You are here: Civil Engineering / Our people / Staff / Academic, Research & Teaching Staff

Fernando Alonso-Marroquin

Fernando Alonso-Marroquin photo

Dr. rer. nat.
Senior Lecturer



School of Civil Engineering, Room 407
Phone: +61 2 9351 2128
Fax: +61 2 9351 3343
Email:
Web: Personal page


Modeling and Simulation of complex particulate systems

My main interest is to develop innovative computational methods to improve the understanding of particulate systems: colloids, powders, complex fluids and granular soils.
I enjoy working in numerical simulations, but I always try that my mind is not replaced by the CPU of the computer. That is why sometimes I prefer analytical calculations. After developed an analytical model for the electronic structure of the fullerenes molecules, I escaped from the Quantum Physics and come back to the fascinating world of Newtonian Mechanics. In 1998 I moved to Madrid, where I learned about asymptotic and numerical methods for engineering problems. In 2004 I finished my doctoral thesis in Stuttgart on the study of ratcheting and incremental response of granular soils, using particle-based simulations. In 2004-2005 I participated in the European DIGA project "Degradation and Instabilities of Geomateriales Applied to Hazard Mitigation" in Athens. Motivated in the understanding of natural failures such as earthquakes and landslides, we worked in the connection between micromechanics and the continuum theories. I arrived to Australia In 2005. I founded the group MoSCoS in the University of Queensland, where we developed a generic model to simulate particulate systems with complex morphologies. Currently I am lecturing Computational Geomechanics in the University of Sydney.

Research interests & current/recent research projects

  • Physical Engines & Computer graphics.
  • Numerical simulation of particles in fluids.
  • Multiscale modeling of geological materials.
  • Hybrid continuum/discrete modeling of rocks.
  • Contemporaneous methods for computational geomechanics: Lattice Boltzmann methods, Cellular Automata, Montecarlo Simulations, etc.

Current research projects

  • Effect of particle shape and contact interaction in the rheology of granular materials.
  • Granular flow through a bottleneck and silo flow.
  • Morphological Dynamics: A particle-based simulator for material science and geomechanics.
  • Convective patterns in soil foundations under cyclic loading.

Selected Publications

  • SA Galindo-Torres, F. Alonso-Marroquin, Y. Wang D. Pedroso and JD Munoz Castano, Molecular Dynamics simulation of complex particles in 3D and the study of friction due to non-convexity 3D, Phys. Rev. E 79 060301(R) (2009)
  • F. Alonso-Marroquin and Y. Wang, An efficient algorithm for granular dynamics simulation with complex-shaped objects. Granular Matter (2009) 11:317–329 (2009)
  • Y. Wang and F Alonso-Marroquin. A Finite Deformation Method for Discrete Modeling: Particle rotation and parameter calibration . Granular Matter 11:331–343 (2009)
  • F. Alonso-Marroquin, Spheropolygons: A new method to simulate conservative and dissipative interactions between 2D complex-shaped rigid bodies Europhysics Letters 83 14001(2008).
    [PDF file ].
  • Pena, A. Lizcano, F. Alonso-Marroquin and H. J. Herrmann Biaxial test simulations using a packing of polygonal particles Int. J. Numer. Anal. Meth. Geomech.32(2) 143-160 (2008)
  • F. Alonso-Marroquin, I. Vardoulakis, H. J. Herrmann, D. Weatherley and P. Mora. The effect of rolling on dissipation in fault gouges Phys. Rev. E.74 (1) 031306 (2006)
  • R. Garcia-Rojo, F. Alonso-Marroquin and H.J.Herrmann, Characterization of the material response in granular ratcheting, Phys. Rev. E, 041302 (2005)
  • F. Alonso-Marroquin, S. Luding, H. J. Herrmann and I. Vardoulakis, Role of the anisotropy in the elastoplastic response of a polygonal packing Phys. Rev. E 71, 051304 (2005)
  • F. Alonso-Marroquin and H. J. Herrmann, Ratcheting of granular materials Phys. Rev. Lett. 92, 054301 (2004)
  • F. Alonso-Marroquin and H. J. Herrmann, Calculation of the incremental stress-strain relation of a polygonal packing. Physical Review E, 66, 021301 (2002)

Teaching and Learning

  • CIVL5451 Numerical and Computational Methods in Geotechnical Engineering
  • ENGG1801 Engineering Computing

School & University Service

TBA

Membership of Professional Societies

  • Chair of Minisymposium on Computational Geomechanics, in the World Congress of Computational Mechanics, Sydney July 2010
  • International Reviewer of J. Geotech. and Geoenv. Eng., Phys. Rev. Lett., Phys. Rev. E, Granular Matter, Int. J. of Solid and Structures, Int. J. Mod. Physics, International Journal of Fracture, etc.