• Reader (Infrastructure and Environment)

telephone: 01413303927
email: Domenico.Gallipoli@glasgow.ac.uk

Follow Dr Gallipoli's work at: http://glasgow.academia.edu/DomenicoGallipoli

Biography

Dr Gallipoli is Reader in Civil Engineering, Head of the Doctoral Programme (PhD) with responsibility for all engineering disciplines, Member of the Graduate School Board of the College of Science & Engineering and Member of the Management Committee of the School of Engineering. While an academic staff at the University of Glasgow, he has also been a visiting lecturer at the University of Strathclyde, UK (2008-2009) where he has contributed to the delivery of a course on Groundwater Flow.

Prior to being appointed Reader in Civil Engineering, Dr Gallipoli was Senior Lecturer in Civil Engineering at the University of Glasgow (2007-2010) and Lecturer in Civil Engineering at Durham University, UK (2002-2007).  While a Lecturer at Durham University, he spent a sabbatical period (2004-2005) at the Universitat Politécnica de Catalunya, Spain as an Invited Research Fellow working with Prof Antonio Gens, funded by the Royal Society of Britain.

Before taking up the lectureship post at Durham University, Dr Gallipoli was the recipient of an individual “Marie Curie” Fellowship funded by the European Commission (2000-2002) to undertake research on constitutive modelling of unsaturated soils at the Universitat Politécnica de Catalunya, Spain.

Dr Gallipoli obtained his PhD degree from the University of Glasgow (2000) with a dissertation on “Constitutive and Numerical Modelling of Unsaturated Soils” under the supervision of Prof Simon Wheeler and Dr Minna Karstunen.

During his doctoral studies Dr Gallipoli also received funding from the Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (Italian National Research Council) to undertake numerical investigation on the effect of pressuremeter expansion rate in unsaturated clayey soils.

Prior to embarking on the PhD, Dr Gallipoli graduated “cum laude” as Civil Engineer from the Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II, Italy (1996) with a dissertation on “Slope Deformations due to an Increment of the Stress State" ("Deformazioni di un pendio dovute ad un incremento dello stato tensionale") under the supervision of Prof Luciano Picarelli and Dr Trevor Davies. The work was partly carried out as a visiting Erasmus student at the University of Glasgow funded by the European Commission.

Research interests

Dr Gallipoli has given invited seminars at various institutions worldwide including Imperial College in the UK, Tsinghua University and Tongji University in China, the Universidad Federal Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil, the University of Western Australia in Australia, the Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II in Italy.

Dr Gallipoli has been the Chair of the Géotechnique Symposium-in-Print on Partial Saturation in Compacted Soils, which was held at the Institution of Civil Engineers in London, UK (2011), and a Co-Chair of the 1st European Conference on Unsaturated Soils, which was held at Durham University, UK (2008). He has been a member of the Géotechnique Advisory Panel (2006-2009), which is the Editorial Board of the international journal Géotechnique.

He has been a member of the Technical Committee of the Géotechnique Symposium-in-Print on Thermal Behaviour of the Ground (UK, 2009) and sits (or has sat) on the Technical Committees of several international conferences, including the 1st Pan-American Conference on Unsaturated Soils (Colombia, 2013), the 2nd  European Conference on Unsaturated Soils (Italy, 2012), the 5th International Conference on Unsaturated Soils (Spain, 2010), the 4th Asian Pacific Conference on Unsaturated Soils (Australia, 2009), the 2nd International Conference on Long Term Behaviour of Dams (Austria, 2009) and the 1st International Conference on Long Time Effects and Seepage Behaviour of Dams (China, 2008).

He is an invited panellist for the 2nd European Conference on Unsaturated Soils (2012, Italy) and has delivered panel reports or key-note addresses to the Géotechnique Symposium-in-Print on Thermal Behaviour of the Ground (2009, UK) and the 4th Brazilian Symposium on Unsaturated Soils (2001, Brazil). He was also an invited speaker at the 9th Annual Conference of the British Geotechnical Association (2011, UK), at the Workshop on Climate Change and Slope Stability (2007, Singapore), at the 6th Annual Conference of the British Geotechnical Association (2008, UK). He co-authored one invited paper at the 3rd Asian Conference on Unsaturated Soils (2007, China) and a keynote contribution to the 2nd International Conference on Problematic Soils (2006, Malaysia).

Dr Gallipoli has been Guest Editor of two special issues of the international journal Géotechnique (April and May 2011) devoted to the theme of Partial Saturation in Compacted Soils and has written more than seventy articles on various aspects of soil mechanics, which are published in international journals and peer-reviewed conference proceedings.

Dr Gallipoli has been a scientific referee for eleven international peer-reviewed journals.

Expertise

Dr Gallipoli’s scientific contributions cover a variety of areas in the field of geotechnics including constitutive modelling, computational simulation, laboratory testing and field measurements.

Two long-standing research interests of Dr Gallipoli relate to: a) the formulation of constitutive models that describe engineering properties of soils taking into account the link between mechanical behaviour and pore water retention and b) the development of finite element codes, incorporating coupled hydro-mechanical material models, for the study of geotechnical boundary value problems. Recent applications of Dr Gallipoli’s research relate to the effects of soil heterogeneity on the response of geo-structures to water infiltration and to the in-situ characterization of engineering soil properties with particular emphasis on the interpretation of pressuremeter tests in unsaturated soils.

In recent years, Dr Gallipoli’s research has mainly focused on laboratory testing, environmental scanning electron microscopy and development of field instrumentation.

Dr Gallipoli has secured research funding from several public and industrial institutions including a total of about 1,715,000 Euros from the European Commission, a total of about 320,000 Pounds from EPSRC (i.e. the British council for funding research in engineering and physical sciences), a total of 24,000 Pounds from the company Wykeham Farrance Limited and other smaller grants from the Royal Society of Britain and the Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (i.e. the Italian National Research Council).

In collaboration with the company Wykeham Farrance Limited (one of the largest international manufacturers of soil testing equipment) and co-workers at Durham University, Dr Gallipoli developed a tensiometer probe capable of continuously measuring negative pore water pressures in soils at values lower than -1600 kPa. This probe has been used in the development of innovative laboratory and field techniques for controlling or measuring suction in unsaturated soils.

Dr Gallipoli has been the Coordinator of the “Marie Curie” Research Training Network on “Mechanics of Unsaturated Soils for Engineering” (MUSE - http://muse.dur.ac.uk) (2004- 2008). This was a four years project that has been funded by the European Commission with a budget of about 1,250,000 Euros. During the course of the project, the MUSE network has undertaken an extensive cooperative programme of training and research in the areas of laboratory testing, numerical modelling and field applications relevant to unsaturated soils. The MUSE network has involved six European universities (the Universitat Politécnica de Catalunya in Spain, the Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées in France, the Università degli Studi di Trento in Italy, the Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II in Italy, the University of Glasgow in the UK and Durham University in the UK) and five associated industrial partners (Geomod in Switzerland, Geotechnical Observations in the UK, Provincia di Bolzano in Italy, Terrasol in France and Wykeham Farrance Limited in the UK), all of them recognized as key international players in geotechnical engineering.

Dr Gallipoli has also been Scientist in Charge for two “Marie Curie” Fellowships (an Intra-European fellowship and an International Incoming Fellowship) funded by the European Commission, which have focused on experimental activities involving collaborations with universities in Europe (Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II and Università degli Studi di Cassino, both in Italy) and in America (Universidad Mayor de San Simon in Bolivia).

Dr Gallipoli has supervised research projects undertaken by 3 Post-doctoral research assistants, 8 PhD students and 11 MSc students in addition to about 30 undergraduate dissertations.

He has examined research degrees (PhD and MSc) at Imperial College in the UK and at Trinity College in the Republic of Ireland.

Post-doctoral research assistants

1.    Dr Francesca D’Onza (2009-present) –  University of Glasgow

 “Marie Curie” Intra-European Individual Fellow (IEF) funded by the European Commission – Project title: “Small To Large Deformations of Unsaturated Soils: an application to earth structures” (SLADUS)

2.    Dr Juan Carlos Rojas Vidovic (2009-present) –  University of Glasgow

 “Marie Curie” International Incoming Individual Fellow (IIF) funded by the European Commission – Project title: “Anisotropic Response of Unsaturated Soils: a micro-structural approach” (AREUS)

3.    Dr Francesca D’Onza (2007-2008) –  University of Glasgow

 “Marie Curie” Early Stage Fellow (ESF) funded by the European Commission within the framework of the MUSE Research Training Network – Project title: “Benchmarking of constitutive models for unsaturated soils across the MUSE Network”

4.    Dr Youliang Zhang (2005-2007) – Durham University

Post-doctoral Research Assistant funded by an EPSRC research contract – Project title: “Identification of model parameters for unsaturated elasto-plastic models from pressuremeter tests”.

PhD students

1.    Ms Caroline Fahy  - University of Glasgow (1st year)

PhD title: “Corrosion-induced cracking of concrete” – jointly supervised with Dr Peter Grassl

2.    Mr Muayad Al-Sharrad - University of Glasgow (3rd year)

PhD title: “The anisotropic behaviour of unsaturated soils” – jointly supervised with Prof Simon Wheeler

3.    Mr Azril Hezmi - University of Glasgow (writing up)

PhD title: “The unsaturated behaviour of an artificially bonded soil” – jointly supervised with Prof Simon Wheeler

4.    Mrs Thi Minh Hue Le - University of Glasgow (writing up)

PhD title: “The effect of soil heterogeneity on the stability of unsaturated slopes and foundations” – jointly supervised with Prof Simon Wheeler

5.    Dr Joao Paulo Mendes - Durham University (PhD awarded in 2009)

PhD title: “Assessment of the impact of climate change on an instrumented embankment: an unsaturated soil mechanics approach” - jointly supervised with Prof David Toll and Dr Charles Augarde

6.    Dr Zulfahmi Ali Rahman – Durham University (PhD awarded in 2008)

PhD title: “The Engineering Behaviour of a Weakly Bonded Soil including the Unsaturated State” - jointly supervised with Prof David Toll

7.    Dr Sergio Lourenco – Durham University (PhD awarded in 2008)

PhD title: “Suction Measurements and Water Retention in Unsaturated Soils” - jointly supervised with Prof David Toll and Dr Charles Augarde

8.    Dr Wojciech Solowski – Durham University (PhD awarded in 2008)

PhD title: “Unsaturated Soils: Constitutive Modelling and Explicit Stress Integration” - jointly supervised with Prof Roger Crouch

MSc students

1.    Mr Jonathan Young –  University of Glasgow & University of Strathclyde (2011) –

2.    Mr Russell McNaughtan – University of Glasgow & University of Strathclyde (2011) –

3.    Mr Amirhossein Rismanchian – University of Glasgow (MSc awarded 2011)

Dissertation title: “A comparison between proctor and static compaction methods”.

4.    Mr Kunaal Bathia (2010) – – University of Glasgow (MSc awarded 2011)

Dissertation title: “Effect of water content on the unconfined compressive strength of compacted soils”.

5.    Mr Fraser Rennie – University of Glasgow & University of Strathclyde (MSc awarded 2010)

Dissertation title: “Settlement predictions of carse clays at a residential development in Pertshire, Scotland” (in collaboration with company URS Corporation)

6.    Ms Chrisanthi Trigousi –  University of Glasgow (MSc awarded 2008)

Dissertation title: “Volumetric behaviour of soil fills upon wetting”

7.    Mr Teodor Iankov – Durham University (MSc awarded 2005)

Dissertation title: “Benchmarking of Finite Element Computer Codes”

8.    Mr Robert Kamuhangire – Durham University (MSc awarded 2005)

Dissertation title: “Factors affecting the extraction of heat from the ground by ground source heat pumps”

9.    Mr Esteban Litvin di Santo – Durham University (MSc awarded 2005)

Disseratation title: “Parametric study of infiltration in soil slopes” (winner of the 39th Cooling Prize of the British Geotechnical Association)

10.    Ms Alex Booer – Durham University (MSc awarded 2004)

Dissertation title “Finite Element modelling of progressive failure in slopes”

11.    Ms Sarah Walker – Durham University (MSc awarded 2004)

Dissertation title: “The effect of structure on the water retention of soil tested using different methods of suction measurement” (published in Proceedings Advanced Experimental Unsaturated Soil Mechanics, Balkema Publishers, ISBN: 978-0-415-38337-4)

Sample undergraduate dissertations

1.    Mr Martin James Kirkpatrick –  University of Glasgow (2011)

Dissertation title: “Climate change and its potential effect on the built environment”

2.    Mr Kevin McDonald –  University of Glasgow (2009)

Dissertation title: “Tensile strength of compacted soils”

3.    Mr Alan Lindsay –  University of Glasgow (2008)

Dissertation title: “Oedometer testing of clay liners with pore water and salt solutions of different molalities”

4.    Mr Samuel Stephens – Durham University (2003)

Dissertation title: “Influence of initial water content on the strength of a statically compacted clay” (published in Proceedings 5th Brazilian Symposium on Unsaturated Soils, Suprema Gráfica e Editora Ltda, ISBN: 85-98156-04-3)

Dr Gallipoli currently teaches Rock Mechanics and Groundwater to postgraduate students, Ground Engineering to undergraduate students and Engineering Mathematics to undergraduate students.

At the University of Glasgow, Dr Gallipoli has been Co-director (2008-2010) of the Master Programme in Geotechnics, which is jointly run by the University of Glasgow and Strathclyde University with training contributions from engineering consultancies and contractors in the west of Scotland. In this role, he has participated in the design of a new postgraduate programme with significant input from industrial lecturers, which attracts students beyond the conventional engineering remit, from backgrounds such as mathematics, physics and geology.

During his previous appointment as a Lecturer at Durham University, he was Chair of the Board of Examiners (2006-2007) for the Master Programme in Geo-engineering.  At Durham University, he was also responsible for teaching a number of courses at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels and, in particular, he has been responsible for the development and teaching of a new postgraduate course on Unsaturated Soil Mechanics.

Courses currently taught

•    Foundation Mathematics (Modules A and B) –  University of Glasgow (course code: 5MGU)

This course, which is taught to 1st year BEng and MEng undergraduates, covers topics in mathematics such as algebraic equations, trigonometry, analytical geometry and numerical series.

•    Ground Engineering –  University of Glasgow (course code: 90ZN)

This course, which is taught to 4th year BEng and MEng undergraduates, covers the analysis of confined and unconfined aquifers, water movement during pumping from wells, rainfall infiltration at ground surface and unsaturated soil behaviour.

•    Rock Mechanics, Groundwater and Tunnelling –  University of Glasgow & University of Strathclyde (course code: NGES)

This course, which is taught to postgraduates of the MSc programme in Geotechnics, covers the analysis of groundwater movement in soils, the mechanical behaviour of rocks with application to slope instabilities and basic principles of tunnels design.

Courses previously taught

•    Hydrology and the Environment –  Durham University

This course, which was taught to 4th year MEng undergraduates and postgraduates of the MSc programme in Geo-engineering, described the processes involved in the hydrological cycle and introduced the relevant methods for engineering analysis.

•    Coastal Engineering –  Durham University

This course, which was taught to 3rd year BEng and MEng undergraduates, covered the methods of analysis and prediction of waves as well as introducing aspects of sea defence and coastal protection works.

•    GIS Surveying –  Durham University

This course, which was taught to 3rd year BEng and MEng undergraduates, introduced the concepts of GIS for civil engineering surveying. In particular, students were required to produce a three-dimensional representation of an area mapped during a separate field surveying exercise.

•    Unsaturated Soil Mechanics  –  Durham University

This course, which was taught to postgraduates of the MSc programme in Geo-engineering, introduced the fundamental concepts of unsaturated soil mechanics as well as the application of such concepts to laboratory testing and engineering design.