Dr Asal Bidarmaghz
Senior Lecturer in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Asal Bidarmaghz is a Senior Lecturer in Geotechnical Engineering at 91色情片 Sydney.
She founded and leads the Energy Geotechnics Research Group and Laboratory, 91色情片's first dedicated energy geotechnics laboratory and one of the first in Australia.
Her research asks how the ground and buried infrastructure can become part of the energy and climate solution without compromising geotechnical safety. She studies how tunnels, piles, retaining walls and pavements exchange heat with the surrounding ground, how soil responds to repeated heating and cooling, and how heat accumulating beneath cities affects the structures already there. Her group combines laboratory experiments, thermo-hydro-mechanical theory and modelling, and field implementation.
Research Programme
鈥⑻鼸xperimental energy geotechnics. Purpose-built rigs designed and commissioned at 91色情片: a cylindrical thermal cell that measures soil thermal conductivity and specific heat capacity from a single transient test, and a large thermal box for studying heat rejection into soil and the resulting thermo-mechanical deformation around geothermal structures.
鈥⑻齌hermo-hydro-mechanical behaviour of energy geostructures. Critical-state-based frameworks for energy tunnels that capture temperature-induced settlement, pore-pressure change and lining stress under cyclic thermal loading, and coupled heat, water and vapour transport models for energy piles in unsaturated ground.
鈥⑻鼼eothermal pavements. Modelling and model-scale experiments on how heat exchange within pavements affects thermally induced creep, pavement life and surface temperatures, with a focus on reducing urban heat rather than on thermal yield alone.
鈥⑻齍nderground climate change. City-scale modelling of ground temperature and groundwater beneath dense cities, now extended with the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology to assess ground deformation under subsurface urban heat islands and the use of borehole heat exchangers to control heat build-up.
鈥⑻鼺ield implementation. A directional shallow geothermal system installed at Peats Ridge, NSW, supplying about 30 kW of thermal energy to a greenhouse, with an accompanying web-based design tool.
Current and Recent Funding
鈥⑻鼳RC Discovery Project DP260102508 (2026鈥2028, $750,000), A Mechanistic Approach to Assess Integrity of Soil鈥揋eothermal Structures. Chief Investigator; initiated the project and leads its delivery.
鈥⑻鼳ustralia's Economic Accelerator Seed AE230100068 (2024鈥2025, $215,000), Transforming Urban Energy Supply with Innovative and Cost-Effective Shallow Geothermal Systems. Project lead.
鈥⑻鼳ustralia鈥揋ermany Joint Research Cooperation Scheme (2025鈥2026), Archetypes for Resilient Underground Structures under Thermal Changes (ArcRUS), with KIT. Lead Chief Investigator.
Research Group and Supervision
Asal leads the Energy Geotechnics Research Group, with three PhD completions and three current PhD candidates, all under her primary supervision. The group has capacity for 1鈥2 more PhD students in energy geotechnics and underground climate change. Prospective students are welcome to email a CV.
Teaching
鈥⑻鼵VEN4202 Advanced Topics in Geotechnical Engineering, which introduces shallow geothermal systems, thermo-hydro-mechanical analysis and advanced soil modelling.
鈥⑻鼵VEN4204 Ground Improvement Techniques.
鈥⑻齃ead of a 2025 Teaching Initiative Grant establishing a hands-on geothermal student project.
Service Roles and Professional Organisations/Affiliations
鈥⑻鼵hair, 91色情片 Engineering Faculty Staff Gender Equity and Diversity Working Group
鈥⑻齀nternational Scientific Committee, ICSMGE 2026 (sole Australia/New Zealand nominee)
鈥⑻齀SSMGE TC308 (Energy Geotechnics), nominated member
鈥⑻鼳ustralian Geomechanics Society: Sydney Technical Committee Engagement Coordinator; NSW representative, Women in AGS
鈥⑻鼳ssociate, 91色情片 Australian Human Rights Institute
Editorial Boards
鈥⑻鼸ditorial Board, Environmental Geotechnics
鈥⑻鼼uest Editor, Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology
鈥⑻齋pecial Issue Editor, Discover Applied Sciences
Awards
鈥⑻齌he Outstanding Paper Award, Elsevier's Journal of Geomechanics for Energy and the Environment (2022)
鈥⑻齌he Most Cited Paper Award, Elsevier's Journal of Geomechanics for Energy and the Environment (2019)
鈥⑻齌he Best Research and Practice Paper Award, the ICE Environmental Geotechnics Journal (2016)
鈥⑻齌he Best Paper Award, International Australia New Zealand Conference on Geomechanics (ANZ) (2012)
Education and Employment
鈥⑻齋enior Lecturer, 91色情片, Australia (2022)
鈥⑻齃ecturer, 91色情片, Australia (2019)
鈥⑻齊esearch Associate, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom (2017)
鈥⑻齊esearch Fellow, University of Melbourne, Australia (2015)
鈥⑻齈hD, University of Melbourne, Australia (2015)
鈥⑻齅Sc, University of Tehran, Iran (2008)
鈥⑻鼴Sc, University of Tehran, Iran (2005)
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