Dr. Sérgio D.N. LOURENÇO

Associate Professor (Geotechnical Engineering)
Dr. Sérgio D.N. LOURENÇO

Licenciatura, New University of Lisbon, Portugal
MSc, Kyoto University, Japan
PhD, Durham University, U.K.

 

 

Office: HW 6-21
Phone: +852 3917 2672
Fax: +852 2559 5337
E-mail: lourenco@hku.hk
Homepage: https://www.civil.hku.hk/sergio/

 

Teaching Activities
  • CIVL2006 Soil mechanics
  • CIVL3008 Foundations engineering
  • CIVL6079 Slope engineering
  • CIVL6083 Practical design and construction of tunnels in Hong Kong
  • CIVL7010 Advanced engineering geology

 

Research Interests
  • Soil particle wettability (fundamentals and new materials for ground applications)
  • Landslides (rainfall and earthquake-induced, submarine)
  • Unsaturated soils (lab and field measurements)

 

Representative Research / Consultancy Projects
  • Hydrologic optimum of water repellent soils for slope protection (PI, GRF-HK)
  • Measurement of water menisci contact angles in bulk soil samples (PI, EPSRC-UK)
  • The impact of water repellency on soil mechanics (PI, EPSRC-UK)
  • A new instrument to measure positive and negative water pressure below cavitation in soils (PI, Royal Society - UK)
  • Flume tests for improved forecasting of post-wildfire debris flows (funding Kyoto University)

 

10 Selected Representative Publications
  • Ng SHY, Lourenço SDN (accepted). Conditions to induce water repellency in soils with dimethyldicholorosilane, Géotechnique
  • Lourenço SDN, Woche SK, Bachmann J, Saulick Y. (2015). Wettability of crushed air-dried minerals, Géotechnique Letters 5, Issue July-September, 173-177
  • Lourenço SDN, Wang G-H, Kamai T. (2015). Processes in model slopes made of mixtures of wettable and water repellent sand: implications for the initiation of debris flows in dry slopes, Engineering Geology 196, 47-58
  • Lourenço SDN, Jones N, Morley C, Doerr SH, Bryant R. (2015). Hysteresis in the soil water retention of a sand-clay mixture with contact angles lower than ninety-degrees, Vadose Zone Journal 14, 7
  • Wang G-H., Huang R, Chigira M, Wu X, Lourenço SDN (2013). Landslide amplification by liquefaction of runout path material after the 2008 Wenchuan (M8.0) earthquake, China, Earth Surface Processes and Landforms 38, 3, 265-274
  • Lourenço SDN, Gallipoli D, Augarde C, Toll D, Fisher PC, Congreve A. (2012). Formation and evolution of water menisci at contacts in unsaturated granular media, Géotechnique 62, 3, 193-199
  • Lourenço SDN, Gallipoli D, Toll D, Augarde C, Evans F. (2011). A new procedure for the determination of the soil water retention curve by continuous drying using high suction tensiometers, Can. Geotech. J. 48, 2, 327-335
  • Toll DG, Lourenço SDN, Mendes J, Augarde CE, Tang AM, Cui YJ, Gallipoli D, Vidovic JCR, Pagano L, Mancuso C, Zingariello C, Tarantino A, Hoffmann C, Pozzato A (2011). Soil suction monitoring for landslides and slopes, Quart. J. of Eng. Geol. & Hydrogeol. 44, 1, 23-33
  • Alves T, Lourenço SDN (2010). Structural and depositional features related to gravitational collapse: lateral spreading to hydroplaning on a Late Miocene palaeoslope, Geomorphology 123, 13–33
  • Lourenço SDN, Gallipoli D, Toll D, Augarde C, Evans F, Medero G. (2008). Calibrations of a high suction tensiometer, Géotechnique 58, 8, 659–668

 

For more information of Dr. S.D.N. Lourenço, please visit his personal homepage and HKU Scholars Hub.