John McDougall
John McDougall

Dr John McDougall

Reader

 0131 455 2533

  J.McDougall@napier.ac.uk

  

Biography

I came to Edinburgh Napier in 1996, as a research fellow, following a masters degree in Geotechnical Engineering at Bolton University (1993) and a PhD from the University of Manchester (1996). I became a lecturer here in 2004 and a reader in 2008. When I get round to sorting out my application, I will apply to become an Assoc. Prof.

I began my research career with the development of an innovative geomechanical model - the HBM model, which combined hydraulic, biodegradation and mechanical behaviours for the analysis of the long-term behaviour of landfilled waste. The model was able to predict settlement, leachate discharge and gas production under specified field conditions.

Because the landfill process model focussed on a partially saturated medium, my research shifted towards the measurement of unsaturated states in waste and soils more generally.

More recently, with my colleague, Daniel Barreto, I have been researching the dynamic properties shredded car tyres-soil mixtures with the aim of utilising this mixture as a means of improving the seismic resistance of building foundations.

School

Research Groups

Research Areas

Esteem

Advisory panels and expert committees or witness

  • Dutch Sustainable Landfill Management Project

 

Conference Organising Activity

  • UK Session Co Chair, XVI European Conference in Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering, Edinburgh
  • Conference Organiser & Chair, 5th International Workshop, HPM5 Hydro-physico-mechanics of landfills, 2013
  • Hydro-Physico-Mechanics 3, Technical University Braunschweig, Session Chair

 

Editorial Activity

  • Environmental Geotechnics Special Issue Editorial
  • Geotechnique Symposium in Print, 2009 & 2011
  • Geotechnique Editorial Panel, 2007 - 2010

 

External Examining/Validations

  • Professorial Panel, King Saud University, 2016

 

Invited Speaker

  • "From MSW to Waste Tyres", Indian Institute Science, Bangalore, 2018
  • Dissolution and Precipitation, KAUST, Saudi Arabia, 2016
  • "Earthquake Resilience by Rubber Soil Mixtures", Fukuoka University, Japan, 2016
  • Coupled Phenomena in Environmental Geotechnics, Politecnico di Torino
  • GeoFlorida 2010, ASCE Geo-Institute Annual Congress, "Advances in Analysis, Modeling and Design"
  • "Research and Practice in Waste Mechanics" Panel Member, GeoCongress, New Orleans, 2008
  • 1st Middle European Landfill Conference, Keynote, Budapest, 2008
  • US NSF Workshop on Sustainable Landfills, University of Delaware, 2008

 

Research Degree External Examining

  • PhD External Examiner - Indian Institute Science, Bangalore (2022)
  • PhD External Examiner - Heriot Watt (2022)
  • PhD Exam Cardiff University (2020)
  • PhD External Examiner, University of Southampton
  • MRes, University of Bristol
  • PhD Examination Jury, Universidad de Cantabria
  • PhD Technical University of Delft
  • PhD University of Southampton
  • PhD University of Dundee
  • PhD Strathclyde University
  • PhD University of Southampton
  • PhD University of Southampton
  • PhD Strathclyde University
  • PhD University of Liege
  • PhD University of Southampton
  • MPhil Heriot-Watt University
  • PhD Imperial College

 

Visiting Positions

  • Incoming: Prof Claudio Mahler, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, 9 months
  • Incoming: Dr Marina Miranda, University of Cantabria, 2 months
  • Incoming: Joan Esteban, University Jaume I, Spain, 6 months

 

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41 results

Strategies for One Dimensional (1D) Compression Testing of Large-Particle-Sized Tire Derived Aggregate

Journal Article
Adesokan, D., Fleming, I., Hammerlindl, A., & McDougall, J. (2019)
Strategies for One Dimensional (1D) Compression Testing of Large-Particle-Sized Tire Derived Aggregate. Geotechnical Testing Journal, 42(5), 1336-1358. https://doi.org/10.1520/gtj20170091
Laboratory testing of a mass of large particle sized Tire Derived Aggregate (TDA) to assess performance related properties such as void ratio, compressive creep and hydraulic ...

Estimating degradation-related settlement in two landfill-reclaimed soils by sand-salt analogues

Journal Article
McDougall, J., Fleming, I., Thiel, R., Dewaele, P., Parker, D., & Kelly, D. (2018)
Estimating degradation-related settlement in two landfill-reclaimed soils by sand-salt analogues. Waste Management, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wasman.2018.04.013
Landfill reclaimed soil here refers to largely degraded materials excavated from old landfill sites, which after processing can be reinstated as more competent fill, thereby r...

Review and application of a settlement model for landfills

Conference Proceeding
Esteban-Altabella, J., McDougall, J., Colomer-Mendoza, F., Gallardo, A., & Edo-Alcon, N. (2017)
Review and application of a settlement model for landfills. In International Waste and Landfill Symposium Proceedings
The geotechnical behavior and settlement in landfills has been changing for many years. This behavior in fact depends on many factors and, therefore, making forecasts is compl...

Experimental Assessment and Modelling of Coupled Biochemical-Physical-Mechanical Biodegradation Process of a Municipal Solid Waste Sample from Michigan

Conference Proceeding
Datta, S., Zekkos, D., Fei, X., & McDougall, J. (in press)
Experimental Assessment and Modelling of Coupled Biochemical-Physical-Mechanical Biodegradation Process of a Municipal Solid Waste Sample from Michigan. In Coupled Phenomena in Environmental Geotechnics (6
Municipal solid waste (MSW) is biodegradable in landfills under anaerobic conditions. The evolution of the biochemical, physical and mechanical characteristics of MSW are inte...

An overview of research activities and achievement in Geotechnics from the Scottish Universities Geotechnics Network (SUGN)

Conference Proceeding
Leung, A., Anastasopoulos, I. X., Augarde, C. E., Barreto, D., Brennan, A. J., Brown, M. J. Z., …Zielinski, M. (2015)
An overview of research activities and achievement in Geotechnics from the Scottish Universities Geotechnics Network (SUGN). In Geotechnical Engineering for Infrastructure and Development: XVI European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering (4289-4294
Design of geotechnical systems is often challenging as it requires the understanding of complex soil behaviour and its influence on field-scale performance of geo-structures. ...

Mass loss and volume change: From sand-salt analogues to MSW

Book Chapter
McDougall, J., Fleming, I., Thiel, R., Dewaele, P., Parker, D., & Kelly, D. (2013)
Mass loss and volume change: From sand-salt analogues to MSW. In G. Musso (Ed.), Coupled Phenomena in Environmental Geotechnics (189-197). CRC Press. https://doi.org/10.1201/b15004-19
Results from two sets of laboratory test programmes on sand-salt mixtures in wihch the salt fractions, of different amounts and size, are dissolved are brought together to gat...

Volumetric consequences of particle loss by grading entropy

Journal Article
McDougall, J., Imre, E., Barreto, D., & Kelly, D. (2013)
Volumetric consequences of particle loss by grading entropy. Géotechnique, 63(3), 262-266. https://doi.org/10.1680/geot.sip13.t.002
Chemical and biological processes, such as dissolution in gypsiferous sands and biodegradation in waste refuse, result in mass or particle loss, which in turn lead to changes ...

Particle loss and volume change on dissolution: experimental results and analysis of particle size and amount effects

Journal Article
McDougall, J., Kelly, D., & Barreto, D. (2013)
Particle loss and volume change on dissolution: experimental results and analysis of particle size and amount effects. Acta geotechnica, 8(6), 619-627. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11440-013-0212-0
Soil particles may be lost through dissolution, degradation or erosion. Regardless of the process of loss, there follows a change in soil structure both in terms of phase comp...

Effect of particle loss on soil behaviour.

Presentation / Conference
Kelly, D., McDougall, J., & Barreto, D. (2012, August)
Effect of particle loss on soil behaviour. Paper presented at ICSE-6 6th International Conference on Scour and Erosion
Soil particle loss can result in strength and volume reductions which are difficult to predict. This paper investigates the influence of the removal of fractions of selected p...

Settlement-The Short and the Long of it

Conference Proceeding
McDougall, J. (2011)
Settlement-The Short and the Long of it. In D. Zekkos (Ed.), Geotechnical Characterization, Field Measurement, and Laboratory Testing of Municipal Solid Waste, (76-111). https://doi.org/10.1061/41146%28395%293
Total settlement in municipal solid waste (MSW) landfills can be considerable, from 25% to 50% of original fill thickness (Bjarngard and Edgers, 1990). Some occurs very quickl...

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