (e.g. living composite materials, or living soil that imitate fungi and microbes), generative processes (e.g. managed decomposition of construction rubble to mimic weathering of aragonites to calcites), and functions (e.g. recreating the self-healing, selfproducing, and self-forming capacity of natural systems). Advances are reported in three categories of Materials, Models, and Methods (3Ms). A novel value-based appraisal tool is also presented, providing a means to vet the effectiveness of 3Ms as standalone units or in combinations.

International audienceIn this paper, the closed form two-dimensional fundamental solutions for a non-isothermal unsaturated deformable porous medium have been derived for a symmetric polar domain in both Laplace transform and time domains. The governing differential equations of the non-isothermal unsaturated soil consist of equilibrium, moisture, air and heat transfer equations including the suction effect, temperature effect and dissolved air in water. The derived fundamental solution has been verified mathematically by comparison with the previously presented corresponding fundamental solutions in three limiting cases including the steady-state thermo-hydro-mechanical, steady-state hydro-mechanical and elastostatic fundamental solutions. Also these 2D kernel functions are tested in comparison with a finite element method (FEM

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International audienceThe governing differential equations of unsaturated soils considering the thermo-poro-mechanical behaviour consist of equilibrium, moisture air and heat transfer equations. In this paper at first, following some necessary simplifications, the thermal three-dimensional fundamental solution for an unsaturated deformable porous medium with linear elastic behaviour in Laplace transform domain is presented. Subsequently, the closed-form time domain fundamental solutions are derived by analytical inversion of the Laplace transform domain solutions. Then a set of numerical results are presented, which demonstrate the accuracies and some salient features of the derived analytical transient fundamental solutions. Finally, the closed-form time domain fundamental solution will be verified mathematically by comparison with the previously introduced corresponding fundamental solution