Daniel Barreto Gonzalez
Daniel Barreto Gonzalez

Dr Daniel Barreto Gonzalez PhD, MSc, DIC, FHEA

Lecturer T&S

 0131 455 2422

  D.Barreto@napier.ac.uk

   

Biography

Dr Barreto completed his first degree in Civil Engineering at Universidad de los Andes (Colombia) in 2003. After a 2-year period of work in industry as Civil and Geotechnical Engineer, he completed a MSc in Soil Mechanics and Engineering Seismology (2005), and a PhD in Soil Mechanics (2010), both at Imperial College London. Since 2009 Dr Barreto has worked at Edinburgh Napier University where he is Lecturer in Geotechnical Engineering. He is also the Head of the Research Centre for Civil Engineering.

Dr Barreto research involves advanced laboratory testing, and the numerical modelling of soil behaviour using the Discrete Element Method (DEM). Recent research projects relate to dissolving soils, cemented soils, behaviour of rubber/sand mixtures, as well as cyclic behaviour of driven piles and climate change effects in soils.

His research has been published widely in both journals and conference proceedings. He is also contributing author for the textbook "Geotechnical Engineering Design" published by Wiley in 2015. He is also UK member for the technical committee TC105 (Geomechanics micro to macro) of the International Society of Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering, and member of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Young Academy of Scotland. Dr Barreto is member of the Editorial Panel for Geotechnique, Computers and Geotechnics, ICE Proceedings - Geotechnical Engineering and Heliyon (Elsevier's Open Access Multi-disciplinary Journal).

School

Research Groups

Themes

Research Areas

Esteem

Advisory panels and expert committees or witness

  • Member of TC221 – Tailings and MIning Wastes (Technical Committee of the International Society of Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering) – Corresponding member
  • Member of TC105 – Geomechanics Micro to Macro (Technical Committee of the International Society of Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering) – United Kingdom Representative

 

Conference Organising Activity

  • Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering 2023 (NUMGE) - Imperial College London - June 26th-28th: Session Chair for Session 6a on Finite Element/Finite Difference/Discrete Element/Material Point Methods
  • SCG-XIII International Symposium on Landlsides, Colombia - June 15th-19th-2020: International Advisory Committee
  • IS-Glasgow 2019, 7th International Symposium on Deformation Characteristics of Geomaterials - Chair of Session on Laboratory Experimental Techniques: Particle Scale and Fabric
  • Co-chair for Mini-symposium on Characterisation and Modelling of Particle Shape at EMI2020 (International Conference of American Society of Civil Engineers' Engineering Mechanics Institute )
  • Session Chair - GM3 - UK Travelling Workshop in Geomechanics Micro-to-Macro - Glasgow: December 16th - 17th
  • International Scientific Committee Member - 8th International Geotechnical Symposium - Geoteknik 2019
  • International Advisory Panel Member - International Symposium on Geo-Mechanics from Micro to Macro in Research and Practice - IS-Atlanta 2018
  • Mini-Symposium Co-Chair - Discrete Element Simulations of Granular Materials, 6th European Conference on Computational Mechanics. June 11th - 15th, 2018. Glasgow (U.K.)
  • Conference convenor for RRR (Rain, Rivers, Reservoirs) 2016 Conference held in September 26th-30th 2016 at Heriot-Watt University.
  • Organiser for the 5th Meeting of Teachers of Geotechnical Subjects (MTGS) 2016
  • Session leader during the International Symposium on Geomechanics Micro to Macro, IS-Cambridge 2014. Conference held on September 1st – 3rd . Session on DEM modelling of bonded materials and the effect of fine particles on soil behaviour.
  • Local Organising Committee for the International Symposium on Geomechanics Micro to Macro, IS-Cambridge 2014. Conference held on September 1st – 3rd, 2014

 

Editorial Activity

  • Co-editor for themed issue in Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers - Geotechnical Engineering on "Numerical modelling of large strain deformation in geotechnical engineering"
  • Advisory Panel Member - Géotechnique
  • Editorial Board Member - Heliyon
  • Editorial Advisory Panel Member - Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers: Geotechnical Engineering International Journal
  • Editorial Board Member - Computers and Geotechnics

 

External Examining/Validations

  • External Examiner - Leeds Beckett University: MSc Civil Engineering

 

Fellowships and Awards

  • Publons Peer Review Awards 2018 - As one of the top 1% of peer reviewers in Enginnering
  • ASCE International Journal of Geomechanics - Outstanding Reviewer 2018
  • Computers and Geotechnics - Outstanding Reviewer 2018
  • ASCE International Journal of Geomechanics - Outstanding Reviewer 2017
  • Publons Peer Review Awards 2017 - As one of the top 1% of peer reviewers in Earth and Planetary Sciences
  • Certified Sentinel of Science Award 2016
  • ASCE International Journal of Geomechanics - Outstanding Reviewer 2016
  • ASCE International Journal of Geomechanics - Outstanding Reviewer 2015
  • Higher Education Academy (Fellow)
  • Royal Society of Edinburgh Young Academy of Scotland - Member

 

Grant Reviewer

  • Royal Society of Edinburgh - Research Awards - STEMM Sub-Committee Panel Member
  • EPSRC Peer Review Full College Member - Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council
  • Carnegie Research Assessor - The Carnegie Trust for Universities of Scotland
  • EPSRC Peer Review Associate College Member - Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council

 

Invited Speaker

  • The Open Network on DEM Simulations (ON-DEM) - COMPUTER-AIDED ENGINEERING IN RAW MATERIAL PROCESSING AND PARTICULATE MEDIA INDUSTRIES, Montan Universitat Leoben - January 25th, 2024
  • "An introduction to Discrete Element Method (DEM) simulations – Benefits, pitfalls and other thoughts" - National Institute of Technology, Patna (India) - April 12th, 2024
  • The computation of soil water retention curves from particle size distributions: assessing the assumptions - Workshop on physics and -models of granular materials - August 24th, 2023 - Hungarian Academy of Sciences
  • "Open Network on DEM simulation" - Mini-symposium: The future of open-source DEM. Part of 9th International Conference on Discrete Element Methods (DEM9). September 17th –21st, 2023. Erlangen/Germany
  • Soil particle size distribution and its relationship with geotechnical properties - Universidad de Cantabria, Santander (Spain). November 15th, 2023
  • Deltares - EWG-IE Workshop on Internal erosion at the field scale, February 4th, 2021: "Case studies in using internal stability criterion to characterize piping and dispersive soils"
  • Keynote Speaker - ASCE Engineering Mechanics Institute International Conference 2021. March 22nd – 24th, 2021 (Online) (Granular Materials Special Session): "Particle shape, volume and suction control effects on the DEM modelling of water menisci at inter-particle contacts"
  • Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, May 19th, 2021: "Granulometría: un enfoque estadístico y su relación con algunas propiedades geotécnicas"
  • University of St. Andrews, Academic Engagement Workshop- - Energy Technology Partnership, February 12th, 2020: "Energy and geotechnics - Micro to Macro"
  • ICE Publishing, November 5th, 2020: Online webinar - "Publishing your research (for Chinese authors)"
  • Zhongkai University of Agriculture and Engineering, May 27th, 2019: An Introduction to Soil Mechanics
  • Tianjin University (China) - May 30th, 2019: The statistics of particle size distributions, inter-particle contact forces and their relationship with geotechnical properties
  • Tianjin University (China), May 31st, 2019: Mass loss in soils – Influence of soluble particle size and amount as observed in experiments and DEM simulations
  • Zhejiang University (China) - May 21st, 2019 - 32th Lecture at the Geotechnical Forum: The statistics of particle size distributions, inter-particle contact forces and their relationship with geotechnical properties
  • Kasetsart University (Thailand) - January 28th, 2019: Discrete Element Modelling (DEM) for large strain problems in Geotechnical Engineering
  • University of Debrecen (Hungary) - 7th February 2018: Statistical Mechanics Seminar: Contact force entropy of grnaular assemblie sunder one-dimensional compression
  • Invited Speaker - CGED Granular Matter Workshop - Budapest, June 12th 2018
  • Budapest University of Technology and Economics (Hungary) - 6th February 2018: MTA-BME Morphodynamics Seminar: Contact force entropy coordinates – Their relationship with critical states and shearing resistance
  • Keynote Speaker - Joint European Thermodynamics Conference - JETC 2017 (Granular Materials Special Session)
  • Zhejiang University (China) - May 5th 2017: Numerical and experimental research on the behaviour of sand and sand/rubber mixtures
  • Middle East Technical University (Turkey) - September 11th 2017: Offshore Wind and Wave Energy Workshop
  • Experimental observations on the consolidation behaviour of peat - 12th October 2016 for City University London Geotechnical Seminar Series
  • Anisotropy of soil response from micro to macro - Workshop on Anisotropic, heterogeneous and cellular materials. University of Edinburgh, 12 December 2013
  • Mechanics of mass loss using DEM - 5th International Workshop on Hydro-Physico-Mechanics of Landfills (HPM5), Edinburgh Napier University. 10-11 April 2013
  • ENIGMA at Edinburgh Napier - 1st GEO-EXCEL Workshop - University of Strathclyde. April 2- 3 2012
  • Preliminary micro-mechanical observations in dissolving soils - UK Travelling Workshop in Geomechanics Micro to Macro (GM3). Imperial College London. 18-19 December 2011
  • Symposium on Modelling of granular materials: problems and solutions? - University of Dundee. August 6th, 2010
  • Zhejiang University (China) – May 9th, 2014: Some questions regarding the consolidation behaviour of peat.
  • Zhejiang University of Technology (China) – July 14th, 2015: Lecture on the DEM simulation of instabilities in granular materials
  • Zhejiang University of Technology – July 17th, 2015: Lecture on Critical State Soil Mechanics and Cam-Clay Modelling
  • University of Sao Paulo (Brazil) – September 3rd, 2015: Invited lecture on “Rain, Rivers, Reservoirs: a geotechnical perspective”
  • Pontificia Universidad Javeriana (Colombia) – March 17th , 2014 – Effects of mass loss/dissolution on the mechanical behaviour of granular materials.

 

Research Degree External Examining

  • PhD (Candidacy) External Examiner - Universidad de Chile - May 15th, 2023: Javier Necochea - Assessment of the role of particle shape in cyclic behaviour of granular soil by micromechanical modeling
  • PhD (Candidacy) External Examiner - University of Sheffield - April 23rd, 2021: Hang Li - Novel approaches to modelling discrete particle systems
  • PhD External Examiner - Pontificia Universidad Javeriana (Colombia) - February 11th, 2021: Mario Trujillo - Modelling of debris flows with large boulders
  • PhD (Candidacy) External Examiner - Pontificia Universidad Javeriana (Colombia) - June 26th, 2020: Mario Trujillo - Modelling of debris flows with large boulders
  • PhD External Examiner - University of Edinburgh - September 10th, 2019: Joel Keishing - Investigating the micromechanics of granular soils subjected to cyclic loading using discrete element method
  • PhD External Examiner - University of Sheffield, August 1st, 2018: Nicola Lazenby - The behaviour of clay surrounding pile foundation heat exchangers
  • PhD External Examiner - University of Bristol - September 19th, 2017: Grzegorz Andrzej Bialowas - Time and stress dependent mechanical properties of reconstituted chalk

 

Reviewing

  • Iranian Journal of Science and Technology, Transactions of Civil Engineering
  • Journal of Sound and Vibration
  • Marine Georesources & Geotechnology
  • Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers - Geotechnical Engineering
  • Soils and Foundations
  • Acta Geotechnica Slovenica
  • International Journal of Geomechanichs (ASCE)
  • Journal of Mountain Science
  • Construction & Building Materials
  • Journal of Computing in Civil Engineering (ASCE)
  • Geomechanics and Geoengineering – An International Journal
  • Journal of Testing and Evaluation (ASTM)
  • Geotechnique Letters
  • Granular Matter
  • KSCE Journal of Civil Engineering
  • Proceedings of Institution of Civil Engineers: Management, Procurement and Law
  • Acta Geotechnica
  • Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering (ASCE)
  • Particuology
  • European Journal of Engineering Education
  • Computers & Geotechnics
  • Geotechnique
  • Geomechanics and Engineering
  • Canadian Geotechnical Journal

 

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54 results

Housing Construction On Peatland: Phase 1 Report

Report
Bernal-Sanchez, J., McDougall, J., Medero, G., Cook, D., & Barreto, D. (2021)
Housing Construction On Peatland: Phase 1 Report. Edinburgh: Construction Scotland Innovation Centre
The economic development and social resilience of communities in rural Scotland is being hampered by a shortage of affordable housing. Nationally, about 23,000 new homes per y...

Revisiting Hardin’s parameters for the quantification of particle breakage – A statistical entropy approach

Conference Proceeding
Leak, J., Barreto, D., Dimitriadi, V., & Imre, E. (2021)
Revisiting Hardin’s parameters for the quantification of particle breakage – A statistical entropy approach. In Powders & Grains 2021 – 9th International Conference on Micromechanics on Granular Mediahttps://doi.org/10.1051/epjconf/202124907001
It is well recognised that particle breakage in granular materials is affected by stress level, stress path, initial density, and particle size distribution (PSD), amongst oth...

A guide to modeling the geotechnical behavior of soils using the discrete element method

Book Chapter
Barreto Gonzalez, D., & Leak, J. (2021)
A guide to modeling the geotechnical behavior of soils using the discrete element method. In P. Samui, S. Kumari, V. Makarov, & P. Kurup (Eds.), Modeling in geotechnical engineering (79-100). London: Elsevier. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-821205-9.00016-2
This article describes the discrete element method (DEM) for the modeling of the geotechnical behavior of soils. Emphasis is made on a description of the algorithms and capabi...

The Saturated Hydraulic Conductivity Of 2-Fraction Granular Soils And The Internal Stability

Conference Proceeding
Imre, E., Illés, Z., Bálint, Á., Barreto, D., Khaliunaa, A., Tsendsuren, B., …Lizeth Guadalupe, L. L. (2020)
The Saturated Hydraulic Conductivity Of 2-Fraction Granular Soils And The Internal Stability. In Proceedinngs Book of 11th ICEEE – 2020 Conference (267-274
The four grading entropy coordinates can be used for soil classification on the basis of grain size and the grading curve shape (similarly e.g., to the diameter values). The g...

Grading entropy coordinates and criteria for evaluation of liquefaction potential

Conference Proceeding
Barreto Gonzalez, D., Leak, J., Dimitriadi, V., McDougall, J., Imre, E., & Lőrincz, J. (2019)
Grading entropy coordinates and criteria for evaluation of liquefaction potential. In Earthquake Geotechnical Engineering for Protection and Development of Environment and Constructions, (1346-1353). https://doi.org/10.1201/9780429031274
Several methods are commonly used for the evaluation of liquefaction potential in soils. These include criteria based on SPT and CPT tests, shear wave velocity measurements an...

Grading curves and internal stability

Conference Proceeding
Imre, E., Barreto, D., Talata, I., Baille, W., Rahemi, N., Goudarzy, M., …Singh, V. (2019)
Grading curves and internal stability
The measured grading curve is an empirical distribution function, a step function. This is considered here as a discrete distribution with fixed statistical...

Use of Compaction Grouting as Ground Improvement Technique in Compressible Solid Waste Landfill

Conference Proceeding
Tsitsas, G., Dimitriadi, V., Barreto, D., & Ciortan, R. (2019)
Use of Compaction Grouting as Ground Improvement Technique in Compressible Solid Waste Landfill. In Proceedings of the XVII European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineeringhttps://doi.org/10.32075/17ECSMGE-2019-0292
Ground improvement methods are increasingly being used as means to control settlements and improve the shear strength of foundation soils. The compaction grouting (...

A note on seismic induced liquefaction

Conference Proceeding
Imre, E., Lőrincz, J., Trang, P., Barreto, D., Goudarzy, M., Rahemi, N., …Singh, V. (2019)
A note on seismic induced liquefaction. In XVII European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering: Conference proceedingshttps://doi.org/10.32075/17ECSMGE-2019-0979
Any particle size distribution can be characterized by two parameter pairs (derived from the statistical entropy formula of discrete distributions) more effectively than simp...

Reanalysis of some in situ compaction test results

Conference Proceeding
Imre, E., Lorincz, J., Trang, P., Casini, F., Guida, G., Fityus, S., …Singh, V. (2019)
Reanalysis of some in situ compaction test results. In Proceedings of the XVII ECSMGE-2019: Geotechnical Engineering foundation of the futurehttps://doi.org/10.32075/17ECSMGE-2019-0989
Brandl (1977) presents the grading curve results of an investigation of particle disintegration of natural sandy gravel and crushed stone bedding courses due to in situ compac...

Preliminary study on the relationship between dry density of sands and the grading entropy parameters

Conference Proceeding
Imre, E., Lorincz, J., Trang, P., Csonka, I., Kaczvinszki-Szabó, V., Telekes, G., …Singh, V. (2019)
Preliminary study on the relationship between dry density of sands and the grading entropy parameters. In XVII European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering: Conference proceedingshttps://doi.org/10.32075/17ECSMGE-2019-0996
Some earlier data were analysed, searching the relation between the minimum dry density emax and the two grading entropy parameters (mean log diameter and fraction...

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