Mathematical modelling of poro-mechanics of soil

About the Project

Supervisory Team: Tiina Roose and Siul Ruiz

Soil is one of the most complex and important self-assembling organo-mineral composites in the world. All human food supply, ecosystem and infrastructure services depend on soil, yet we have very little understanding of what happens in soil. Developing an understanding of soil composition is important, as climate change is likely to alter soil function. We need to find new robust engineering practices and modify existing ones to enable effective soil resource management.

Combinatorial experiments, involving climate effects, are very expensive and time consuming, hence the development of mathematical models to describe soil processes help design more cost effective and powerful experiments. From our research, we have accumulated a body of novel data to describe soil function and are now able to develop new mathematical models for the mechanical and flow behaviour of partly saturated soils.

Soil is a mixture of grain sizes and minerals but established soil mechanics does not address this non-uniformity and thus prediction of strength and bulk behaviour of real soils has not been addressed before.

In this project we will develop new mathematical models of soil function that allow for the:

• development of new understandings of how soil mechanics and water flow interact
• role plants play in the determination of soil mechanics
• effect of (spatially and temporally) heterogeneous wetting and drying cycles on the soil mechanical behaviour

Entry Requirements

You must have a UK 2:1 honours degree, or its international equivalent, in numerate subject of engineering, physics, chemistry or mathematics.

Closing date: 30 September 2026. Applications will be considered in the order that they are received, the position will be considered filled when a suitable candidate has been identified.

Funding: This project is funded by a Wolfson Fellowship supporting studentships funded by the university.

For more information, please visit our postgraduate research funding pages.

How To Apply

Apply online: Search for a Postgraduate Programme of Study (soton.ac.uk)

You need to:

• choose programme type (Research), 2026/27, Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences
• select Full time or Part time
• search for programme PhD Engineering & the Environment (7175)
• add name of the supervisor in section 2 of the application

Applications should include:

• your CV (resumé)
• 2 academic references
• degree transcripts and certificates to date
• English language qualification (if applicable)

For further information please contact: feps-pgr-apply@soton.ac.uk