International Numerical Modeling Contest of Rock Mechanicsand Engineering(INCR)—2021

1.   Introduction

With the developmentof computer technology, numerical modelling has become the third pillar ofscientific research besides physical experiment and theoretical analysis. Inthe scientific literature on rock mechanics, papers involving numericalsimulation account for more than 25% (data from Scopus^TM). Moreover,numerical modelling seems to be the only economically and technically feasibleresearch tool to takle these new era problems, e.g. deep earth mining and deepspace mining. There are many numerical methods for rock mechanics problems, forexample, the discrete element model (DEM), discontinuous deformation analysis (DDA),Meshless Methods (MMs), etc. However, for rock mechanics problems, numerical modellingstill has following shortcomings: challenges   in the selection of reliable parameters,uncontrollable human operation influences, unclear physical mechanism, lack ofextensive and solid verifications, etc. These shortcomings has hindered thefurther application of numerical modelling on rock mechanics and rockengineering to a certain extent.

International Numerical Modeling Contest of Rock Mechanicsand Engineering(INCR) is proposed and organized by the DiscontinuousDeformation Analysis Committee of International Society of Rock Mechanics andEngineering and the Discontinuous Deformation Analysis Committee of China Societyof Rock Mechanics and Engineering. Its purpose is to encourage researchstudents to conduct open, transparent and extensive verification of existingnumerical methods and software on rock mechanics problems. INCR aims to providea platform for sharing experimental and numerical restuls on rock mechanicsproblems and promote the application of numerical simulation in rock mechanicsand engineering. The 1^st INCR will be organized and sponsored byTianjin University, China University of Geosciences,Nanjing University andHebei University of Technology. Each registered team, allowed to have up tothree students, is required to complete the numerical modeling for a given half-openedtask in three days (72 hours).

2.Time arrangement

l Registration time: due at 3:00 p.m., 30^th July2021(Beijing time UTC +8).

l Contest start time: 20^th September, 2021,starting at 5:00 p.m.(Beijing time).

l End time of the contest: at 8:00 p.m.24^th September 2021 (Beijing time).

l Results submission time: 9:00 p.m. 24^thSeptember 2021 Beijing time.

l Contest results: the results will be released on orbefore 30^th October, 2021.

l Awarding ceremony: paper certificate will be issued.

3.Entry rules

o   Contest content

o   Half-opened topic: there are two stages for thenumerical modelling on classic rock mechanical problems, e.g. fracturing and granularflow. The first stage is called “white box stage”, in which a group ofexperimental data will be provided for the parameter calibration. After thecalibration, the team is asked to simulate and predict the results under givenconditions. The following stage is black box state The experimental data andreference numerical results of the black box stage will be released after thecontest.

o   Contestants

u   Team Members: The competition is open to allfull-time/part-time graduate students. A team is allowed to have up to threestudents currently studying at the same university, and there are norestrictions on the school and departments of all participated stundets. Thereis also no limit to the number of teams that a university can register.

u   Team Leader: Anystudent in the team can act as the leader, and the leader will become the contact of the team.

o   Contest rules

l Competitionregistration

u Each team can haveone supervisor as a guide, and each student can only participate in one team.However, supervisor can provide supervision andguidance for multiple teams.

u The team candownload the paper template and competition sample task from the officialwebsite(超链接) in advancefor reference.

u After the beginingof the competition, team leader should log on to the website to download thecompetition task.

l   During the contest

u Each teamshould work on the task dependently. It is not allowed to seek help from othersin any way. Team members can use "inanimate resources" such as webpages, books, articles, research reports, and databases, but the originality ofthe works submitted by the team must be declared. If there are any references,please indicate in the text to ensure that they do not infringe theintellectual property rights of others.

u Commercialsoftware or self-made numerical code or open source code can be used.Regardless of the method, reproducible supporting materials are required.(Commercial software includes but not limited to: Ansys, Abaqus, Comsol, Flac,PFC, Udec, 3Dec, RFPA, MatDem, etc. The participating teams need to have thecorresponding copyright license.)

l   Team members are strictly prohibited from postingor sharing content in any form during the competition.The end of the contest

u   The team consultant should name the final work ofthe team with "Team#Number" and submit it as an attachment to thedesignated mailbox(INCR2021@126.com) before the deadline.

u   The submission form is a numerical modelling reportand a result introduction video (within 5 minutes), which requires a completepresentation of the idea of the work, calculation principle, modeling process,results analysis, and innovation of the work, etc. The report should besubmitted in the form of an Adobe PDF electronic file, up to 25 pages   in English, and its readable font must be atleast 12 point font. The video format can be MPEG, AVI, MP4, etc.

u   Except for the team number, the submitted works shallnot show any identifying information such as students, consultants orinstitutions.

Note:

The Expert Committee reserves the right to disqualify teams that violate the rules of the competition or lower their reward levels.

4.Evaluation ofworks

Evaluation is blind, usually ends on the firstweekend three weeks after the end of the contest.

All participating reposts are uniformly identifiedby a unique given number, which is called “Control Number”. Neither theauthor's name nor the university's name should appear in the report.

The judging panel has a presiding judge and severaljudges, and each entry report is independently judged and scored by two judges.If the difference between the two scores is too large, the two judges will beconsulted to see if it is possible to reach an agreement for them. Iffailed, athird judge will be invovled for further evaluation, and a average score willbe calculated based on the scores from the three judges. Finally, all the workswill be ranked according to the score.

5.Award settings

The results of this contest are ranked in threecategories: first prize, second prize and third prize. And   Certificates will be issued.

6.Relevant institutions

l   Organizer/Sponsor

u   Discontinuous Deformation Analysis Committee ofInternational Society of Rock Mechanics and Engineering,

u   Committee on Discontinuous Deformation Analysis ofRock and Soil Mass, Chinese Society of Rock Mechanics and Engineering,

u   Tianjin University

u   China University of Geosciences

u   Nanjing University

u   Hebei University of Technology

l   Technical support

In order to ensure the smooth runing of the contest,the Expert Committee and Organizing Committee of the International Numerical ModellingContest of Rock Mechanics and Engineering were set up to be responsible for theguidance, evaluation, organization and publicity of the contest.