Members
Reihaneh Hosseini
Reihaneh is a Research Assistant Professor in the geotechnical group in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Virginia Tech. She received her PhD (2022) and MS (2018) in civil engineering from the University of Texas at Austin and her BS (2016) in civil engineering from the University of Tehran. Her research focuses on grain-scale and pore-scale computational modeling of granular and multiphase fluid systems, with current applications centered on the behavior of geomaterials under complex environmental conditions, such as unsaturated and frozen states, and the implications of these conditions for geohazards and infrastructure performance. Her long-term vision is to build a research program that is highly specialized in modeling capability yet broad in scientific reach, addressing fundamental questions about granular and porous multiphase materials across geomechanics, materials science, planetary science, and beyond.
Sina Sadeghi
Sina is a PhD student in the geotechnical group in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Virginia Tech. He received his MS (2021) and BS (2018) in civil engineering from the University of Tehran. Before joining Virginia Tech, he worked as a software developer and structural designer at StructurePlus, where he developed software for structural optimization. His research focuses on pore-scale numerical modeling of the cone penetration test (CPT) in granular soils, with particular emphasis on capturing drainage behavior and the role of fluid-solid coupling on penetration resistance. He plans to extend this work to unsaturated conditions, motivated by the real-world risk of misinterpreting CPT measurements in tailings deposits where partial saturation can mask low densities and lead to catastrophic failure upon saturation.
Project: Grain- and Pore-Scale Mechanics of Cone Penetration in Granular Soils | Member since: Spring 2024
Clara Toffoli
Clara is a PhD student in the geotechnical group in the Institute of Geotechnics and Construction Management at the Hamburg University of Technology (TUHH), Germany. She received her MS (2021) in geotechnics and her BS (2018) in civil engineering from the University of Brasilia, Brazil. Her current research focuses on pore-scale numerical modeling of multiphase granular material, with focus on understanding effective stresses in such materials. Her previous research includes mining topics and also synchrotron computed tomography of granular materials. Between her MS and PhD, she worked for 1.5 years in a mining consulting company in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, focusing on design and maintenance of tailing dams, dry-stacked tailings and open pit mines.
Project: Micromechanical Behavior of Unsaturated Granular Soils | Member since: Fall 2023
Behrooz Daneshian
Behrooz is a PhD student in the geotechnical group in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Virginia Tech. He received his MS (2016) and BS (2012) degrees in civil engineering from Shiraz University. His research focuses on pore-scale numerical simulation of freezing and thawing processes in saturated and unsaturated granular soils. He has developed a numerical framework capable of simulating pore-scale freezing and thawing behavior in saturated soils. He plans to further extend the framework to model freezing processes in unsaturated soils. This extension aims to improve the understanding of poorly studied pore-scale mechanisms, including the complex interactions among air, water, and ice, as well as cryogenic suction during freezing.
Project: Pore-Scale Freezing Mechanisms in Saturated and Unsaturated Soils | Member since: Fall 2023