David Reid

David Reid is an Adjunct Research Fellow at The University of Western Australia's School of Engineering, specializing in Civil, Environmental and Mining Engineering. His expertise focuses on geotechnical engineering, soil mechanics, and tailings management, with significant contributions to understanding critical state soil mechanics and tailings stability. His work addresses UN Sustainable Development Goals related to environmental sustainability and disaster risk reduction.

Research interests include critical state line analysis, cone penetration test (CPT) applications, liquefaction triggering mechanisms, and the behavior of mine tailings under various stress conditions. He has pioneered methods for specimen preparation, stress path analysis, and polymer treatment effects in geotechnical materials.

Key contributions include over 58 publications analyzing tailings stability, CPT data interpretation, and static liquefaction risks. His work often combines experimental testing with numerical modeling, such as Material Point Method (MPM) simulations. He has collaborated on industry-funded projects like TAILLIQ, advancing tailings engineering practices.

Two grants funded the development of mini calibration chambers for CPT testing. His research emphasizes reproducibility in geotechnical testing and improving field-scale performance predictions for tailings storage facilities. He has supervised two research projects and contributed to international discussions on tailings dam safety and failure analysis.