Enrique M. del Castillo
Assistant Professor,
Civil and Environmental Engineering
Research Focus
Computational geomechanics; granular materials and flows; failure and fracture in natural and engineered materials; geohazards impacting infrastructure resilience
Education
- PhD, Civil Engineering, Geomechanics, Stanford University, 2025
- MS, Civil Engineering, Geomechanics, Stanford University, 2021
- AB, Geosciences, Princeton University, 2019
Research Overview
Computational geomechanics; granular materials and flows; failure and fracture in natural and engineered materials; geohazards impacting infrastructure resilience
Localization and failure in granular materials; computational fracture mechanics; advanced computational and numerical methods in mechanics; meshfree methods; phase-field methods; mechanics of granular and soft materials; geohazards and Earth-surface processes; tectonics and crustal deformation; infrastructure resilience
Department Research Areas
Selected Publications
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E. M. del Castillo & P. Segall. (2026) Large deformation, pressure-driven mechanistic modeling of the 2018 caldera collapse at the Kīlauea Volcano, HI. Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth. 131(4), e2025JB032775. https://doi.org/10.1029/2025JB032775.
- E. M. del Castillo, J. Geng, & R. I. Borja. (2025) A nonlocal kernel-based continuum damage model for compaction band formation in porous sedimentary rock. Computational Mechanics. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00466-024-02540-x.
- E. M. del Castillo, A. H. Favero Neto, J. Geng, & R. I. Borja. (2024) An SPH framework for drained and undrained loading over large deformations. International Journal for Numerical and Analytical Methods in Geomechanics. 48(12), 3227-3257. https://doi.org/10.1002/nag.3790.
- E. M. del Castillo, B. Ferdowsi, A. Rubin, & B. Schoene. (2023) Strain localization patterns and thrust propagation in 3-D discrete element method (DEM) models of accretionary wedges. Tectonics. 42(8), e2022TC007707. https://doi.org/10.1029/2022TC007707.
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E. M. del Castillo, A. H. Favero Neto, & R. I. Borja. (2021) A continuum meshfree method for sandbox-style numerical modeling of accretionary and doubly vergent wedges. Journal of Structural Geology. 153, 104466. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsg.2021.104466.
Sep 04, 2026
New Faculty Spotlight: Enrique del Castillo
Enrique del Castillo joined the Civil and Environmental Engineering department in July 2026 as an Assistant Professor.