DrKaterina Tsiampousi
Reader in Geotechnical Infrastructure
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering - Faculty of Engineering
Orcid identifier0000-0001-7322-0117 (opens in a new tab)
- Reader in Geotechnical InfrastructureDepartment of Civil and Environmental Engineering - Faculty of Engineering
- 020 7594 6020 (Work)
- 440A, Skempton Building, South Kensington Campus, United Kingdom
RESEARCH
OVERVIEW
Geotechnical infrastructure is a fundamental component of all civil engineering infrastructure, encompassing, among others, the man-made slopes that support highways and railways, soil embankments used as flood defences and their foundation soil, the linings that support underground tunnels and the soil around them, deep geological repositories for nuclear waste. Geotechnical challenges relate to both new and existing infrastructure: e.g., how can we design resilient and sustainable new infrastructure; how can we develop new infrastructure to address climate change; how can we extend the life of existing (e.g. Victorian) infrastructure; how has old infrastructure been interacting with the atmosphere and with newer infrastructure; how is this interaction likely to change?
Within this context, I have led, co-ordinated and conducted primarily numerical but also experimental work. I have organised my research into the following themes:
Infrastructure and natural slopes: Infrastructure slopes are man-made slopes that either support civil infrastructure, such as highways and railways, or comprise the civil infrastructure, such as soil embankments used for flood protection and earth dams. Natural slopes also frequently interact with civil infrastructure, e.g. when pipes, roads, highways etc. cross natural slopes. My research has focused on:
• The stability and serviceability of slopes. I am developing advanced constitutive models to replicate the mechanical and hydraulic behaviour of the soil and I am employing them in numerical analyses that simulate such slopes and the mechanisms that trigger stability /serviceability problems, with the aim of understanding and avoiding/mitigating for them.
• The interaction of slopes with vegetation and the atmosphere. Although vegetation can stabilise slopes through the anchoring action of its roots, it frequently causes excessive displacements, which, for example, slow trains down (serviceability issues). My research focuses on developing advanced numerical methodologies for accounting in a realistic and practical manner the effect of vegetation, evapotranspiration and rainfall infiltration into slopes and on utilising these methodologies in numerical analysis in order to explore and propose vegetation management techniques.
Deep Geotechnical Infrastructure: My focus is on:
• Tunnelling and in particular the behaviour of existing segmental linings that have been supporting underground tunnels since the Victorian era. The nature of these tunnels, where segments were bolted together to form rings and rings were bolted together to form tubes, renders establishing their stiffness extremely challenging and until my teams’ cutting-edge research largely unknown. This uncertainty leads to overdesign of new structures in the vicinity of existing segmental tunnels. To address this (and cut the monetary and environmental cost), I have led the development of constitutive models, numerical methodologies and software accounting for the segmental nature of linings.
• Geological disposal of nuclear waste: this will be the biggest ever environmental project in the UK. My research focuses on the thermo-hydro-mechanical (THM) behaviour of the bentonite clay that will be engineered around the waste to isolate it from the environment, and on the THM processes taking place within it. I have led the development of experimental apparatus and techniques to test bentonite under appropriate conditions, and of appropriate mechanical and hydraulic models to simulate its behaviour. These developments are aimed at reducing the uncertainty around the safety case.
Surface and shallow Geotechnical Infrastructure: My focus is on:
• Engineered barriers: I focus on developing novel infrastructure by engineering the soil to (a) accommodate rainfall water and prevent flooding; (b) protect shallow buried infrastructure from seasonal water content changes and associated seasonal displacements (which for instance cause water pipes to burst); (c) resist soil erosion. I collaborate with experimentalists and develop the numerical tools and methodologies necessary to provide proof-of-concept and design guidelines.
• Seawalls: With collaborators in Japan, we used the models and algorithms I developed for unsaturated soils to study how water saturation of the soil underneath seawalls due to wave action contributes to their instability and failure.
CURRENT and RECENT RESEARCH (PhD) STUDENTS
Ethelbert Mezie
2024 - present
Yunxiang Yang
2023 - present
Maryam Sadat
2022 - present
Jiaming Liu
2022 - present
Christos Miltiadis
2021 - present
Dr Agustin Ruiz Lopez
PhD 2022, Development of advanced numerical tools for grey cast iron tunnel linings
Dr Benjamin Guo
PhD 2021, Reuse and sustainability of flood defences
Dr Andrew Kirkham
PhD 2021, Development of a new temperature-controlled oedometer
Dr Giulia Ghiadistri
PhD 2019, Constitutive modelling of compacted clays for applications in nuclear waste disposal
Dr Vasileios Mantikos
PhD 2019, Development of novel apparatus establishing swelling and water retention characteristics of bentonite
Geotechnical infrastructure is a fundamental component of all civil engineering infrastructure, encompassing, among others, the man-made slopes that support highways and railways, soil embankments used as flood defences and their foundation soil, the linings that support underground tunnels and the soil around them, deep geological repositories for nuclear waste. Geotechnical challenges relate to both new and existing infrastructure: e.g., how can we design resilient and sustainable new infrastructure; how can we develop new infrastructure to address climate change; how can we extend the life of existing (e.g. Victorian) infrastructure; how has old infrastructure been interacting with the atmosphere and with newer infrastructure; how is this interaction likely to change?
Within this context, I have led, co-ordinated and conducted primarily numerical but also experimental work. I have organised my research into the following themes:
Infrastructure and natural slopes: Infrastructure slopes are man-made slopes that either support civil infrastructure, such as highways and railways, or comprise the civil infrastructure, such as soil embankments used for flood protection and earth dams. Natural slopes also frequently interact with civil infrastructure, e.g. when pipes, roads, highways etc. cross natural slopes. My research has focused on:
• The stability and serviceability of slopes. I am developing advanced constitutive models to replicate the mechanical and hydraulic behaviour of the soil and I am employing them in numerical analyses that simulate such slopes and the mechanisms that trigger stability /serviceability problems, with the aim of understanding and avoiding/mitigating for them.
• The interaction of slopes with vegetation and the atmosphere. Although vegetation can stabilise slopes through the anchoring action of its roots, it frequently causes excessive displacements, which, for example, slow trains down (serviceability issues). My research focuses on developing advanced numerical methodologies for accounting in a realistic and practical manner the effect of vegetation, evapotranspiration and rainfall infiltration into slopes and on utilising these methodologies in numerical analysis in order to explore and propose vegetation management techniques.
Deep Geotechnical Infrastructure: My focus is on:
• Tunnelling and in particular the behaviour of existing segmental linings that have been supporting underground tunnels since the Victorian era. The nature of these tunnels, where segments were bolted together to form rings and rings were bolted together to form tubes, renders establishing their stiffness extremely challenging and until my teams’ cutting-edge research largely unknown. This uncertainty leads to overdesign of new structures in the vicinity of existing segmental tunnels. To address this (and cut the monetary and environmental cost), I have led the development of constitutive models, numerical methodologies and software accounting for the segmental nature of linings.
• Geological disposal of nuclear waste: this will be the biggest ever environmental project in the UK. My research focuses on the thermo-hydro-mechanical (THM) behaviour of the bentonite clay that will be engineered around the waste to isolate it from the environment, and on the THM processes taking place within it. I have led the development of experimental apparatus and techniques to test bentonite under appropriate conditions, and of appropriate mechanical and hydraulic models to simulate its behaviour. These developments are aimed at reducing the uncertainty around the safety case.
Surface and shallow Geotechnical Infrastructure: My focus is on:
• Engineered barriers: I focus on developing novel infrastructure by engineering the soil to (a) accommodate rainfall water and prevent flooding; (b) protect shallow buried infrastructure from seasonal water content changes and associated seasonal displacements (which for instance cause water pipes to burst); (c) resist soil erosion. I collaborate with experimentalists and develop the numerical tools and methodologies necessary to provide proof-of-concept and design guidelines.
• Seawalls: With collaborators in Japan, we used the models and algorithms I developed for unsaturated soils to study how water saturation of the soil underneath seawalls due to wave action contributes to their instability and failure.
CURRENT and RECENT RESEARCH (PhD) STUDENTS
Ethelbert Mezie
2024 - present
Yunxiang Yang
2023 - present
Maryam Sadat
2022 - present
Jiaming Liu
2022 - present
Christos Miltiadis
2021 - present
Dr Agustin Ruiz Lopez
PhD 2022, Development of advanced numerical tools for grey cast iron tunnel linings
Dr Benjamin Guo
PhD 2021, Reuse and sustainability of flood defences
Dr Andrew Kirkham
PhD 2021, Development of a new temperature-controlled oedometer
Dr Giulia Ghiadistri
PhD 2019, Constitutive modelling of compacted clays for applications in nuclear waste disposal
Dr Vasileios Mantikos
PhD 2019, Development of novel apparatus establishing swelling and water retention characteristics of bentonite
GRANTS
- GRANTImperial CoA EPSRCEngineering & Physical Science Research Council (E1 Aug 2020 - 30 Sep 2021