Welcome

Our research is directed towards the understanding, modeling, simulation, and quantitative prediction of complex mechanical systems, with special application to geomechanics. We are particularly interested in modeling instabilities in multi-phase porous media under static and dynamic loading by developing robust constitutive models and efficient techniques in computational inelasticity and finite element procedures.

News

Medal Andrade Recognized by the National Assembly of Ecuador
José E. Andrade receives Dr. Vicente Rocafuerte medal for scientific and research accomplishments from the National Assembly of the Republic of Ecuador. [Read more]

Compaction Bands in Sandstone are Permeable
José E. Andrade and colleagues have analyzed X-ray images of Aztec sandstone and revealed that compaction bands are actually more permeable than earlier models indicated. [Read more]

Jose Andrade Professor Andrade Receives the ASCE Arthur Casagrande Professional Development Award
José E. Andrade, Associate Professor of Civil and Mechanical Engineering, has been selected by the Geo-Institute Board of Governors of the American Society of Civil Engineering (ASCE) to receive the 2011 Arthur Casagrande Professional Development Award. [Read more]

Assembly of angular grains in the Granular Element Method (GEM).
GEM contact dynamics simulations of the column drop test.
Rate-dependence of effective friction in a granular material on inertial number, or shear rate, observed through 3D discrete element simulations of polydisperse spheres with a wide variety of inter-particle friction coefficients and coefficients of restitution.
Particle velocities in a 2D simulation of a granular material undergoing rapid plane shearing between two rigid walls composed of particles.
Particles velocities in a 3D simulation of a granular material undergoing rapid plane shearing between two rigid walls composed of particles.
Full-field particle strains obtained using Digital Image Correlation. Strain field is used as an input to the Granular Element Method to reconstruct the force distribution in a granular assembly.
Angular histogram of contact normal orientation during a constant volume compression test. Loading is along the vertical. Notice the ‘peanut’ shape.
Force chains in a 3D granular assembly subjected to constant volume compression. Loading is along the vertical. Stronger chains are thicker and redder in color. Weaker chains are thinner and more bluish in color.
Numerical simulation of an undrained triaxial compression test. The peak of the deviatoric stress path corresponds to onset of liquefaction instability.
Coulomb envelope corresponding to Mohr Circles at different initial confining pressures for a given array of particles and at peak friction angle.
A sequence of images under a slipping wheel is used to visualize localized failure bands in Martian soil simulant.
Individual grains of sand and ooids, extracted from 3d X-ray tomograms using a technique termed 'level-set bridge' and rendered via Paraview.
Noise removal from X-ray images of discontinuous material microstructures. White areas show locations of noise detected using various filtering techniques.