The University of Western Australia
Professor David White
Winthrop Professor
Centre for Offshore Foundation Systems
- Contact details
-
- Address
- Centre for Offshore Foundation Systems
The University of Western Australia (M053)
35 Stirling Highway
CRAWLEY WA 6009
Australia
- Phone
- 6488 3086
- david.white@uwa.edu.au
- Qualifications
- MA MEng PhD Camb.
- Biography
- Professor Dave White is based at the Centre for Offshore Foundation systems within UWA and currently holds an ARC Future Fellowship.
Dave completed his undergraduate (BA, MEng, 1998) and post-graduate (PhD,2002) degrees at the University of Cambridge, and was appointed to a Research Fellowship at St John's College in 2001 and a Lecturership in Cambridge in 2003. He was appointed to a Professorial Fellowship at UWA in 2007.
He has over 10 years of research experience focussing on the mechanics of soils, foundations and pipelines, primarily for the offshore industry. He has led experimental and numerical studies into geotechnical mechanisms at micro- and macro-scale which have been used to understand the behaviour of piles, foundations, pipelines and submarine slides. Simple design methods have been devised, which are widely used in engineering practice.
Particular use has been made of two novel research techniques: (i) image analysis for deformation measurement and (ii) geotechnical centrifuge modelling. PIV analysis software developed by Dave and Dr Andy Take (Queens Univ., Canada) is used at >40 research institutes worldwide and has had a significant impact on geotechnical centrifuge modelling practice.
His research has been supported by the ARC (via the Linkage, Discovery, Linkage International and Future Fellowship schemes), as well as the equivalent funding bodies in Hong Kong and the UK. Industry support has been provided by various oil and gas operators (BHP, BP, Chevron, Petrobras, Shell, Total, Woodside and others through the SAFEBUCK JIP) and service companies (Acergy, Advanced Geomechanics, Benthic, Fugro, Talisman, Technip, WorleyParsons and others also through SAFEBUCK). He has a long-standing link with Japanese industry via collaborations with Giken Seisakusho and Nippon Steel, related to piled foundations.
The outcomes from his research have been disseminated through >150 publications authored during the past 10 years. His papers have been awarded the Bishop Medal, the Telford Premium, the RM Quigley Honourable Mention and the BGA Prize (twice). He was awarded the 2010 Anton Hale Award by the Australian Academy of Science, for distinguished research in earth science. He is active in engineering practice, consulting widely on foundation and pipeline design for the offshore industry via the Perth-based company Advanced Geomechanics.
Dave has served on the editorial boards of three journals and two ISO standard committees (concerned with jack-up foundations and pipelines). He is Secretary of the ISSMGE's Technical Committee 2 (Geotechnical Physical Modelling), and currently leads the geotechnical aspects of the SAFEBUCK Joint Industry Project on on-bottom pipeline design.
- Key research
- Offshore pipelines - geotechnical aspects
- Offshore site characterisation
- Geohazards, submarine slides
- Foundation analysis and design
- Geotechnical centrifuge modelling
- Image-based deformation measurement
- Research profile
- Research profile and publications