Asymmetry and Symmetry in Infrastructure

A special issue of Symmetry (ISSN 2073-8994). This special issue belongs to the section "Engineering and Materials".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 May 2026 | Viewed by 144

Special Issue Editor

School of Highway, Chang'an University, Xi'an, China
Interests: geotechnical engineering; tunnel engineering

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Symmetry and asymmetry serve as fundamental organizing principles that profoundly influence the design, construction, performance, and resilience of civil engineering projects. As the foundation of sustainable infrastructure development, civil engineering must continually address society's evolving needs through innovative infrastructure solutions including tunnels, bridges, foundations, and various geotechnical applications. In these diverse domains, the careful consideration of both symmetrical configurations and controlled asymmetries plays a pivotal role in determining structural stability, efficiency, and long-term durability.

This Special Issue aims to explore the interplay of symmetry and asymmetry across civil engineering subdisciplines. We welcome contributions spanning key subdisciplines such as tunnel engineering, bridge engineering, geotechnical engineering, and the mechanics of various structures.

We look forward to your impactful contributions.

Prof. Yao Li
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • symmetry
  • asymmetry
  • civil engineering
  • tunnel engineering
  • bridge engineering
  • geotechnical engineering
  • structural optimization

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

19 pages, 3516 KB  
Article
Numerical Simulation of Principal Stress Axes Rotation in Clay with an Anisotropic Bounding Surface Model Incorporating a Relocatable Mapping Center
by Nan Lu, Zhe Wang and Hanwen Zhang
Symmetry 2025, 17(10), 1741; https://doi.org/10.3390/sym17101741 - 15 Oct 2025
Abstract
In engineering practice, soils will inevitably experience some rotation of principal stress directions. Recent experimental evidence has highlighted how principal stress axes rotation significantly impacts clay behavior. However, most existing constitutive models accounting for this effect are essentially designed for sand and may [...] Read more.
In engineering practice, soils will inevitably experience some rotation of principal stress directions. Recent experimental evidence has highlighted how principal stress axes rotation significantly impacts clay behavior. However, most existing constitutive models accounting for this effect are essentially designed for sand and may not be applicable to clays. This paper introduces an anisotropic bounding surface model to reproduce the response of clay to principal stress axes rotation. The model’s key innovation lies in its incorporation of a secondary mapping procedure in the deviatoric stress ratio plane, which utilizes a relocatable mapping center. This step is a complement to the conventional radial mapping procedure in the meridional plane, which utilizes a fixed mapping center. This constitutive enhancement facilitates the precise modeling of plastic deformation triggered by the rotation of principal stress axes, without introducing additional loading mechanisms or incremental stress–strain nonlinearity. The performance of the model is first evaluated under various conditions and then verified through comparisons between simulation results and experimental data. The results demonstrate the effectiveness of the model and underscore the necessity of incorporating stress rotation effects into the constitutive modeling of clay. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Asymmetry and Symmetry in Infrastructure)
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