Research Team

Exploring critical state behaviour using DEM

Prior to his arrival in HKU, Xin has done his Master degree in Tongji University specialising in Tunnelling and Underground Engineering. He then joined me in September 2011 under the joint PhD program between HKU and Imperial College. He will be spending half of his time in Hong Kong and the other half in London. His project is aimed at examining the effect of samples size, inter-particle friction,  intermediate stress and rotation resistance on the critical-state response of soil observed in DEM simulations. 

He was jointly supervised by Dr C. O'Sullivan.

Xin graduated in September 2014. 6 journal papers were published out from his thesis. He is now working as an Associate Professor at Tongji University. 

Micromechanical modelling of inherently anisotropic rock and its application in borehole breakout analyses

Kang graduated from Shandong University, obtaining both his bachelor and master degrees there. He joined HKU for his PhD study in September 2012. His current research focuses on the study of mechanical behaviors of inherently anisotropic rocks (e.g. shale, schist) under different stress conditions with the use of DEM. A novel numerical approach to represent the microstructure of inherent anisotropic rock by inserting individual weak layers into the bonded-particle model was proposed.The numerical model is validated by comparing the macro- and micro-scale behaviors with those obtained in laboratory. His future work is to apply the proposed model to study field-scale problems, e.g. borehole breakouts in shale formations.

Kang graduated in August 2016. 5 journal papers were published out from his thesis. He received the 1000 talent award and is now working as a Professor at Shandong University.

Micromechanical investigation of the instability of pure sand and sand-rubber mixtures

Juan obtained his Bachelor degree from Universidad del Norte, Barranquilla in Colombia. He joined HKU for his PhD study in September 2012. His project aims to understand the failure mechanisms behind the static liquefaction with the use of DEM. Undrained triaxial tests and constant shear tests will be simulated. DEM analyses will enable us to look at the evolution of fabric and soil skeleton throughout the instability processes. The second part of the research is to investigate the potential use of sand-rubber mixture to mitigate the instability of granular materials. A series of DEM simulations of drained and undrained triaxial compression tests on rubber-soil mixtures with different rubber contents and rubber size were conducted to characterize their mechanical responses at different strain levels, from very small, medium to large strains at critical state under different stress conditions. The outcome of the project will help understanding the different geotechnical structure failure phenomena and enhance the design of rubber-soil mixture for ground improvement. 

Juan graduated in August 2016. 7 journal papers were published out from his thesis. He is now working at AECOM in HK.

Coupled CFD-DEM model for debris flow simulations

Prior to his arrival in HKU, Lu has obtained his Bachelor and Master degree from Tongji University. His PhD study aims towards a thorough understanding of the fluid-particle interaction of debris flow at micro level with the use of an extended CFD-DEM computational method to consider granular flows with free fluid surface. Other fundamental problems relevant to dynamic granular flows, such as grain size segregation, are also studied. Flume tests will be conducted to calibrate the developed numerical tool, and the lab-scale debris flow events will be studied. The outcome will contribute to enhanced estimation of the velocities and depths of debris flows, which is essential for safe, efficient and economical barrier designs.

Lu graduated in January 2017 and worked as a post-doc at Northwestern University in the US. He is going to join Tsinghua University as an Assistant Professor in 2022.  

Coupled LBM-DEM model for submarine landslide simulations

Gengchao graduated with a BEng degree (with First Class Honors) and MSc degree (with Distinction) in Civil Engineering at the University of Hong Kong in 2014 and 2015 respectively. He is now reading a PhD and studying the dynamics of submarine landslides in pore scale with a coupled fluid-particle model (LBM–DEM) for the prediction of runout distance. 

Gengchao graduated in August 2019 and he is now working as an Assistant Professor at Sun Yat-sen University. 

Emerging geomaterials for sustainability and resilience

Prior to his arrival in HKU, Wei has obtained his PhD degree from City University of Hong Kong under the supervision of Prof Matthew Coop. Wei's expertise is in experimental testing . He is currently studying new geomaterials including recycling tyre waste in sand-rubber mixtures as a useful geo-material to enhance sustainability and in-situ cement stabilised soil offshore for sustainable reclamation in Hong Kong.

Wei joined China University of Geosciences as an Associate Professor in September 2020. 

Multiscale modelling of basal roughness for geophysical flows

Shoucheng obtained his Bachelor and Master degree from Hunan University and Tongji University respectively. He joined HKU for his PhD study in September 2019. His project aims to establish a new basal friction model of granular flows from small-scale particle simulations which will then be applied to large-scale continuum simulations of avalanches and debris flows. 

Size effect of cracking behavior of flawed rocks under compression

Sun Yuan obtained both of his Bachelor and Master degrees from Wuhan University. His PhD study aims to understand the cracking process of intact and flawed rocks from laboratory to field scales. 

A multi-scale study on the multiphase flow during CO2 injection into intact saline aquifers 

David Dai  graduated from Shanghai Normal University with a Bachelor degree, during which he spent one year at Edinburgh Napier University. He obtained his Master degree from Imperial College London. In his PhD, he will perform a hydro-mechanical coupled analysis to characterize the multiphase flow in intact reservoir represented by bonded porous media. 

Multiscale modeling of debris flow entrainment 

Wang Teng graduated first class from Harbin Institute  of Technology  with a Bachelor degree. He then went to Imperial College of London for a Master degree. His PhD study aims to link microscopic mechanisms of entrainment with macroscopic change of flow characteristics (rheology) and entrainment rate, thereby establishing a physics-based, predictive modeling framework.

Fluid-induced deformation and fracture in cohesive granular media

Ke Feihu graduated first class from the University of Sydney with a Bachelor degree. He was awarded the University Medal upon graduation. His PhD study aims to investigate the deformation and fracture when a fluid is injected into a saturated cohesive granular media in a Hele-Shaw cell. He is holding the HKU Presidential Scholarship. 

Recycling waste as low carbon geo-materials

Liu Asen graduated from Ocean University of China with a Bachelor degree. He then went to Tianjin University for a Master degree. His PhD study aims to investigate the use of different waste materials to stabilize marine deposits for reclamation projects in Hong Kong .

Modeling debris flow with the aid of AI

Han Xu graduated first class from Tongji University with a Bachelor and a Master degree. He is the receiver of HK PhD Fellowship. 

Bio-cementation of marine deposit using MICP

Yang Hua graduated first class from Tianjin University with a Bachelor degree. He then went to Zhejiang University for a Master degree.  

Recycling incinerator ashes as low carbon geo-materials

Zhang Yanming graduated from South China University of Technology with a Bachelor and a Master degree.