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Abbas El-Zein

Abbas El-Zein

BSc, MSc (with distinction), PhD
Associate Professor
Student Advisor - 2005 - SIDs 305xxxxxx - (Surnames A-K)
Centre for Geotechnical Research



School of Civil Engineering, Room 339
Phone: +61 2 9351 7351
Fax: +61 2 9351 3343
Email: A.Elzein@civil.usyd.edu.au




Personal homepage: http://www.civil.usyd.edu.au/personal/abbas

Research interests & current/recent research projects

Computational geomechanics; contaminant migration in soil; environmental risk perception; modelling of the health impacts of climate change.

Selected publications

  • Abbas El-Zein. 2009. A non-isodimensional finite-element approach to the modeling of transient flow and mass transport through domains with thin layers. Computers and Structures (special issue for 5th MIT Conference on Computational Fluid and Solid Mechanics, Advances in CFD), in press.
  • Abbas El-Zein, Tim Langrish and Nigel Balaam. 2009. Blended teaching and learning of computer programming skills in engineering curricula. Advances in Engineering Education, in press.
  • Abbas El-Zein and R. Kerry Rowe. 2008. Impact on groundwater of concurrent leakage and diffusion of dichloromethane through geomembranes in landfill liners. Geosynthetics International, 15(1):55-71.
  • Abbas El-Zein, David Airey, Peter Bowden, Henriikka Clarkeburn. 2008. Sustainability and ethics as decision-making paradigms in engineering curricula. International Journal for Sustainability in Higher Education, 9(2):170-182.
  • Abbas El-Zein. 2008. A generalized approach to the modelling of contaminant transport through intact and leaking geomembranes. International Journal for Numerical and Analytical Methods in Geomechanics, 32(3):265-287.
  • Abbas El-Zein and R. Kerry Rowe. 2007. Simultaneous leakage and diffusion of organic pollutants through damaged geomembranes. Numerical Model in Geomechanics, edited by Pande and Pietruszczak, Taylor and Francis Publishers, Proceedings of the 10th International Symposium on Numerical Models in Geomechanics NUMOG X, Rhodes, Greece, 25-27 April 2007, 297-301.
  • Abbas El-Zein. 2007. Environment and Mechanics: Coupled Phenomena. Keynote lecture to the 8th Congress of Mechanics, CDM 2007, Jadida, Morocco, 16-19 April 2007.
  • Abbas El-Zein. 2006. Steady-state diffusion-advection by exponential finite elements. International Journal of Geomechanics ASCE, 6(6):428-434.Samer Jabbour, Abbas El-Zein, Iman Nuwayhid, Rita Giacaman. 2006. Can actions for better health be a vehicle for social and political reform? British Medical Journal, 333:837-839.
  • Abbas El-Zein, David W. Airey, Peter Bowden, Henriikka Clarkeburn. 2006. Development of a course on environmental sustainability, ethical decision-making and communication skills in engineering. AAEE 06 Australia-New Zealand Association for Engineering Education, Auckland, New Zealand, December 2006.
  • Hala Tamim, Ghassan Akkari, Abbas El-Zein, Rana El Roueiheb, Zena El Shemaly. 2006. Exposure of school children to environmental cigarette and narghile smoke in Beirut. European Journal of Public Health, 16:509-512.
  • Abbas El-Zein, Rola Nasrallah, Iman Nuwayhid, Lea Kai, Jihad Makhoul. 2006. Why do neighbours have different environmental priorities? An analysis of environmental risk perception in a Beirut neighbourhood. Risk Analysis, 26(2):423-436.
  • Abbas El-Zein, John P. Carter and David W. Airey. 2006. Three-dimensional finite element method for the analysis of soil contamination. International Journal for Numerical and Analytical Methods in Geomechanics, 30(7), 577-597.
  • Abbas El-Zein. 2006. A Laplace boundary-element model of thermo-elastic consolidation of multi-layered media. Technical note. International Journal of Geomechanics ASCE, 6(2):136-140.
  • Abbas El-Zein, Rola Nasrallah, Iman Nuwayhid. 2006. Determinants of the willingness-to-participate in an environmental intervention. Environmental Management, 37(2):200-208.
  • Abbas El-Zein. 2006. A mass-conservation boundary condition for the modeling of contaminant transport through leaking geo-membranes. 5th International Conference on Environmental Geotechnics, in press, Cardiff, Wales, June 2006.
  • Peter Bowden, David Airey and Abbas El-Zein. 2006. Underpinning a discipline-specific ethics course. Thirteenth Annual Australian Association for Professional and Applied Ethics Conference, June 12-14, Sydney.
  • Abbas El-Zein. 2005. Exponential finite elements for diffusion-advection problems. International Journal for Numerical Methods in Engineering, 62(15):2086-2103.
  • Abbas El-Zein, John Carter and David Airey. 2005. Multiple-porosity contaminant migration by finite-elements. International Journal of Geomechanics ASCE, 5(1):24-36.
  • Abbas El-Zein, Mylene Tewtel-Salem. 2005. On the association between high temperature and mortality in warm climates. Letter to the Editor. Science of the Total Environment, 343(1-3):273-275.
  • Abbas El-Zein. 2005. Convergence of Boundary Element Solutions of the Diffusion-Advection Equation at High Peclet Numbers. International Conference on Computational and Experimental Engineering and Sciences, Chennai, India, December 2005.
  • Abbas El-Zein. 2005. A Simplified Approach to the Modeling of Contaminant Transport through Geo-Membranes. International Conference on Computational and Experimental Engineering and Sciences Chennai, India, December 2005.
  • Abbas El-Zein, Mylene Tewtel-Salem and Gebran Nehme. 2004. A time-series analysis of daily mortality and air temperature in Greater Beirut. Science of the Total Environment, 330(1-3):71-80.
  • Abbas El-Zein, John P. Carter, David W. Airey. 2004. A three-dimensional finite-element method of contaminant transport in soils. Ninth ANZ Conference on Geomechanics, Auckland, February 2004.
  • Abbas El-Zein. 2004. Accuracy Gains from Exponential Discretizations of the Diffusion-Advection Equation. 6th World Congress on Computational Mechanics, Beijing, China, September 2004.

Teaching and Learning

Teaching Duties

  • ENGG1801 Engineering Computing (flexible 1st year engineering)
  • CIVL3010 Engineering and Society (3rd year civil engineering)
  • CIVL4413 Environmental Geotechnics (4th year civil engineering)

School & University Service

  • 2nd Year student advisor
  • School of Civil Engineering Learning and Teaching Committee, Member

Professional Service and Memberships

  • Member of the Institute of Engineers, Australia