Staff profile

Giuliano Pretti is a PDRA in the Department of Engineering at Durham University, focusing on computational mechanics. Before coming to Durham for his PhD programme, he received an MS (cum laude) in Civil Engineering at the University of Brescia in 2018. As part of his Master's thesis, he developed theoretical studies for non-linear constitutive relationships. His current research focuses on the use of the Material Point Method for poro-mechanics and contact problems.

Conference Paper

• Dynamic three-dimensional rigid body interaction with highly deformable solids, a material point approach
  
  Bird, R., Pretti, G., Coombs, W., Augarde, C., Sharif, Y., Brown, M., Carter, G., Macdonald, C., & Johnson, K. (2024). Dynamic three-dimensional rigid body interaction with highly deformable solids, a material point approach. In W. Coombs (Ed.), Proceedings of the 2024 UK Association for Computational Mechanics Conference (pp. 153-156). UK Association for Computational Mechanics and Durham University. https://doi.org/10.62512/conf.ukacm2024.092
• Consequences of Terzaghi’s effective stress decomposition in the context of finite strain poro-mechanics
  
  Pretti, G., Coombs, W. M., & Augarde, C. E. (2024). Consequences of Terzaghi’s effective stress decomposition in the context of finite strain poro-mechanics. In W. M. Coombs (Ed.), UKACM Proceedings 2024 (pp. 109-112). UK Association for Computational Mechanics. https://doi.org/10.62512/conf.ukacm2024.019
• Cone penetration tests (CPTs) in bi-phase soils: A material point approach with rigid body interaction
  
  Bird, R., Pretti, G., Coombs, W. M., Augarde, C. E., Sharif, Y., Brown, M., Carter, G., & Johnson, K. (2023, April 19 – 2023, April 21). Cone penetration tests (CPTs) in bi-phase soils: A material point approach with rigid body interaction [Conference paper]. Presented at UK Association for Computational Mechanics 2023 (UKACM 2023), University of Warwick, UK.
• A review of drag anchor penetration models to inform cable burial risk assessment
  
  Pretti, G., Coombs, W., Augarde, C., Puigvert, M., Gutierrez, J., & Cross, L. (2022, August 28 – 2022, August 31). A review of drag anchor penetration models to inform cable burial risk assessment [Conference paper]. Presented at 4th International Symposium on Frontiers in Offshore Geotechnics (ISFOG), Austin, Texas.
• A comparison of approaches for modelling poro-mechanics in the Material Point Method
  
  Pretti, G., Coombs, W., & Augarde, C. (2022, April 20 – 2022, April 22). A comparison of approaches for modelling poro-mechanics in the Material Point Method [Conference paper]. Presented at UKACM 2022, Nottingham, UK.

Journal Article

• The Aggregated Material Point Method (AgMPM)
  
  Coombs, W., Bird, R., & Pretti, G. (2025). The Aggregated Material Point Method (AgMPM). Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering, 442, Article 118012. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cma.2025.118012
• A Stable Poro‐Mechanical Formulation for Material Point Methods Leveraging Overlapping Meshes and Multi‐Field Ghost Penalisation
  
  Pretti, G., Bird, R. E., Gavin, N. D., Coombs, W. M., & Augarde, C. E. (2025). A Stable Poro‐Mechanical Formulation for Material Point Methods Leveraging Overlapping Meshes and Multi‐Field Ghost Penalisation. International Journal for Numerical Methods in Engineering, 126(5), Article e7630. https://doi.org/10.1002/nme.7630
• A stable poro-mechanical formulation for Material Point Methods leveraging overlapping meshes and multi-field ghost penalisation
  
  Pretti, G., Bird, R., Gavin, N., Coombs, W., & Augarde, C. (2025). A stable poro-mechanical formulation for Material Point Methods leveraging overlapping meshes and multi-field ghost penalisation. International Journal for Numerical Methods in Engineering, 126(5), Article e7630.
• An implicit material point-to-rigid body contact approach for large deformation soil-structure interaction
  
  Bird, R., Pretti, G., Coombs, W., Augarde, C., Sharif, Y., Brown, M., Carter, G., Macdonald, C., & Johnson, K. (2024). An implicit material point-to-rigid body contact approach for large deformation soil-structure interaction. Computers and Geotechnics, 174, Article 106646. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compgeo.2024.106646
• On the implementation of a material point‐based arc‐length method
  
  Gavin, N., Pretti, G., Coombs, W., Brigham, J., & Augarde, C. (2024). On the implementation of a material point‐based arc‐length method. International Journal for Numerical Methods in Engineering, 125(9), Article e7438. https://doi.org/10.1002/nme.7438
• Preserving non-negative porosity values in a bi-phase elasto-plastic material under Terzaghi’s effective stress principle
  
  Pretti, G., Coombs, W., Augarde, C., Marchena Puigvert, M., & Reyna Gutierrez, J. A. (2024). Preserving non-negative porosity values in a bi-phase elasto-plastic material under Terzaghi’s effective stress principle. Mechanics of Materials, 192, Article 104958. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mechmat.2024.104958
• A conservation law consistent updated Lagrangian material point method for dynamic analysis
  
  Pretti, G., Coombs, W., Augarde, C., Sims, B., Puigvert, M., & Gutierrez, J. (2023). A conservation law consistent updated Lagrangian material point method for dynamic analysis. Journal of Computational Physics, 485, Article 112075. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcp.2023.112075
• A Displacement-controlled Arc-Length Solution Scheme
  
  Pretti, G., Coombs, W., & Augarde, C. (2022). A Displacement-controlled Arc-Length Solution Scheme. Computers and Structures, 258, Article 106674. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compstruc.2021.106674