Dr David M. G. Taborda

Dr Taborda's research has focussed mainly on computational geomechanics and numerical modelling of soil response. During his PhD studies he developed and implemented two different types of constitutive models for the simulation of wave propagation and liquefaction-related problems: cyclic nonlinear elastic and bounding surface plasticity models. Later, he extended the former to include the main features of small strain behaviour of soils observed under a wide range of static and dynamic solicitations.

Simultaneously, Dr Taborda has been researching on the application of optimisation techniques to the calibration and improvement of constitutive models for soils. He has developed in collaboration with the University of Coimbra, Portugal, a computer code aimed at investigating the performance of Genetic Algorithms as a calibration tool.

More recently, Dr Taborda has been focusing on the Energy Geotechnics, with particular emphasis on the development of a thermo-hydro-mechanical formulation for Geotechnical problems and its application to the design of thermo-active structures. Dr Taborda has also been active in Offshore Geotechnics, as part of the PISA - Pile Soil Analysis project, where he worked on the interpretation of field and laboratory data and their use in the calibration of advanced constitutive models for predicting the accurate response of the next generation of foundations for offshore wind turbines.

• Characterisation of Hostun Sand
• An energy-based interpretation of liquefaction potential
• A new algorithm for evaluating energy dissipation in FE analysis
• A bounding surface plasticity model for sands
• Application of an optimisation technique to the formulation of a new constitutive model

• Development of a new temperature-controlled triaxial cell
• A new coupled Thermo-Hydro-Mechanical formulation for Geotechnical problems
• Numerical methods applied to the modelling of open-loop ground energy systems
• Theoretical study establishing the minimum time-step in coupled THM analysis
• Numerical modelling of thermo-active piles in London Clay

• Field testing of large diameter piles
• Numerical modelling of large diameter piles under lateral loading for offshore wind applications
• New design methods for large diameter piles under lateral loading for offshore wind applications