Rate My Professor Adam Schwartzkopff

Dr. Adam Schwartzkopff is a Lecturer in the School of Engineering at the University of Western Australia (UWA), specifically within the Department of Civil, Environmental and Mining Engineering, where he serves as a senior lecturer in mining engineering. He earned his PhD in Engineering from the University of Adelaide, awarded on 31 January 2017, with a thesis entitled 'Prediction of breakdown pressures and fracture propagation surfaces in a rock material subject to hydraulic fracturing using intact specimens and specimens with a replicated crack.' During his postdoctoral research, he investigated the prediction of fault mechanics and microseismicity from an in-situ fluid injection experiment into a pre-existing fault using an extended finite element (XFEM) code. He contributes to teaching by coordinating the Fundamentals of Mining Engineering unit (ENSC3011) and participating in Earth Systems Engineering.

Schwartzkopff's current research focuses on 3D failure criteria and constitutive modelling for rock masses, with expertise in rock mechanics, fracture mechanics, hydraulic fracturing, fault mechanics, and numerical modelling. He has produced 14 research outputs listed in the UWA repository. Notable publications include 'A conceptual three-dimensional frictional model to predict the effect of the intermediate principal stress based on the Mohr-Coulomb and Hoek-Brown failure criteria' (International Journal of Rock Mechanics and Mining Sciences, December 2023), 'Numerical modelling of spatially and temporally distributed on-fault induced seismicity: implication for seismic hazards' (International Journal of Coal Science and Technology, December 2023), 'Geometric effect of geological boundary on the stress state of rock mass in a deep sedimentary basin' (EUROCK 2024 proceedings, October 2024), 'Numerical and Analytical Studies on Increasing Near-Fault Fracture Stiffness to Control Induced Seismicity Based on an Equivalent Continuum Modelling Approach' (International Journal for Numerical and Analytical Methods in Geomechanics, 2026), and 'Numerical and experimental investigation of liner wrinkling and strain localisation in mechanically lined pipes under bending' (Applied Ocean Research, January 2026). He is accepting PhD and other Higher Degree by Research students.