DrJoao Antonio Harb Carraro

Dr Antonio Carraro researches Fabric-Sensitive Soil Mechanics and Sustainable, Resilient and Equitable Infrastructure Materials. His research has been sponsored by the American Coal Ash Association, Australian Research Council, BP Exploration & Production, Colorado Dept. of Public Health & Environment, Colorado Dept. of Transportation, Fugro Singapore, GHD, Golder Associates, Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE), Knight Piésold, MWH Global, Norwegian Geotechnical Institute (NGI), Rio Tinto, SRK Consulting, Technip UK, Tetra Tech, United States Dept. of Transportation, Woodside Energy and WorleyParsons, among others.

Dr Carraro is Associate Editor of the ASCE Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering and has served on the editorial boards of Géotechnique and ASCE Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering. He is UK-nominated member of ISSMGE TC221 Tailings & Mine Wastes Committee and former member of ASTM D18 Committee on Soil & Rock.

Dr Carraro earned his PhD in Civil Engineering from Purdue Univ. in the United States and MSc and BSc degrees in Civil Engineering from Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS) in Brazil. Prior to joining Imperial, he was Associate Professor in the Centre for Offshore Foundation Systems at The Univ. of Western Australia, in Perth (Australia), and in the Civil and Environmental Engineering Dept. at Colorado State (United States). In the United States, Dr Carraro taught several undergraduate and postgraduate courses in Civil and Geotechnical Engineering at Purdue and Colorado State universities. He uses High-Quality Experimental Methods and Hands-On Experiential Learning to improve Geotechnical Analysis and Education.

Areas of Expertise:
Fabric-Sensitive Soil Mechanics
- Undisturbed soil properties & geotechnical design

- Fundamental behaviour of tailings & soil mixtures / intermediate soils

- Liquefaction / cyclic loading, undrained instability / phase transformation & specimen reconstitution of tailings, offshore sediments & fluvial / alluvial soils
Sustainable, Resilient & Equitable Infrastructure
- Recycling & beneficial use of waste materials to develop sustainable, resilient and socially-conscious infrastructure

- Sustainable geomaterials & soil stabilisation, e.g. soil-tyre rubber mixtures; waste lime; waste glass; coal mining waste & class-C, class-F and off-specification fly ashes; rammed earth; tailings & mine waste; recycled concrete


High-Quality Experimental Methods & Hands-On Experiential Learning
- Analysis of experimental uncertainty & error

- Machine learning & adaptive control of testing apparatus

- Cyclic hollow cylinder, triaxial & simple shear testing of soils

- Visual Thinking* in geotechnical design & education

*Grandin T. (2022). Visual Thinking - the hidden gifts of people who think in pictures, patterns, and abstractions. Pinguin Random House UK, ISBN: 9781846046872

Experiential Education and Digital Learning

Videos of geotechnical laboratory test methods and calibration procedures were created at Imperial College to support experiential learning and online education of fundamental concepts in Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering. The following videos were developed in compliance with rigorous standard test methods and standard procedures:

Transducer calibration and error analysis;
Particle analysis using a digital scope;
Dry sieving method;
Minimum density and unit weight of sands;
Liquid limit test using the fall cone apparatus (cone penetrometer method);
One-dimensional consolidation test.
Sample clip (34s) from the one-dimensional consolidation test video (© by Dr Carraro)
For additional information about educational videos, please contact Dr Carraro.