ZSoil History

Initial software developments on ZSoil® started at Zace Services Ltd, Lausanne, Switzerland, in 1982, under supervision of Thomas Zimmermann, with a team composed of Carlos Rodriguez, Basile Dendrou, Blaise Rebora, J.Diaz and Françoise Delaraye, with research experience at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne , U.C.Berkeley, Caltech, and Purdue University.

The original PC version, including essentially single phase media, appeared in 1985 and rapidly raised interest. Later on, M. Howe(Univ. of Cape Town & Univ. of Texas Austin), E. Seker (Tech.Univ.Istanbul & EPF Lausanne) , E. Davalle (EPF Lausanne & UC Berkeley), A.Truty (Tech.Univ.Cracow) contributed to version 2, which appeared in 1990 and already included fully coupled two-phase media. Simultaneously dedicated versions with special capabilities were developed for several major companies.

The early nineties were marked by the start of a 10 years collaboration with the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne and several swiss engineering firms. This collaboration aimed at developing a fully 3D version of ZSoil®. Several laboratories of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne made some contributions to this effort: the Laboratory of Structural and Continuum Mechanics (Prof. Th. Zimmermann, Prof. F. Frey), the Laboratory of Rock Mechanics (Prof. F. Descoeudres), and the Laboratory of Soil Mechanics (Prof. L. Vulliet). New people joined the development team or collaborated for a period of time: A. Urbanski (Cracow Univ. of Technology), K. Podles (Cracow Univ. of Technol.), S.Commend(EPF Lausanne), B.Radic (EPF Lausanne), W.Farra (EPF Lausanne), L.Vernier (ESTI Lille), B.Rutscho (ETS Bienne), D. Alvarez ( Univ.of Catalunya),  A. Wroblewski (Cracow Univ. of Technology), Y.Li (Uni. Beijing, EPF Lausanne), W. Atamaz Sibai ( Univ. of Damascus, Univ. of Swansea UK , EPF Lausanne), A.Wiktor (Cracow Univ. of Technology), and J.-L. Sarf (EPF Lausanne). Several engineering companies supported the development with scientific contributions, validations and financial support: BG ingénieurs conseils SA Lausanne, GEOS ingénieurs conseils SA Genève, GVH ingénieurs conseils SA Tramelan, INTRON B.V., Yverdon, KBM Sion, Schneller-Ritz und Partner AG Ingenieurbüro Brigue, Stucky ingénieurs conseils SA Lausanne, and later Emch + Berger Ing. AG Berne, GeoMod SA and Karakas & Français SA. Intensive collaborations with P.Roelfstra (Delft Univ. of Technol. , EPF Lausanne ), Ph. Menétrey (EPF Lausanne, Univ. of Colorado, Boulder) and R.Obrzud (Cracow Univ. of Technol., EPF Lausanne), in particular, led to significant progress in specific chapters.

Recent ZSoil® developments are coordinated by Prof. Andrzej Truty, professor of geomechanics at Cracow University of Technology, and Chief ZSoil developer at Zace Services Ltd and later GeoDev Sàrl.

Today, ZSoil® is present on five continents and used daily in engineering practice and in academia, for small stability calculations as well as for multi-million engineering projects like the Loetschberg tunnel across the Alps, the extension of the Lausanne subway, and also for dams, tunnels, roadworks, bridges, deep excavations, buildings etc., worldwide. Many such projects are documented in publications downloadable from zsoil.com. Worldwide consulting services are available from GeoDev Sàrl and partners; training courses are organized monthly and some are available online.

Acknowledgements:
Financial support of the Swiss Commission for Technology and Innovation (CTI) and BG ingénieurs conseils SA Lausanne, GEOS ingénieurs conseils SA Genève, GVH ingénieurs conseils SA Tramelan, INTRON B.V., Yverdon, KBM Sion, Schneller-Ritz und Partner AG Ingenieurbüro Brigue, Stucky ingénieurs conseils SA Lausanne under CTI grants 2672.1, 2387.1 and 2995.1, for version 4, and grant 4182.1, for version 6, is acknowledged.Many inspiring discussions with J.P.Wolf (EPFL), T.J.R.Hughes (ICES, University of Texas, Austin), and J-H.Prevost (Princeton University ) throughout the years are also acknowledged.