Dante Fratta

Associate Professor of Geological Engineering, Civil & Environmental Engineering

College of Engineering

Prof. Fratta has extensive background in soil behavior, wave propagation, signal processing, non-destructive evaluation and imaging techniques, including field implementations. Highlights of his experience in related laboratory and field projects include: travel-time and electrical resistivity tomographic imaging of foundation soils, bender element-based process monitoring of soils under changing boundary stresses and suction, rapid methodology for the evaluation of in-situ water content and mass density of soils, monitoring compaction behavior using internal soil deformation and vibration analysis, evaluation of soil stiffness in bases and sub-bases using elastic wave propagation techniques, seismic characterization of embankments, etc. Energy-related applications of his research include geothermal heating and cooling, wind energy foundations, and oil extraction.

  • Fundamental physical behavior of soils and rocks
  • Assessment of the near-surface underground using non-invasive tomographic studies (geotomography)
  • On-shore and off-shore near surface geophysics
  • Evaluation of electrowetting phenomenon for surface tension changes in quaternary oil recovery
  • Instrumenting and monitoring wind turbine foundation responses under cyclic loading
  • Use of distributed fiber optic sensor arrays for imaging and characterizing low and high-temperature geothermal fields