Webinar details
Partially saturated soils are encountered in many geotechnical and geo-environmental applications, where changes in loading and moisture conditions can significantly influence their deformation and failure behavior. Predicting these responses remains challenging due to the strong coupling between mechanical deformation, water flow, and hydraulic irreversibility. This webinar presents a computational framework for modelling the hydro-mechanical behavior of partially saturated soils across both pre-localization and post-localization regimes. The proposed approach captures the interaction between deformation and saturation, enabling realistic simulation of loading–unloading and wetting–drying processes within a unified constitutive framework.
The framework is further extended to model strain localization and failure, where deformation and saturation become highly non-uniform within shear bands. A two-scale formulation is introduced to account for localization effects and size dependency, providing improved predictions of failure initiation and post-failure behavior under different hydro-mechanical conditions. The constitutive models are implemented within the Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) method, a mesh-free numerical approach particularly suited to large deformations and failure analysis. Numerical examples demonstrate the capability of the proposed SPH framework to simulate complex hydro-mechanical processes in partially saturated soils, offering new opportunities for the analysis of geotechnical failures and the design of safer and more resilient infrastructure systems.
- The webinar will be recorded and will be sent out to registered attendees afterwards.
- A certificate of attendance will be provided to attendees who request one near the end of the live webinar session.
- Please note: the time stated on this event is in UTC. You will need to convert this to your own time zone.
Key takeaways from this webinar
- Understand the key hydro-mechanical mechanisms governing the behavior of partially saturated soils and their influence on deformation and failure processes.
- Explain the differences between pre-localization and post-localization soil behavior, including the role of shear band formation and strain localization in geotechnical failures.
- Evaluate the capabilities of the Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) method for modelling coupled hydro-mechanical behavior, large deformations, and failure processes in partially saturated soils.
Related courses
This webinar/topic relates to our school of Civil Engineering and is particularly found in the following courses:
- 52896WA Advanced Diploma of Civil and Structural Engineering (Materials Testing)
- Bachelor of Science (Civil and Structural Engineering)
- Graduate Certificate in Civil Engineering: (Structural Performance, Monitoring and Management)
- Graduate Certificate in Civil Engineering: Structural
- Graduate Certificate in Safety, Risk and Reliability Engineering
- Master of Engineering – Applied Research (Civil: Structural)
- Master of Engineering (Civil: Structural)
About the presenter
Dr. Dat Gia Phan, Civil Engineer
Dr. Dat Phan is a Civil Engineer, researcher, and educator with over 15 years of combined experience in engineering practice, academic research and university teaching. He holds a PhD in Computational Geomechanics from the University of Adelaide under supervisions of Professor Giang D Nguyen (Adelaide University), Professor Ha H Bui (Monash University) and Dr Terry Bennett (Adelaide University) , where he developed advanced computational models to predict the behavior of unsaturated soils under coupled hydraulic–mechanical processes across both pre- and post-localization regimes. His research focuses on computational geomechanics, including hydro-mechanical coupling, multiphase flow in porous media, internal erosion and large-deformation soil behavior. His work has been published in leading international journals, including International Journal of Plasticity, International Journal of Solids and Structures, and Géotechnique. Through his research, he aims to advance the understanding and prediction of soil behavior and geotechnical failure mechanisms, contributing to safer, more resilient, and sustainable civil infrastructure systems.
Dr. Phan has extensive teaching experience across structural, geotechnical, and infrastructure engineering disciplines. His teaching portfolio includes Strength of Materials, Soil Mechanics, Geotechnical Engineering, Hydraulic Engineering, Finite Element Methods, Structural Steel Design, and Prestressed Concrete Design. Committed to bridging the gap between theory and practice, he incorporates industry case studies, design projects and innovative learning activities into his teaching to help students develop both strong engineering fundamentals and practical problem-solving skills.