Civil
Engineering

125

Dr. Dieter F. Stolle
 Ph.D. (McMaster), P.Eng.

Office JHE 303
Extension 28600
Email address stolle@mcmaster.ca

 Professor, Civil Engineering

Geotechnical Engineering

Research Interests

  • analytical and numerical modelling of geomechanics problems, as well as industrial processes involving geotechnical/materals concepts;
  • development of constitutive relations for soils and rock for implementation in finite element modelling;
  • reliability studies in geotechnical engineering; and
  • research on highway materials.

Specific Research Interests and Activities:

Finite element modelling research:

  • soil-structure interaction and slope stability;
  • liquefaction of soils under earthquake loading, and post-liquefaction of sand in fluidized state;
  • static and dynamic response of plates and pavements;
  • ice mechanics and biomedical applications;
  • modelling of industrial processes including film-casting process for manufacture of plastic films and thermo-mechanical behaviour of Soderberg electrodes in electric arc furnaces.

Projects have also been undertaken regarding:

  • determination of resilient moduli of granular base for AASHTO design procedure;
  • recycling of bituminous materials and roller compacted concrete;
  • moisture loss in ore stockpile;
  • rate sensitivity of clays;
  • behaviour of cohesionless materials; and
  • moisture transfer in vadose zone.

Ongoing research projects:

  • development of the material point method;
  • modelling of anisotropic behaviour of highway materials and impact of moisture on pavements;
  • use of reclaimed bituminous materials as granular base;
  • two-phase soil behaviour under static and dynamic loading.

Sample Publications

  1. Bashir, R. Smith, J.E. and Stolle, D. (2011) The effect of ionic strength on surfactant-induced unsaturated flow, Canadian Geotechnical Journal, 48:644-654
  2. Stolle, D.,; Jassim, I. and Vermeer, P. (2009) Accurate simulation of incompressible problems in geomechanics, Computer Methods in Mechanics – Lectures of the CMM 2009, Monograph with Editors – M. Kuczma and K. Wilmanski, Springer Verlag, Heidelberg, pp. 347-361
  3. Stolle, D., Guo, P. and Liu, Y. (2009) Resilient modulus properties of granular highway materials, Canadian Journal of Civil Engineering, 36:639-654.
  4. Bashir, R., Stolle, D.F. and Smith, J.E., “A flux-based alternative formulation for variably saturated subsurface flow”, Journal of Hydraulic Engineering, ASCE, 2007, 12,501-512.
  5. Stolle, D.F.E. and Guo, P., “A practical approach to FWD data reduction”, Canadian Geotechnical Journal, 42, 2005, 641-645.
  6. Stolle, D., Guo, P. and Sedran, G., “Impact of random soil properties on stress-strain response”, Canadian Geotechnical Journal, 41, 2004, 351-355.
  7. Stolle, D., Vermeer, P. and Bonnier, P., "Time Integration of a Constitutive Law for Soft Clay", Communications in Numerical Methods in Engineering, 1999, 603-609.
  8. Stolle, D., "An Interpretation of Initial Stress and Strain Methods and Numerical Stability", Int. J. Num. and Analytical Methods in Geomechanics, 15, 1991, 399-416.