Geomechanics & Geophysics for Energy and the Environment
Duke's Geomechanics and Geophysics for Energy and the Environment (GGEE) research group works to understand and address issues related to underground engineering, exploration, resource use and environmental hazards. Our faculty develop mathematical models to study and predict interactions among the chemical, thermal and mechanical processes in soils and rocks, as well as noninvasive techniques for interrogating and characterizing sub-surface properties.
Applications of our work include exploration and engineering of deep, high pressure/high temperature energy resources such as oil, gas, methane hydrates and hot water or vapor. Unconventional approaches to resource extraction demand integration across science fields, and geomechanics bridges the gap from geology and geophysics to engineering in a way that is only now becoming more widely appreciated in the energy industry. Our research also addresses geo-hazards such as earthquakes, sinkholes, desiccation soil cracking, material degradation, geostructure degradation, landslides and mudslides; geomechanics principles are utilized 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 MS
- Duke's PhD and MS degree programs both offer a focused Geomechanics and Geophysics for Energy and the Environment study track
Master of Engineering (MEng)
- Duke's MEng in Civil Engineering program offers a concentration in Geo-Systems
Undergraduate Research
- Our Major in Civil Engineering offers opportunities to study and conduct research in geomechanics and geophysics
- Duke Engineering also offers summer Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REUs) for students enrolled at other institutions.
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
Assistant 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.
Amilcare Porporato
Adjunct Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Research Interests: Near-wall turbulence, nonlinear analysis of hydrologic time series, stochastic soil moisture dynamics and water balance, soil-atmosphere interaction, and ecohydrology, complexity in the environment, sustainable use of soil and water resources.