Mahdi Sehizadeh

• Ph.D. student, Department of civil and mineral Engineering, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
• M.Sc. in Geotechnical Engineering, Department of civil Engineering, Sharif University of Technology, Tehran-Iran, 2013
• B.Sc. in Civil Engineering, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad-Iran, 2010

I pursued my bachelor program in the department of civil engineering due to my personal interest in the construction field. The inevitable soil-structure interaction and uncertainties in the soil behavior propelled me to focus on soil mechanics during my master program and as a geotechnical engineer.

Soil and rock are often found to be side by side in nature. Moreover, many of big civil projects such as mining, dams, tunneling etc. require a deep knowledge of rock materials. During my Ph.D., I’m trying to understand rock behavior with emphasis on the fracture mechanism. I believe having sufficient knowledge in both soil and rock is a necessity in engineering judgments.

My master thesis was part of one of the biggest projects at the time, funded by national oil and gas company of Iran. This project was defined based on the necessity of retrofitting the main gas pipeline against very strong earthquakes that has a long return period.  As a part of this project, in my master thesis, the response of buried pipelines in slopes which became unstable during earthquake-induced landslides has been investigated. Sharif University of Technology shaking-table apparatus was used for modeling this phenomenon. Using a 3×1.5×1 meter box, three tests performed. In the first and second tests, three scaled aluminum pipes were placed parallel to the direction of slope movement and in different positions in the slope. Elastic cylinders used to hold these pipes in the models. In the third test, fours scaled aluminum pipes placed in the model using simple supports at the Test-Box walls. All the pipes in these tests were buried in the depth of 11cm with the exterior diameter of 16 mm and thickness of 1 mm.  In these tests dry Babolsar sand with DR=50% was used for modeling the slope. Loading conditions in all these tests were sinusoidal harmonic with 5 Hz frequency but with different amplitude. All these three experimental tests had a simple geometry. However, they were performed to validate the numerical models before we extend our model for more complicated scenarios. the last chapter of this thesis aims to explain different approaches for retrofitting buried pipelines in slopes against land sliding.

• Nasseri, M. H. B., Sehizadeh, M., Ye. S.H., Young, R. P., Flynn. J.W., Suikkanen, J., & Siren, T., (2016, April). Strength, Deformation and Seismic Response of Olkiluoto Migmatitic Gneiss under Laboratory True-Triaxial Stress. Proceedings ISRM Rock Stress Conference.
• Mahdi Sehizadeh, Mohammad H. Nasseri, Sheng Ye, R. Paul Young (2016); Acoustic Emission, b-value and Foliation Plane Anisotropy, EGU Conference 2016 Vienna;
• Mohammad H. Nasseri, Mahdi Sehizadeh, Sheng Ye, Grant Su, Son Nguyen, R.Paul Young (2016); Coupled hydromechanical properties of Cobourg limestone with special reference to excavation damage zones, EGU conference 2016 Vienna,
• Shenghua Ye, M.H.B. Nasseri, Mahdi Sehizadeh, R. Paul Young (2016); Simulation of a true-triaxial deformation test on anisotropic gneiss using FLAC3D, EGU Conference 2016 Vienna;
• H. Farahi Jahromi, M. Sehizadeh, M. Joshaghani & S. Yousefi (2013); Comparison of dynamically induced experimental slope deformations with NEWMARK sliding block theory; “Fifth International Young Geotechnical Engineering Conference - 5iYGEC’13”; 2013
• F. Jafarzadeh, H. Farahi Jahromi, M. Sehizadeh, M. Joshaghani & S. Yousefi (2012); Dynamic Response of Buried Gas Pipelines Due to Earthquake Induced Landslides by Nonlinear Numerical Modeling; “15WCEE, LISBON, Portugal “; 2012
• Fardin Jafarzadeh, Hadi Farahi Jahromi, Mehdi Sehizadeh, Mohammad Joshaghani, and Siyamak Yousfi; Evaluation of Dynamic Response and Vulnerability of Tehran Buried Gas Network Pipelines in Slopes by in Situ Explorations, 1g Shaking Table Tests and Numerical Modeling; Urban Earthquake Engineering, Proceedings of the U.S.-Iran Seismic Workshop; December 18-20, 2012; Tehran, Iran