Dr. Tingfa Liu is a Lecturer in Geotechnical Testing in the Earthquake and Geotechnical Engineering Research Group (EGERG), Department of Civil Engineering. Tingfa specialises in the development and application of state-of-the-art sensing and testing techniques to investigate multi-scaled soil-foundation-structure interaction mechanisms for critical infrastructure in reacting to operational and extreme static, cyclic and dynamic loading.

Before joining the University of Bristol, Tingfa worked as a Post-Doctoral Research Associate at Imperial College London on the EPSRC funded ALPACA joint industry project (JIP). He received his PhD from Imperial College on advanced laboratory testing and offshore pile foundations, contributing partly to the PISA JIP. He holds a (UK equivalent) MPhil degree with distinction from Tsinghua University (China). Tingfa has actively taken roles of visiting researcher and industrial consultant.

Tingfa's research is largely based in the newly established UKCRIC SoFSI Laboratory, as well as the Earthquake and Large Structures (EQUALS) Laboratory and the Geomechanics Laboratory, supplemented by in-situ testing, constitutive and numerical modelling, and data-driven approaches. His main areas of research include geotechnical instrumentation, laboratory and field soil characterisation, mechanical behaviour of geomaterials, cyclic loading effects, reduced and full scale pile installation and testing, large-structure cyclic and dynamic testing, and offshore foundation design. His publications are listed on the Research Outputs tab and Google Scholar. 

Recent updates

Tingfa is seeking highly motivated PhD candidates to join the research group. Both home and international applicants are welcome to get in touch to discuss research interest and fund sources. 

Recent updates and activities are listed below. Futher details can be found on LinkedIn and Researchgate webpages. 

• Tingfa was recently awarded an EPSRC Impact Acceleration Award (IAA) to explore improved design solutions for anchor systems for floating wind turbines. The cross-disciplinary project is in collaboration with Drs. Andrea Diambra (Civil), Yuan Li (Mechanical) and Nick Zang (Aerodynamics) and supported by three industrial partners.  
• Tingfa presented in the Rankine Day Seminar – Recent large-scale field research into offshore foundation behaviour at Imperial College London on 15^th March 2023. His talk was entitled "Axial cyclic testing and modelling of the ALPACA piles".

Research projects

Tingfa is available for research and design project supervision at UG and PG levels. His current PhD/PDRA research project supervision includes:

• Mr. Kai Wen (PhD, 2019-, Imperial College London):  Axial response of piles for offshore wind turbines (Co-supervise with Dr. Stavroula Kontoe and Prof. Richard J. Jardine).
• Mr. Zhixin Zhou (PhD, 2022-, University of Bristol):  Lifetime performance of offshore high-voltage cables (Co-supervise with Dr. Andrea Diambra).
• Dr. Borui Ge (PDRA, 2023-, University of Bristol):  Improved foundation design for floating wind turbines (Collaborate with Dr. Andrea Diambra).

Teaching activities

Tingfa is the unit director for Year 3 CENG30016 - Geotechnical Design (TB-4).