Geomechanics & Geophysics for Energy and the Environment
Duke's Geomechanics and Geophysics for Energy and the Environment research group bridges the gap between geology and geophysics. It seeks to understand and address issues related to underground engineering, the exploration of oil, gas, methane hydrates, and more—as well as resource use and environmental hazards.
Hazards we address include earthquakes, sinkholes, desiccation soil cracking, material degradation, geostructure degradation, landslides and mudslides. We use geomechanics principles to assess wellbore stability, reservoir properties, nuclear waste geological disposal, landslide stability and hydraulic stimulations, including hydraulic fracking.
Research Areas
- Chemo-mechanical couplings in geomaterials
- Thermo-plasticity of soils and rocks
- Long-term multi-physics aspects of resilience of geo-structures
- Multi-physics of geological nuclear waste isolation
- Evaporation, drying and cracking of geomaterials
- Multi-physics aspects for friction laws
- Stability and bifurcation of multiphysical systems
- Computational geomechanics
- Non-invasive geophysical characterization of earth subsurface for engineering, energy and environmental applications
- Subsurface contamination and related health issues
- Stability of earth subsurface based on percolation theory
- Multiscale analysis of porous materials
- Stochastic modeling of heterogeneous materials
- Uncertainty quantification for complex systems
Related Study Opportunities
PhD and Master of Science (MS)
- Offers a study track in Geomechanics and Geophysics for Energy and the Environment
Master of Engineering (MEng) in Civil Engineering
- Offers a concentration in Geo-Systems
Undergraduate Research
- Major in Civil Engineering to have an authentic research experience in geomechanics and geophysics
Primary Faculty
Fred K. Boadu
Associate Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Research Interests: How the engineering, environmental and petrophysical properties of porous media (soils, fractured rock, biological tissues) affect measurable geophysical responses, and subsequently develop methodologies by which these properties can be obtained from non-invasive geophysical...
Henri P. Gavin
Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Research Interests: Structural dynamics, earthquake engineering, seismic hazard mitigation for building contents, nonlinear dynamics, system identification, optimal control with application to systems with controllable damping.
Johann Guilleminot
Assistant Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Research Interests: Computational mechanics, mechanics of heterogeneous materials, molecular dynamics simulations and atomistic-to-continuum coupling, stochastic solvers, statistical inverse problem and model validation, stochastic analysis, uncertainty quantification in science and engineering
Tomasz Hueckel
Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Research Interests: Mechanics of materials, theoretical soil mechanics, rock mechanics, theory of plasticity, multi-physics processes in geomechanics, nuclear waste disposal, energy and environmental geomechanics.
Guglielmo Scovazzi
Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Research Interests: Finite element methods, computational fluid and solid mechanics, multiphase porous media flows, computational methods for fluid and solid materials under extreme load conditions, turbulent flow computations, instability phenomena.
Manolis Veveakis
Associate Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Research Interests: Theoretical and applied mechanics, Geomechanics, Irreversible Thermodynamics. Emphasis on the multiphysical modelling of plasticity of solids, solid-fluid interactions, friction laws and rheology of geomaterials
Adjunct Faculty
Lyesse Laloui
Adjunct Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Research Interests: Natural and man-made systems with coupled phenomena. Environmental Geomechanics, Geotechnical and Geo-environmental Engineering, Mechanics of Multiphase Porous Materials. Area of activities at Duke University: Thermo-mechanical behavior of soils, soil desiccation and shrinkage.