Dr. Mostafa Mollaali
Dr. Mostafa Mollaali is a Research Scientist at the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research – UFZ. He received his bachelor's degree in Civil Engineering in 2007 and master's degree in Geotechnical Engineering in 2011. After working in geotechnical engineering from 2011 to 2014, Dr. Mollaali pursued his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, where he earned his degree in 2019. His doctoral research focused on numerical modeling of hydraulic and carbon dioxide fracturing in fractured rock formations, contributing to a better understanding of fracture propagation and fluid flow in subsurface systems.
At UFZ, Dr. Mollaali develops numerical models to investigate hydro-mechanical coupled processes and chemo-hydro-mechanical interactions in subsurface environments. His research aims to improve the understanding of fluid flow, fracture propagation, and rock behavior in complex geological systems.
At UFZ, Dr. Mollaali develops numerical models to investigate hydro-mechanical coupled processes and chemo-hydro-mechanical interactions in subsurface environments. His research aims to improve the understanding of fluid flow, fracture propagation, and rock behavior in complex geological systems.
Research interests
- Geomechanics & Rock Mechanics
- Fracture Mechanics & Phase-Field Modeling for Brittle Fractures
- Computational Modeling & Numerical Modeling (Thermo-Hydro-Chemo-Mechanical)
- Machine Learning Applications in Geomechanics
Publication list
Index:
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2025 (6)
- Kolditz, O., McDermott, C., Yoon, J.S., Mollaali, M., Wang, W., Hu, M., Sasaki, T., Rutqvist, J., Birkholzer, J., Park, J.-W., Park, C.-H., Liu, H., Pan, P.-Z., Nagel, T., Nguyen, S., Kwon, S., Lee, C., Kim, K.-I., Bond, A., Hadgu, T., Wang, Y., Zhuang, L., Yoshioka, K., Benitez Cunha, G., Fraser-Harris, A. (2025):
A systematic model- and experimental approach to hydro-mechanical and thermo-mechanical fracture processes in crystalline rocks
Geomech. Energy Environ. 41 , art. 100616 10.1016/j.gete.2024.100616 - Mollaali, M., Yoshioka, K., Lu, R., Montoya, V., Vilarrasa, V., Kolditz, O. (2025):
Variational phase-field fracture approach in reactive porous media
Int. J. Numer. Methods Eng. 126 (1), e7621 10.1002/nme.7621 - Kolditz, O., McDermott, C., Yoon, J.S., Renner, J., Zhuang, L., Fraser-Harris, A., Chandler, M., Graham, S., Wang, J., Mollaali, M. (2025):
SAFENET-2 – fracture evolution in crystalline rocks (from lab to in situ scale)
Saf. Nucl. Waste Disposal 3 , 15 - 30 10.5194/sand-3-15-2025 - Naumov, D., Bilke, L., Buchwald, J., Wang, W., Jäschke, M., Fischer, T., Meisel, T., Lehmann, C., Shao, H., Kiszkurno, F.K., Zill, F., Kessler, K., You, T., Mollaali, M., Selzer, P., Sheng, H., Thiedau, J. (2025):
OpenGeoSys
Version: 6.5.5 Zenodo 10.5281/zenodo.15496721 - Jafari, A., Mollaali, M., Ma, L., Shahmansouri, A.A., Zhou, Y., Dugnani, R. (2025):
Brittle fracture strength prediction via XML with reliability considerations
Eng. Fract. Mech. 328 , art. 111555 10.1016/j.engfracmech.2025.111555 - Bilke, L., Naumov, D., Fischer, T., Wang, W., Mollaali, M., Buchwald, J., Jäschke, M., Lehmann, C., Berger, F., Grunwald, N., Meisel, T., Zill, F., Stehling, T.D., Vehling, F., Nagel, T., Silbermann, C., Shukla, D., Kiszkurno, F.K., Tecklenburg, J. (2025):
OpenGeoSys
Version: 6.5.6 Zenodo 10.5281/zenodo.17162299
2024 (3)
- Taherdangkoo, R., Nagel, T., Chen, C.-F., Mollaali, M., Ghasabeh, M., Cuisinier, O., Abdallah, A., Butscher, C. (2024):
Modeling unsaturated hydraulic conductivity of compacted bentonite using a constrained CatBoost with bootstrap analysis
Appl. Clay Sci. 260 , art. 107530 10.1016/j.clay.2024.107530 - Naumov, D., Bilke, L., Lehmann, C., Fischer, T., Wang, W., Shao, H., Buchwald, J., Rink, K., Chen, C., Mollaali, M., Kessler, K., Jäschke, M. (2024):
OpenGeoSys
Version: 6.5.3 Zenodo 10.5281/zenodo.13685289 - Claret, F., Prasianakis, N.I., Baksay, A., Lukin, D., Pepin, G., Ahusborde, E., Amaziane, B., Bátor, G., Becker, D., Bednár, A., Béreš, M., Bérešová, S., Böthi, Z., Brendler, V., Brenner, K., Březina, J., Chave, F., Churakov, S.V., Hokr, M., Horák, D., Jacques, D., Jankovský, F., Kazymyrenko, C., Koudelka, T., Kovács, T., Krejčí, T., Kruis, J., Laloy, E., Landa, J., Ligurský, T., Lipping, T., López-Vázquez, C., Masson, R., Meeussen, J.C.L., Mollaali, M., Mon, A., Montenegro, L., Pisani, B., Poonoosamy, J., Pospiech, S.I., Saâdi, Z., Samper, J., Samper-Pilar, A.-C., Scaringi, G., Sysala, S., Yoshioka, K., Yang, Y., Zuna, M., Kolditz, O. (2024):
EURAD state-of-the-art report: development and improvement of numerical methods and tools for modeling coupled processes in the field of nuclear waste disposal
Front. Nucl. Eng. 3 , art. 1437714 10.3389/fnuen.2024.1437714
2023 (7)
- Ziaei-Rad, V., Mollaali, M., Nagel, T., Kolditz, O., Yoshioka, K. (2023):
Orthogonal decomposition of anisotropic constitutive models for the phase field approach to fracture
J. Mech. Phys. Solids 171 , art. 105143 10.1016/j.jmps.2022.105143 - Bilke, L., Lehmann, C., Naumov, D., Fischer, T., Wang, W., Buchwald, J., Rink, K., Grunwald, N., Zill, F., Kiszkurno, F.K., Mollaali, M., Nagel, T., Thiedau, J., Gerasimov, T., Ziaei-Rad, V., Kurgyis, K., Lu, R., Silbermann, C., Heinze, J., Vehling, F., Meng, B., Yoshioka, K., You, T., Chaudrhy, A., Shao, H., Günther, L., Kantzenbach, M., Kolditz, O., Meisel, T. (2023):
OpenGeoSys
Version: 6.4.4 Zenodo 10.5281/zenodo.7716938 - Cajuhi, T., Haghighat, N., Maßmann, J., Mollaali, M., Sattari, A.S., Ziaei-Rad, V., Ziefle, G., Nagel, T., Wuttke, F., Yoshioka, K. (2023):
Hydro-mechanical effects and cracking in Opalinus clay
In: Kolditz, O., Yoshioka, K., Cajuhi, T., Günther, R.-M., Steeb, H., Wuttke, F., Nagel, T. (eds.)
GeomInt - Discontinuities in geosystems from lab to field scale
SpringerBriefs in Earth System Sciences
Springer International Publishing, Cham, p. 7 - 46 10.1007/978-3-031-26493-1_2 - Ma, L., Mollaali, M., Dugnani, R. (2023):
Phase-field simulation of fractographic features formation in soda–lime glass beams fractured in bending
Theor. Appl. Fract. Mech. 127 , art. 103997 10.1016/j.tafmec.2023.103997 - Mollaali, M., Buchwald, J., Montoya, V., Kolditz, O., Yoshioka, K. (2023):
Clay–rock fracturing risk assessment under high gas pressures in repository systems
IOP Conf. Ser.: Earth Environ. Sci. 1124 , art. 012120 10.1088/1755-1315/1124/1/012120 - Mollaali, M., Kolditz, O., Hu, M., Park, C.-H., Park, J.-W., McDermott, C.I., Chittenden, N., Bond, A., Yoon, J.S., Zhou, J., Pan, P.-Z., Liu, H., Hou, W., Lei, H., Zhang, L., Nagel, T., Barsch, M., Wang, W., Nguyen, S., Kwon, S., Lee, C., Yoshioka, K. (2023):
Comparative verification of hydro-mechanical fracture behavior: Task G of international research project DECOVALEX–2023
Int. J. Rock Mech. Min. Sci. 170 , art. 105530 10.1016/j.ijrmms.2023.105530 - Naumov, D., Bilke, L., Fischer, T., Lehmann, C., Wang, W., Heinze, J., Chen, C., Silbermann, C., Kiszkurno, F.K., Buchwald, J., Rink, K., Nagel, T., Meisel, T., Gerasimov, T., Loer, F., Mollaali, M., You, T., Shil, J.B., Chen, S., Selzer, P., Shao, H., Kessler, K., Ghasebeh, M. (2023):
OpenGeoSys
Version: 6.5.0 Zenodo 10.5281/zenodo.2600042
2022 (1)
- Bilke, L., Fischer, T., Naumov, D., Lehmann, C., Lu, R., Meng, B., Rink, K., Grunwald, N., Buchwald, J., Silbermann, C., Habel, R., Günther, L., Mollaali, M., Randow, J., Meisel, T., Einspänner, S., Shao, H., Garibay-Rodriguez, J., Kurgyis, K., Kolditz, O. (2022):
OpenGeoSys
Version: 6.4.3 Zenodo 10.5281/zenodo.7092676
2021 (1)
- Yoshioka, K., Mollaali, M., Kolditz, O. (2021):
Variational phase-field fracture modeling with interfaces
Comput. Meth. Appl. Mech. Eng. 384 , art. 113951 10.1016/j.cma.2021.113951