Ning Lu

Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering

Ning Lu is well known internationally for his work on stresses in variably saturated porous media. His primary research interest is to seek common threads among basic soil physical phenomena including fluid flow, chemical transport, heat transfer, stress, and deformation. He pursues understanding of these phenomena at fundamental levels, including unifying atomic-scale potentials, inter-particle forces, and engineering-scale stresses in soils. He has been working on challenging engineering problems in chemical transport in clayey soil, underground nuclear waste isolation, residential house foundation damage by expansive clays, and, most recently, precipitation-induced shallow landslides. He teaches regularly on mechanics and hydrology of variably saturated porous media with the textbook Unsaturated Soil Mechanics (N. Lu and W. J. Likos, John Wiley and Sons, 2004). He also teaches vadose zone hydrology and landslides with the textbook Hillslope Hydrology and Stability (N. Lu and J.W. Godt, Cambridge University Press, 2012).

Contact

Coolbaugh Hall 336
303-273-3654
ninglu@mines.edu

Education

PhD, Civil Engineering, The Johns Hopkins University
MS, Civil Engineering, The Johns Hopkins University
BS, Geotechnical Engineering, Wuhan University of Technology, China

Other Affiliations

Fellow, American Society of Civil Engineers
Lifetime Member, American Geophysical Union
Fellow, Geological Society of America
Fellow, Engineering Mechanics Institute
Editor, Vadose Zone Journal, Soil Science Society of America
Associate Editor, Geotechnical Testing Journal, American Society for Testing Materials

Awards and Honors

Maurice Biot Medal, American Society of Civil Engineers, 2017
Ralph B. Peck Medal, American Society of Civil Engineers, 2017
Practice Paper of the Year Award, GTJ, ASTM, 2016
J.J. Croes Medal, American Society of Civil Engineers, 2010
Norman Medal, American Society of Civil Engineers, 2007, 2021

Publications

Luo, S., Lu, N., Zhang, C., and Likos, W. Soil water potential: A historic perspective and recent breakthroughs. Vadose Zone Journal, DOI: 10.1002/vzj2.20203, 2022.
Lu, N., Likos, W.J., Luo, S., and Oh, H. Is the conventional pore water pressure concept adequate for fine-grained soils in geotechnical and geoenvironmental engineering?. Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering, DOI: 10.1061/(ASCE)GT.1943-5606.0002612 2021.
Lu, N. Unsaturated soil mechanics: Fundamental challenges, breakthroughs, and opportunities. Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering, DOI: 10.1061/(ASCE)GT.1943-5606.0002233, 2020.
Lu, N., and Zhang, C. Separating external and internal surface area of soil particles. Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering, DOI: 10.1061/(ASCE)GT.1943-5606.0002198, 2019.
Lu, N. Revisiting axis translation for unsaturated soil testing. Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering. 145(7), DOI:10.1061/(ASCE)GT.1943-5606.02819001,2019.
Lu, N., and Zhang, C. Soil sorptive potential: concept, theory, and verification. Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering, DOI: 10.1061/(ASCE)GT.1943-5606.0002025, 2019.
Zhang, C., and Lu, N. What is the range of soil water density? Critical reviews with a unified model. Reviews of Geophysics, DOI: 10.1029/2018RG000597, 2018.
Chen, C., and Lu, N. Generalized equation for soil shrinkage curve. Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering, DOI: 10.1061/(ASCE)GT.1943-5606.0001889, 2018.
Dong, Y., Lu, N., and McCartney, J.S. Scaling shear modulus from small to finite strain for unsaturated soils. Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering, DOI: 10.1061/(ASCE)GT.1943-5606.0001819, 2018.
Lu, N., and Dong, Y. Correlation between soil-shrinkage curve and water-retention characteristics. Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering, DOI: 10.1061/(ASCE)GT.1943-5606.0001741, 2017.
Khorshidi, M., and Lu, N. Quantification of exchangeable cations using soil water retention curve. Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering, DOI: 10.1061/(ASCE)GT.1943-5606.0001732, 2017.
Khorshidi, M., and Lu, N., Akin,I.D., and Likos, W.J. Intrinsic relationship between specific surface area and soil water retention. Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering, DOI: 10.1061/(ASCE)GT.1943-5606.0001572, 2016.
Lu, N. Generalized soil water retention equation for adsorption and capillarity. Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering, DOI: 10.1061/(ASCE)GT.1943-5606.0001524, 2016.
Dong, Y., Lu, N., and McCartney, J.S. Unified model for small-strain shear modulus of variably saturated soil. Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering, DOI: 10.1061/(ASCE)GT.1943-5606.0001506, 2016.
Alsherif, N., Wayllace, A., and Lu, N. Measuring the soil water–retention curve under positive and negative matric suction regimes. Geotechnical Testing Journal, 38, 442-451, 2015.
Lu, N., and Khorshidi, M. Mechanisms for soil-water retention and hysteresis at high suction range. Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering, 141(8), 04015032, 2015. · 87.
Lu, N., and Dong, Y. Closed-form equation for thermal conductivity of unsaturated soils at room temperature. Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering, 141(6), 04015016, 2015. · 86.
Dong, Y., McCartney, J.S., and Lu, N. Critical review of thermal conductivity models for unsaturated soils. Geotechnical and Geological Engineering, 33(2), 207-221, 2015.
Lu, N., Kaya, M., and Godt, J.W. Interrelations among the soil-water retention, hydraulic conductivity function, and suction stress characteristic curves. Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering, 140, DOI:10.1061/(ASCE)GT.1943-5606.0001085, 2014.
Likos, W.J., Lu, N., and Godt, J.W. Hysteresis and uncertainty in soil-water retention curve parameters. Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering, 139(12), DOI: 10.1061/(ASCE)GT.1943-5606.0001071, 2013.
Lu, N., and Kaya, M. A drying cake method for measuring suction stress characteristic curve, soil-water retention, and hydraulic conductivity function. Geotechnical Testing Journal, 36, 1–19, doi:10.1520/GTJ20120097, 2013.
Lu, N., Sener, B., Wayllace, A., and Godt, J. Analysis of rainfall-induced slope instability using a field of local factor of safety. Water Resources Research, 48, W09524, doi:10.1029/2012WR011830, 2012.
Godt, J.W., Sener, B., and Lu, N. Stability of infinite slope under transient infiltration conditions. Water Resources Research, 48, W05505, doi:10.1029/2011WR011408, 2012.
Wayllace, A., and Lu, N. A Transient water release and imbibitions method for rapidly measuring wetting and drying soil water retention and hydraulic conductivity functions. Geotechnical Testing Journal, 35, 1-15, 2012.
Likos, W.J., Lu, N., and Wenzel, W. Performance of a dynamic dew point method for moisture isotherms of clays. Geotechnical Testing Journal, 34(4), GTJ102901, 2011.
Lu, N., Zeidman, B., Willson, C., Lusk, M., and Wu, D.T. A Monte Carlo paradigm for capillarity in porous materials. Geophysical Research Letters, 37, doi: 10.1029/2010GL045599, 2010.
Lu, N., Godt, J., and Wu, D. A closed-form equation for effective stress in variably saturated soil. Water Resources Research, 46, doi:10.1029/2009WR008646, 2010.
Lu, N., Kim, T.H., Sture, S., and Likos, W.J. Tensile strength of unsaturated sand. Journal of Engineering Mechanics, 135(12), 1410-1419, 2009.
Godt, J.W., Baum, R., and Lu, N. Can landslides occur under unsaturated soil conditions? Geophysical Research Letters, 36, L02403, doi:10.1029/2008GL035996, 2009.
Lu, N., and Godt, J. Infinite slope stability analysis under steady unsaturated seepage conditions. Water Resources Research, 44, W11404, doi:10.1029/2008WR006976, 2008.
Lu, N. Is matric suction a stress variable? Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering, 134(7), 899-905, 2008.
Lu, N., and Likos, W.J. Suction stress characteristic curve for unsaturated soils. Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering, 132(2), 131-142, 2006.