ALICE DI DONNA

Since 2019     Geotechnical structures. Role: main professor; level: Master 1, at the University of Grenoble Alpes, Civil engineering (Phitem), Grenoble, France, 70 students, (in French).

Since 2019     Soil mechanics. Role: main Professor; level: 3^rd year of Bachelor degree, at the University of Grenoble Alpes, Civil engineering (Phitem), Grenoble, France, 100 students, (in French).

EDUCATION

2010-2014       Doctoral Program in Mechanics, Laboratory of Soil Mechanics (LMS), EPFL, Lausanne, Switzerland, PhD thesis entitled “Thermo-mechanical aspects of energy piles”, supervisor Prof. L. Laloui, defended on the 30^th of April 2014.

2007-2009       MEng (Laurea degree) in Civil Engineering, Politecnico di Torino, Italy (110/110 with honours), MEng dissertation entitled “Numerical analysis of the Beauregard landslide: time dependent behaviour”, supervisors: Prof. G. Barla (Politecnico di Torino, Italy) and Prof. J. Sulem (École des Ponts, Paris, France).

2008-2009       MSc in Mechanics, Energy, and Solid modelling (Mécanique, Energétique, Modélisation de solides), Erasmus Program, Université Joseph Fourier, Grenoble, France (grade 17.39/20, 1^st Class Honours), Master thesis entitled “Numerical modelling of landslides with FEMLIP”, supervisors: Prof. F. Dufour and Prof. F. Darve (3SR, Grenoble, France).

EMPLOYMENT

2017 to date   Assistant professor at the University of Grenoble Alpes, Laboratoire Sols, Solids, Structures - Risques 3SR, Grenoble, France.

                        Main activities: teaching in civil engineering field and research on THM coupled behaviour of geomaterials, energy geostructures, and energy in geotechnics.

2014 - 2017     Post-Doctoral Research and Teaching Associate at the Politecnico di Torino (Italy).

Main activities: research on energy geostructures and infrastructures, urban planning of geothermal resources, THM numerical analyses, teaching in civil engineering field.

2014 - 2017     Professional Engineer, collaboration with Teknema Progetti srl, Torino (Italy).

                        Main activities: design and modelling of civil engineering and geotechnical structures.

2010-2014       PhD candidate and teaching assistant at the EPFL, Lausanne (Switzerland).

                        Main activities: teaching in civil engineering, experimental and numerical research on energy geostructures, development of advanced constitutive models, design of a laboratory devices and experimental campaigns on soil and soil-structure interface behaviour under non–isothermal conditions, THM numerical analyses of thermo-active structures.

1. Quacquarelli A., Talandier J., Di Donna A., Collin F., Numerical modelling of self-sealing in fractured clayey materials, ACTA Geotechnica, 2024.
2. Di Donna A., Casarella A., Tarantino A., A micro-mechanical insight into the thermo-mechanical behavior of clays, Geomechanics for energy and the environment, 38, 2024.
3. Casarella A., Tarantino A., Richefeu V., Di Donna A. Evaluation and improvement of Gay-Berne interaction potential to simulate 3D DLVO interaction of clay particles, Computers and Geotechnics, 170, 2024.
4. Ma C., An L., Di Donna A., Dias D., Application of machine learning technique to predict the energy performance of energy tunnels, Computers and geotechnics, 166, 2024.
5. Casarella A., Tarantino A., Di Donna A., Revisiting DLVO theory to inform particle-scale modelling of clays, Computers and Geotechnics, 165, 2024.
6. Ma C., Di Donna A., Dias D., Numerical study on the thermo-hydro-mechanical behaviour of an energy tunnel in a coarse soil, Computers and Geotechnics, 151, 2022.
7. Di Donna, A., Charrier, P., Dijkstra, J., Andò, E., Bésuelle, P. The contribution of swelling to self-sealing of claystone studied through x-ray tomography, Physics and chemistry of the earth, 127, 2022.
8. Rotta Loria A. F., Di Donna A. and Zhang M., Stresses and deformations induced by geothermal operations of energy tunnels, Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology, 124, 2022.
9. Ma C., Di Donna A., Dias D. and Zhang T., Thermo-hydraulic and sensitivity analyses on the thermal performance of energy tunnels, Energy and buildings, 249, 2021.
10. Ma C., Di Donna A., Dias D. and Zhang J., Numerical investigations of the tunnel environment effect on the performance of energy tunnels, Renewable energy, 172, 1279-1292, 2021.
11. Di Donna, A., Emeriault, F., Demongodin, L., Gobichon, J.F., Aspects géotechniques et énergétiques des géostructures thermoactives : application à un cas d’étude reel. Revue Française de Géotechnique, 164, 4, 2020 (in french).
12. Di Donna, A., Loveridge, F., Piemontese, M., Barla, M., The role of ground conditions on the heat exchange potential of energy walls, Geomechanics for Energy and the Environment, doi.org/10.1016/j.gete.2020.100199, 2020.
13. Avdellidou, C., Di Donna, A., Schltz, C., Harthong, B., Price, M., Peyroux, R., Britt, D., Cole, M., Delbo, M., Mechanical properties of very weak carbonaceous asteroid analogues I: response to hypervelocity impacts, ICARUS, 341, 2020.
14. Barla, M., Di Donna, A., Santi, A. Energy and mechanical aspects on the thermal activation of diaphragm walls for heating and cooling, Renewable Energy, 147 (2), 2654-2663, 2020.
15. Tarantino, A., and Di Donna, A., Mechanics of unsaturated soils: simple approaches for routine engineering practice, Rivista Italiana di Geotecnica, RIG, 4, 2019.
16. Barla, M., Di Donna, A., Insana, A., A novel real-scale experimental prototype of energy tunnel, Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology, 87, 1-14, 2019.
17. Barla, M., Di Donna, A., Energy tunnels: concept and design aspects, Underground Space, 3 (4), 268-276, 2018.
18. Baralis, M., Barla, M., Di Donna, A., Ryzynski, G. and Zerun, M., A study on the potential for thermal activation of the lining for II line North Eastern extension of Warsaw metro, Environmental Geotechnics, 10.1680/jenge.18.00042, 2018.
19. Barla, M., Di Donna, A. and Baralis, M., City scale analysis of subsoil thermal conditions due to geothermal exploitation, Environmental Geotechnics, 10.1680/jenge.17.00087, 2018.
20. Di Donna, A., Cecinato, F., Loveridge, F. and Barla, M. Energy performance of diaphragm walls used as heat exchangers, Proceeding of the ICE, Geotechnical Engineering, 170 (3), 232-245, 2017.
21. Barla, M., Di Donna, A. and Perino, A., Application of energy tunnels to an urban environment, Geothermics, 61, 104-113, 2016.
22. Barla, M., Di Donna, A., Editorial: Special Issue on Energy geostructures. In: Environmental geotechnics, ICE, 3 (4), ISSN 2051-803X, 2016.
23. Di Donna, A., and Barla, M., The role of ground conditions on energy tunnels’ heat exchange, Environmental geotechnics, ICE, 3 (4): 214-224, 2016.
24. Di Donna, A., Rotta Loria, A. and Laloui, L., Numerical study of the response of a group of energy piles under different combinations of thermos-mechanical loads, Computers and Geotechnics, 72, 126-142, 2016.
25. Di Donna, A., Ferrari, A. and Laloui, L., Experimental investigations on soil-concrete interface: physical mechanisms, cyclic mobilisation and non-isothermal conditions, Canadian Geotechnical journal, 53, 1-14, 2016.
26. Rotta Loria A., Di Donna A., Laloui L., Numerical Study on the Suitability of Centrifuge Testing for Capturing the Thermal-Induced Mechanical Behavior of Energy Piles. Journal of geotechnical and geoenvironmental engineering, 141 (10), 2015.
27. Di Donna, A. and Laloui, L., Response of soils subjected to thermal cyclic loading: experimental and constitutive study, Engineering Geology, 190, 65-76, 2015.
28. Di Donna, A. and Laloui, L., Numerical analysis of the geotechnical behaviour of energy piles, International Journal for Numerical and Analytical Methods in Geomechanics, 39, 861-888, 2014.
29. Laloui, L. and Di Donna, A., “Understanding the Thermo-Mechanical Behaviour of Energy Piles: Discussion", Proceedings of ICE Civil Engineering, 165, CE2, 57-58, 2012.
30. Laloui, L. and Di Donna, A., “Understanding the Thermo-Mechanical Behaviour of Energy Piles: Discussion", Proceedings of ICE Civil Engineering, 165, CE1, 14, 2012.
31. Laloui, L. and Di Donna, A., Understanding the Thermo-Mechanical Behaviour of Energy Piles, Proceedings of ICE - Civil Engineering 164, 184-191, 2011.