DrKaterina Tsiampousi

Dr Katerina Tsiampousi is Reader in Geotechnical Infrastructure, specialising in unsaturated soil mechanics. She completed her undergraduate studies in Civil Engineering at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece, in 2005. She joined Imperial College as a post-graduate in the same year, obtaining an MSc in Soil Mechanics in 2006 and a PhD in Geotechnics in 2011. She has worked at Imperial College since 2011 as a Research Associate, Lecturer and Senior Lecturer.

Katerina has developed numerical algorithms and constitutive models for saturated and unsaturated soils and structural elements for research and commercial Finite Element (FE) codes, such as ICFEP and PLAXIS. She is applying the tools she develops in the numerical analysis of geotechnical infrastructure such as engineered and natural slopes, tunnels and urban excavations, flood embankments and seawalls, geological disposal of nuclear waste.

Her experimental contributions include novel apparatus and techniques for applying and controlling challenging boundary conditions, such as very high suctions and temperatures above and below ambient, in element soil testing for applications in Energy and Environmental Geotechnics.

Katerina is particularly interested in studying the effect of climate change on geotechnical infrastructure, pioneering numerical methodologies for incorporating soil-atmosphere interaction in geotechnical analysis, and in developing engineered barriers for preventing flooding in urban areas, minimising the adverse effects of soil shrinkage and swelling on buried urban infrastructure (e.g. water pipes), and for isolating nuclear waste from the living environment. She aspires to exporting her expertise and research breakthroughs to developing parts of the world, seeking novel and affordable solutions to major problems such as gully erosion in Africa.


Areas of expertise:
THM testing and modelling of geo-materials; modelling of grey-cast iron linings; behaviour of partially saturated media; reliability and risk of geotechnical structures (excavations, tunnels, slopes, foundations, engineered barriers); soil-atmosphere interaction.