Coupled finite element analysis of the construction of a large Italian

embankment dam founded on stiff clay

C. Callari, R. Jappelli, F. Raggi

Università di Roma “Tor Vergata”, Dipartimento di Ingegneria Civile, Roma, Italy
Numer. Models in Geomech. - NUMOG IX, Pande & Pietruszczak (eds), °
c Balkema 2004

ABSTRACT: In this paper, the observed behaviour of Monte Cotugno rockfill dam is numerically investigated.
In the clayey foundation soils, the coupling between the mechanical processes and the interstitial fluid flow
is taken into account through a finite-element formulation of the elasto-plastic consolidation problem. The
embankment construction is simulated by means of a layered analysis. A good agreement between calculated
and measured embankment settlements is achieved by means of a proper setting of model parameters, mesh
geometry, boundary conditions and analysis steps. Conclusions on the mechanical response of embankment
and foundation soils are obtained from a comparison among observed dam behaviour, numerical results and
available laboratory test data.

1 INTRODUCTION perimental data on coarse-grained materials are sel-

Stiff clayey formations are widely spread in Italy dom available in practical applications, thus making
and they are often involved by important engineering difficult an a-priori indentification of the several pa-
works, like tunnels and dams (ITCOLD 1964, Jappelli rameters typically characterizing advanced constitu-
1979, Lollino et al. 2002). As a consequence, a num- tive laws.
ber of studies have been devoted to geotechnical char- As regards the clayey soils, a research goal is to
acterization and constitutive modeling of these over- evaluate the influence on the overall response of the
consolidated soils (Croce et al. 1969, Burland et al. embankment-foundation system exerted by the vari-
1996, Cotecchia & Chandler 1997). In this work, we ous aspects of the constitutive behaviour observed in
present the main results of a numerical study of the available laboratory tests.
observed behaviour of Monte Cotugno rockfill dam, Accordingly, the rest of the paper is organized
which is founded on a stiff pliocene clayey formation. as follows. Descriptions of dam performance and of
In comparison with the consolidation times of these main features of foundation soils and embankment
soils, the five years required by the embankment con- materials are reported in Sections 2 and 3, respec-
struction are not negligible. As a consequence, a sim- tively. The adopted constitutive models and the avail-
plified uncoupled approach assuming an istantaneous able laboratory test data are discussed in Section 4.
(undrained) construction would not be effective. We Finally, in Section 5, we present the numerical simu-
consider then a hydro-mechanically coupled formula- lations of embankment construction and a comparison
tion of the finite element method. between observed and calculated responses.
Uncoupled analyses of homogenous rockfill dams
with bituminous concrete facing are reported in (Pen-
252.00 m
man & Charles 1985, Kovacevic et al. 2002). A cou- 258.00 m 0 20 40 m
(max. reservoir level)
pled approach is considered in (Lollino et al. 2002).
bituminous concr.
In comparison with (Penman & Charles 1985), facing 1 1 drainage blanket
sandy gravel
where a simple elastic law is adopted for rockfill, Ko- reinf. concr. 2 1.7
plinth 193.00 m
vacevic et al. (2002) observe that a Lade-type hard-
ening model can lead to more accurate predictions of alluvial soils
facing displacements induced by reservoir filling. reinf. concr. pliocene soils
diaphragm
However, in the present research, we investigate the
effectiveness of simple models of rockfill behaviour Figure 1. Schematic representation of Monte Cotugno Dam cross
section
in numerical simulation of dam response. In fact, ex-
 260
crest
elevation (m a.s.l.)
240
sep 78
dec 79
dec 80
220
dec 81
dec 82
dec 83
200
foundation
top of clayey formation
180
0 10 20 30
settlement (cm)
Figure 2. Distribution of settlement difference wt − ∆t wF mea-
sured at different time instants along the maximum cross-section
centerline
2 THE OBSERVED BEHAVIOUR OF MONTE
COTUGNO DAM
The homogenous embankment of Monte Cotugno
dam is one of the largest in Europe (maximum height:
65 m, crest length: 1800 m, embankment volume:
11.7 · 106 m3 ) (Cesari et al. 1997). The fill is alluvial
sandy gravel (Jappelli et al. 1981) and an upstream
bituminous concrete facing is used as water barrier
(Jappelli et al. 1999). At the upstream toe, the fac-
ing is connected to a concrete plinth and a watertight
diaphragm is located below the plinth (Fig. 1). The
dam was built between July 1973 and September 1978
on an alluvial soil deposit, about 12 m thick, which,
in turn, covers stiff clayey soils of the Pliocene pe-
riod (Claps et al. 1978, Jappelli 1979, Burragato et al.
1988).
During and after construction, the embankment set-
tlements have been measured in 8 different cross sec-
tions by means of 13 USBR crossarm gages. Since
the beginning of reservoir operation (July 1983), the
response of the dam-foundation system is monitored
also in terms of horizontal displacements and pore
pressures (Callari & Jappelli 2004).
In embankment and alluvium, the consolidation
process was already completed at the end of construc-
tion, as indicated by the analysis of the measured set-
tlements reported in Figure 2 and discussed in the fol-
lowing.
With reference to a generic vertical line passing
through the embankment and the alluvial layer, we
denote by wec and by wt the settlement distributions
at the end of construction and at a generic post-
construction instant t, respectively, and we indicate
with ∆t wF := wt,F − wec,F the settlement increment
at a given point F on the same vertical line, for ex-
ample at foundation. As shown in Figure 2, the distri-
butions of the difference wt − ∆t wF measured at dif-
ferent time instants are practically coincident (i.e. it is
wt = wec + ∆t wF ). Therefore, after the end of con-
struction, further settlement increments in embank-
ment and alluvium are exclusively due to delayed ver-
40
construction reservoir operation
50
settlement (cm)
60 330 m on the right of
the max. cross section
70
80
300 m on the left of
the max. cross section
90
40 50 74 76 78 80 82 84 86 88 90 92 94
time (year)
Figure 3. Measured settlements of two foundation points at dam
centreline
tical strains occurring in the clayey formation. The
foundation settlement wt,F for two points at dam cen-
treline is plotted versus time in Figure 3.
We recall that to evaluate the construction-induced
embankment strains, the settlement distributions mea-
sured during construction are required. Unfortunately,
only the final data (September 1978) are available.
During the embankment construction, the installed
open piezometers indicated the water table as practi-
cally coincident with the ground surface.
3 FOUNDATION SOILS AND EMBANKMENT
MATERIAL
Under the dam, the clayey formation consists of
middle-pliocene (F1) and late-pliocene (F2) soils. The
sands, silts and sandstones of formation F1 and the
marly clays of formation F2 are located beneath the
downstream and the upstream portions of the em-
bankment, respectively. According to (Claps et al.
1978), the separation surface between F1 and F2 has
an upstream oriented dip. However, a detailed ground
profile is not available and the pliocene soils are mod-
eled as a unique formation in the numerical analyses
described in Section 5.
Before dam construction, a number of laboratory
tests were performed on these soils at the University
of Naples (ITFCT 1969). As shown in Figure 4, a
quite spread range of particle-size distributions char-
acterizes the fine-grained portion (sands and silts) of
formation F1. Prevailing clay and silt fractions are ob-
served in F2 marls.
According to the Casagrande chart (Fig. 5), soils F1
and F2 can be classified as inorganic clays of medium
and high plasticity, respectively.
The clayey formation is covered by a deposit of al-
luvial origin. According to (Jappelli et al. 1981), the
grain size distribution of the alluvial soils and of the
embankment material are practically coincident, and
they can be classified as sandy gravels (Fig. 4).
In-situ tests indicated the following permeability
ranges: 4 · 10−7 ÷ 3 · 10− 5 m/s for the alluvial de-
posit and 5 · 10−5 ÷ 4 · 10−4 m/s for the embankment
2
 CLAY SILT
FINE COARSE FINE COARSE 70
SAND SAND GRAVEL GRAVEL
100
60 formation F1
F2

plasticity index (%)

formation F2
% finer (by weight)
80 50
F1
60 40 "A" line
R
30
40
20
20
10

0 0
0.001 0.01 0.1 1 10 100 20 40 60 80 100
grain size (mm) liquidity limit (%)
Figure 4. Particle-size distribution ranges of the foundation soils Figure 5. Casagrande plasticity chart of the foundation soils (ob-
(F1: middle pliocene; F2: late pliocene) (ITFCT 1969) and of the tained from data reported in (ITFCT 1969)
embankment material (R; practically coincident with the alluvial
soil distribution) (Jappelli et al. 1981)
dependence of E 0 on the vertical effective stress σv0 :
material. E 0 (h, H) = Emin
0
+ α σv0 (h, H) (1)
0
4 ADOPTED CONSTITUTIVE MODELS AND where Emin is the Young modulus for σv0 = 0 and α
AVAILABLE LABORATORY DATA is a material costant. At elevation h, the evolution of
The numerical simulations presented in Section 5 are σv0 (h, H) with increasing dam height H can be ap-
performed by means of the commercial finite-element proximately expressed as the ratio between the weight
code Plaxis. In the employed formulation of the con- of the embankment portion contained between h and
solidation problem, we consider the simplest elasto- H, and the dam width at elevation h. Denoting by γ
plastic laws available in Plaxis to model the soil- the unit weight of rockfill, by Hf the final height of
skeleton response of the involved materials. These the dam and setting h = 0 at the foundation level, with
constitutive models are briefly described in the fol- simple geometric arguments, we obtain:
lowing, together with the identification of the corre-
2BHf (H − h) − (B − c)(H 2 − h2 )
sponding parameter ranges on the basis of available σv0 (h, H) ∼
=γ (2)
experimental data. 2BHf − 2h(B − c)

4.1 Alluvial deposit and embankment material
For the alluvial soils, we adopt a simple linear elastic
perfectly plastic model with a non-associative Mohr-
Coulomb yield criterion, defined by the drained cohe-
sion c 0 , the friction angle ϕ 0 and the dilatancy angle
ψ. For the elastic response, we set a constant value of
the drained Poisson coefficient ν 0 and a Young modu-
lus E 0 increasing with depth z, according to the linear
relation: E 0 (z) = E00 + m z, where E00 is the Young
modulus at the ground surface elevation and m is a
material constant.
The same constitutive law is adopted for the em-
bankment material. However, preliminary numerical
back-analyses have shown that an effective simula-
tion of dam construction should take into account the
influence of the effective stress state on rockfill stiff-
ness. Therefore, as an alternative to a non-linear elas-
tic law, we consider a heterogeneous and non-constant
(i.e. changing at every stage) distribution of the elastic
properties in the raising embankment. In particular,
during the layered analysis of the construction phase
(see Section 5), the Young modulus at a generic layer
is set as a proper function of the current embankment
height H and of the considered layer elevation h. This
function is obtained by assuming the following linear
where B and c are the widths of embankment cross-
section at base and at crest elevations, respectively. If
0
we define Emax := E 0 (0, Hf ), from (1) and (2), the
parameter α is obtained as:
0
Emax 0
− Emin
α = 2B (3)
γ(b + c)Hf
4.2 Clayey formation
For the pliocene soils, an elasto-plastic cap-model
available in Plaxis is adopted. The nonlinear elas-
tic law is given in rate form, in terms of the tan-
gent values κ and µ of volumetric and shear stiffness
modulus, respectively. The volumetric response is de-
scribed through the bilogarithmic relations proposed
in (Hashiguchi & Ueno 1977, Butterfield 1979). As
a consequence, the bulk stiffness modulus is a linear
function of the mean effective stress p 0 , in the form
κ = p 0 /κ∗ , where κ∗ is the slope of the overconsoli-
dation lines in the ln v − ln p 0 plane (with v the spe-
cific volume). The dependence of shear modulus on
mean effective stress p 0 is obtained assuming a con-
stant Poisson ratio ν 0 in the relation between µ and κ,
thus leading to a hypoelastic law.
The yield locus consists of a stationary Mohr-
Coulomb surface closed by a simple multi-surface ex-
tension of the Modified Cam-clay model. In this cap,

3
 0.45 4000

middle-pliocene
0.40
formation F1

deviatoric stress q (kPa)

block sample CP-1
0.35 3000
void ratio

block sample CR-1

0.30

0.25 2000
formation F1
block sample CR2
0.20
p'0=400 kPa
p'0=600 kPa
0.15 1000
0.01 0.1 1 10 100
vertical effective stress (MPa)
0.65 formation F2
0
sample S49-7
0.60 late-pliocene (depth: 7.50 m)

excess pore pressure (kPa)

formation F2 p'0=150 kPa
0.55 100 p'0=450 kPa
void ratio

0.50 press. sample S49-4

block sample P3-2
0
0.45
0.40
-100
0.35
0.30 -200

0.25
-300
0.01 0.1 1 10 100 0.0 2.0 4.0 6.0 8.0
vertical effective stress (MPa) axial strain (%)
Figure 6. Representative results of oedometric tests on pliocene Figure 7. Representative results of consolidated-undrained triax-
soils (ITFCT 1969) ial tests on pliocene soils (ITFCT 1969)

the parameter M is not to be understood as the criti-
cal state line slope, but as a material constant defining
the proper shape of the yield surface. In particular,
M is set to optimize the prediction of the horizontal
stress coefficient in primary oedometric compression
(K0N C ). In this sense, the adopted M is calculated as
a function of the K0N C value given by the Jaky’s for-
mula. We refer to Plaxis manual for further details on
this approach.
The aforementioned bilogarithmic relations lead to
a volumetric hardening law for the cap. Denoting by
εpv the plastic part of the volumetric strain, the rate
form of this law is ṗc0 = pc0 ε̇pv /(λ∗ − κ∗ ), where λ∗
is the slope of the normal-consolidation line in the
ln v − ln p 0 plane, and the preconsolidation pressure
pc0 is the stress-like hardening variable conjugated to
εpv . Non-associative and associative flow rules are con-
sidered for the Mohr-Coulomb surface and for the
cap, respectively.
To identify the six parameters (κ∗ , λ∗ , ν 0 , c 0 , ϕ 0 ,
ψ) of this constitutive law, the characterization of
the clayey formation is carried out on the basis of
available results of conventional laboratory tests (IT-
FCT 1969). At the dam site, during the design phase,
67 samples were extracted from 20 boreholes, at
depths ranging from 2 to 83 m, by means of per-
cussion, pressure and rotary techniques. Some block
samples were also extracted from exploration tunnels
and shafts. Unfortunately, only the extraction depth of
borehole samples is available. Furthermore, informa-
tion is lacking on the exact location of boreholes and
the elaboration of a detailed soil profile is then not
possible.
In Figure 6, we report four representative examples
of the ten oedometric compression tests performed on
intact samples. Compared with the late-pliocene for-
mation F2, a stiffer response of the fine-grained por-
tion of F1 soils is observed, as shown also in terms
of the compressibility indexes κ∗ and λ∗ obtained
from oedometric data (Tab. 1). We recall the pres-
ence of uncertainties in the evaluation of isotropic
compressibility parameters, like κ∗ , from oedomet-
ric unloading-reloading results. Furthermore, we ob-
serve that Table 1 reports secant values of κ∗ relative
to the whole unloading branch. On the other hand, if
we consider the tangent slope at the beginning of the
unloading line, index κ∗ ranges between 0.0028 and
0.0120.
For some of the available oedometric curves, it can
be questioned if the maximum applied pressure was
high enough to reach the yield condition. As a conse-
quence, uncertainties can arise in the evaluation of the
elasto-plastic compression index λ∗ and of the pre-
consolidation pressure. Furthermore, the Casagrande
procedure indicates a broad range (1 ÷ 38) for the
overconsolidation ratio OCR, and these values can-
not be interpreted by means of a single sedimentation-
erosion scheme. On the contrary, these results could
indicate the occurrence of complex sedimentation-
erosion cycles, as suggested in (Croce et al. 1969).
Typical “primary” and “secondary” consolidation
responses are observed in the time-settlement curves.
Elaborating the results of the unloading branches, val-
ues between 10−12 m/s and 10−11 m/s are obtained
for the vertical permeability.
Peak values of drained cohesion and friction an-

4
 250 m
Table 1. Parameter ranges for the pliocene formations obtained
from available laboratory test on intact samples (secant values 65 m
relative to the whole unloading branch for κ∗ ; peak values for c 0 12.5 m pw = 0
and ϕ 0 )

formation F1 formation F2

250 m
∗
κ 0.0048 ÷ 0.0091 0.0138 ÷ 0.0255
λ∗ 0.0111 ÷ 0.0369 0.0319 ÷ 0.0564
c0 66 ÷ 244 80 ÷ 143
(kP a) 15 ÷ 110 (disturbance?) 0 ÷ 63 (disturbance?)
ϕ0 37 ÷ 41 32 ÷ 34
(◦ ) 25 ÷ 30 (disturbance?) 11 ÷ 24 (disturbance?)
670 m
Figure 8. Finite element mesh and boundary conditions consid-
ered in the analyses
gle are obtained from the results of 5 drained and
20 consolidated-undrained triaxial compression tests Table 2. Parameters considered in numerical simulations of em-
on intact samples. Representative results of undrained bankment construction
triaxial tests are reported in Figure 7. A softening be-
clayey format. alluvial soils embank. mater.
haviour is apparent and a strongly dilatant response
of the soil skeleton is pointed out by the development γsat 23 kN/m3 20 kN/m3
γ 23 kN/m3
of negative excess pore pressures. On the contrary, a k 5 · 10−9
m/s
softer, ductile behaviour with negligible dilatancy has κ∗ 0.002
been observed in some other tests. In spite of the small λ∗ 0.027
available information, it can be inferred that this latter E00 22000 kP a
mechanical response resulted from some destructur- m 9400 kP a/m
0
Emin 30000 kP a
ing induced by sampling operations. In fact, none of 0
Emax 180000 kP a
the block samples showed such a softer response. ν0 0.3 0.3 0.3
With respect to formation F2, the F1 soils are gen- c0 50 kP a 10 kP a 10 kP a
erally characterized by higher strength parameters, as ϕ0 38 ◦ 40 ◦ 41 ◦
◦ ◦
shown in Table 1. ψ 10 10 10 ◦
OCR 6÷7
5 NUMERICAL SIMULATION OF EMBANK-
MENT CONSTRUCTION
In view of the considerable longitudinal length of the formed with the permeability values suggested by
embankment, plane strain conditions are assumed in in-situ tests on embankment materials and alluvial
the numerical study described in the following. The soils (see Section 3) have shown a practically in-
finite-element computations are performed by means stantaneous dissipation of excess pore pressures in
of the unstructured discretization reported in Figure 8, these granular materials. As a consequence, in the
consisting of 4504 six-noded isoparametric elements. simulations presented in this work, a fully drained
Bottom and lateral boundaries of the mesh are as- response is assumed for rockfill and alluvium. An
sumed as impervious. isotropic permeability k is considered for the pliocene
The hydro-mechanically coupled simulation of formation.
construction calls for an accurate reproduction of the A “K0 -type” state of stress is assumed in pre-
real evolution of dam height H with time t. Unfortu- construction conditions. In particular, the Jaky’s for-
nately, only the total time tf required by embankment mula is considered for the alluvial soils and for
construction is available (about 5 years: July 1973- the embankment material. The expression K0 =
September 1978). The employed expression for H(t) K0N C OCR − ν 0 (OCR − 1)/(1 − ν 0 ) is adopted for
is then obtained by assuming as constant the volu- the clayey soils, where K0N C is calculated again with
metric rate of material placement and compaction. As the Jaky’s formula (see Section 4.2).
shown in Figure 9a, such a construction law is ap- The material parameters adopted in numerical sim-
proximated through the progressive activation of 10 ulations are reported in Table 2.
finite-element layers, 6.5 m thick. For the application During construction, the calculated sequence of is-
to this layered analysis, the combination of equations tantaneous and delayed responses to the progressive
(1) and (2) is rewritten in discretized form. undrained activation of embankment layers is appar-
As suggested in (Eisenstein & Naylor 1986, Nay- ent in Figure 9, both in terms of excess pore pressures
lor & Mattar 1988), a 25% reduction is applied to the in the clayey soils (b) and of settlements at dam foun-
Young modulus of newly activated layers, to limit un- dation (c).
realistic effects of bending stiffness. A good agreement between the measured and the
Preliminary finite-element computations per- calculated settlement distributions at the end of con-
struction (September 1978) and immediately before

5
 70 settlement (cm)
60
(a) 0 20 40 60 80 (a)
embankment
height (m)

50 construction
40
250 0 20 40 60 80
30 FEM
20 first filling 240 measured

elevation (m a.s.l.)
10
0 230 0 20 40 60 80
(b)
pressure (kPa)

400 220
excess pore

300
210
200
200
100 FEM foundation
with boundary:
0 impervious 190
10
pervious (c) 180
20
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90
distance from dam axis (m)
settlement (cm)

30 measured settlement (cm)

330 m on the right of
40
the max. cross section 0 20 40 60 80 (b)
50
250 0 20 40 60 80
60 FEM
240
elevation (m a.s.l.)
70 300 m on the left of measured
the max. cross section
80 230 0 20 40 60 80
73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84
time (year) 220

Figure 9. a) Construction law and employed finite-element ap- 210

proximation. b) Excess pore pressures in a centerline point, im-
mediately below the top of clayey formation. c) Comparison be- 200
foundation
tween measured and calculated time-settlement curves at dam
base (in the pervious boundary case, zero excess pore pressures 190
are imposed)
180
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90
the first reservoir filling (December 1983) is shown distance from dam axis (m)
by the comparisons reported in Figure 10. This result
Figure 10. Comparison between measured and calculated settle-
demonstrates the effectiveness of the simple proce- ment profiles at the end of construction (a, September 1978) and
dure adopted to model the rockfill stiffness and indi- immediately before the first reservoir filling (b, December 1983)
cates the hydro-mechanical coupling as a requirement
for the clayey formation modeling. by extending the mesh as well as the analyzed post-
In the post-construction phase, the numerical construction period, including the filling-drawdown
method shows some difficulties in reproducing the cycles.
measured settlement-time slope (Fig. 9c). A similar In calculations, even setting the minimum OCR
result is noted also in (Lollino et al. 2002), and it is values indicated by available oedometric tests, an
probably due to uncertainties on the real permeability elastic response is obtained in the most part of the
properties characterizing the strongly heterogeneous clayey formation, with the exception of few shal-
pliocene formations and to non negligible viscous ef- low integration points. As a consequence, the over-
fects in the response of the foundation soils. all calculated response of this deposit is mainly con-
We considered both the conditions of restrained trolled by the swelling-recompression bilogarithmic
and free vertical displacements at the lateral sides of index κ∗ . In other words, a clearly overconsolidated
the mesh, with no significant influence on dam set- response of pliocene soils to embankment construc-
tlements. On the contrary, in spite of the distance of tion is indicated by the comparison among the ob-
the mesh boundaries from the embankment, not neg- served behaviour, the numerical results and the lab-
ligible effects of pore-pressure boundary conditions oratory test data.
are apparent in Figure 9b,c. In fact, in fluid-coupled Furthermore, the agreement between calculated
analyses, it is typically observed that a soil domain and observed responses is optimized by adopting the
significantly larger than the geotechnical work size is minimum values of κ∗ obtained from oedometric tests
required to minimize the boundary effects on flow and (i.e. the tangent slopes at the beginning of the unload-
displacement fields (Callari 2004, Callari et al. 2004). ing branch. See Section 4.2 and Table 2) and a ϕ 0 set-
We are currently investigating both these issues

6
ting close to the maximum values indicated by triax-
ial tests on formation F1 (compare Table 1 and Table
2). Therefore, it can be inferred the dominating influ-
ence of the stiffer middle-pliocene formation F1 on
the overall response of the clayey soils.
Finally, we note that the permeability adopted in
finite-element analyses is greater than the maximum
value obtained from laboratory data characterizing the
overconsolidated range (see Section 4.2 and Table 2).
6 CONCLUDING REMARKS
The importance of a hydro-mechanically coupled ap-
proach to the analysis of typical geotechnical prob-
lems is confirmed by the results presented in this pa-
per.
In spite of the complex constitutive behaviour char-
acterizing the involved materials at the laboratory
scale, very simple elasto-plastic models are adopted
in the numerical simulations presented herein, and a
good agreement is obtained with the observed em-
bankment response.
The stress paths followed in such a problem
are mainly compressive and a more advanced con-
stitutive modeling should probably be considered
when also intense shearing paths are involved, as
in stability problems regarding foundations, slopes,
excavations and tunnels. However, in these cases,
strain-localization phenomena are to be expected in
stiff clays; as a consequence, independently on the
adopted model, a non-standard numerical formulation
should be considered (Callari 2004).
Aknowledgements. L. Di Molfetta (Dam Engineer) and P. San-
toro of the ESITF Bari are gratefully acknowledged for their co-
operation in the collection of settlement data. This work has been
partly carried out in the framework of the activities of European
research group Laboratoire Lagrange.
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