Rock Mechanics Lab at the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is focused on studying the mechanical behavior of rock-like geomaterials. Along with the traditional characterization of rock properties for various applications, we are interested in coupled thermo-hydro-mechanical-chemical behavior and fracturing of fluid-saturated rock. Novel experimental techniques, such as high pressure/high temperature testing, multi-phase fluid injection, acoustic emission, digital image correlation, and others, are utilized for characterization of rock behavior with applications to geoenergy projects. We are working on carbon dioxide and hydrogen storage, nuclear waste disposal, hydraulic fracturing, as well as deep and shallow geothermal systems trying to explain short- and long-term deformation, fluid transfer, induced seismicity, and failure of rock. We are also contributing to the development of highly efficient numerical codes simulating the coupled process in the underground formations and we use neural networks to enhance the laboratory and field data. On this website you can find information about our research, facilities, current events, publications, group members, undergraduate and graduate coursework descriptions, and our sustainability efforts on campus and beyond. We also have a YouTube channel called “Geomechanics & Sustainability” that contains some educational videos.
NEWS
January 2026: J. Arturo Venegas has joined the group as an MS student working on “Thermo-hydro-mechanical testing of rock”
November 2025: Prof. Makhnenko has contributed to the development of the ISRM standard on achieving full water saturation of rock that was led by Prof. Joseph Labuz and is now published in RMRE.
November 2025: Prof. Makhnenko has given an invited talk on “Shales as caprock in underground storage” at the Petroleum engineering Department at the University of Texas in Austin and has visited the group of Prof. Nikolas Espinoza.
August 2025: Dr. Makhnenko has been promoted to the rank of Associate Professor with tenure.
August 2025: Xiaopeng Wang (BS UIUC, 2025) has joined the group as a PhD student following his successful appointments with us as an undergraduate research and teaching assistant in 2024/2025. He will work on multiscale characterization and modeling of shale behavior.
July 2025: Outreach
June 2025: Hyunbin Kim has successfully defended his PhD dissertation titled “Sealing potential of heterogeneous caprock in subsurface storage“. He will continue his academic career at the University of California San Diego under the supervision of Prof. John MacCartney. Chapters of Hyunbin’s dissertation were published in WRR, IJRMMS, and JGR-Solid Earth.
June 2025: The group has participated to the 59th US Rock Mechanics/Geomechanics Symposium in Santa Fe, NM presenting on hydrogen storage, CO2 injection in shale, and subcritical behavior of fluid-saturated rock.
May 2025: Our productive collaboration with Global Change Group at IMEDEA, Spain has resulted in three publications in TPM, JRMGE, and JRMGE.
April 2025: Jeong Uk Bang has been awarded TechnipFMC fellowship for 2025/2026.
March 2025: Prof. Makhnenko has visited the Petroleum Engineering department at Texas A&M University to give a talk on “” and catch up with our old friend – Prof. Kiseok Kim.
February 2025: Hyunbin has presented at GeoCongress
December 2024: Shirui Ding has successfully completed his MS thesis on “Subcritical time-dependent response of Berea sandstone“. He will work as the geotechnical engineer at WSP in Dallas, TX.
November 2024: Hyunbin Kim has presented at CouFrac2024 in Kyoto, Japan and won the best award.
October 2024: We are excited to start the work on the new project sponsored by bp-ICAM program titled “Energy storage – Caprock barrier efficiency in subsurface hydrogen storage“.
August 2024: Jeong Uk Bang (MS KAIST, 2024) has joined the group and will work on hydrogen leakage from subsurface formations.
July 2024: We have organized outreach
June 2024: The group has participated to the 58th US Rock Mechanics/Geomechanics Symposium in Golden, CO presenting on hydrogen storage, geomechanical modeling and machine learning for subsurface storage. The trip also included a visit of the University of Colorado Boulder and interaction with their group on shale behavior.
June 2024: Nikita Bondarenko has successfully defended his PhD dissertation on “Geomechanics of injection-induced seismicity in Illinois Basin“. He will continue his academic career at ETH Zurich as a postdoctoral researcher. Chapters of Nikita’s dissertation were published in JGR-Solid Earth, IJRMMS, and RMRE in 2025 and 2026.
May 2024: We have successfully completed the experimental work for the project on “Expanding Hydrogen Storage to Porous Rock Formations” sponsored by the Department of Transportation. This project was done in collaboration with the GTI Energy in Chicago and Dr. Donna Willette from ISGS. The results are published in the the Journal of Energy Storage.
January 2024: We have started the work on the project sponsored by the Statewide California Earthquake Center and called “Laboratory calibration of visco-elasto-plastic damage model“. Shirui Ding has joined the group as an MS student to work the triaxial compression of fluid-saturated rock with monitoring of
The updates on the group achievements before 2024 were posted here.