It was a pleasure to be invited by Petroleum Engineering Department of University of North Dakota to present a short course on computational geomechanics. The course was held on April 2018 in Grand Forks, ND. The main objective of this short course is the implementation of numerical modeling and geomechanical simulation in petroleum engineering. The course focuses on practical application of numerical modeling on simulation and prediction of geomechanical problems such as wellbore stability analysis, hydraulic fracturing and injection into a porous media. Several topics including elasticity and plasticity of the rock medium, constitutive models, stress distribution, and permeability considerations will be discussed. Simulation procedure of isotropic and transversely isotropic medium and faults and discontinuities will be presented. Commercial programs for geomechanical modeling will be introduced, and finite difference and finite element methods for numerical modeling will be described. The finite difference program, FLAC developed by Itasca Consulting Group Inc. will be considered for conducting practical simulations. 

Course topics were including:

• Introduction to numerical modeling in geomechanical medium
• Introduction to FLAC
• Example application of wellbore stability analysis
• Example application of hydraulic fracturing and fluid injection into porous medium
• Constitutive models used in geomechanical medium
• Permeability considerations
• Discontinuity and faults modeling in geomechanical medium

Foundations on claystone with swell potential may experience upward movement and failure. In this case study, the cause of 5.8 cm upward movement of drilled-in piers is analyzed using survey data, extensometer readings, and moisture content monitoring of claystone at the site. Swell laboratory tests were conducted to characterize the swelling characteristics of the weathered rock. A swell potential analysis for deep foundations is presented, which accounts for the group behavior of the piers. The interaction of the group piers with the swelling rock was considered in analyzing the initiation of the upward movement. Furthermore, a novel inverse analysis method was presented to integrate the swell laboratory test results and numerical modeling to identify the representative swell pressures acting on group piers as well as upward movement of the pier system. The behavior of the pier group foundation in swelling rock under various pier spacing and superstructure pressures are discussed. 
The results has been recently published in the journal of Geotechnical and Geological Engineering. For more details please click here.
To read full article please click here. 

Geotechnical Engineering class, Spring 2016, SIUE, Instructor: Siavash Zamiran
​​This class was an introduction to Geotechnical Engineering and Soil Mechanics for senior students. Students acquired principal knowledge in different aspects of soil mechanics including unit-weight correlations, plasticity limits, seepage in the soil medium, total and effective stress concepts, consolidation, the shear strength of soil, etc. Students also conducted case history studies on different projects for their term paper project as following:​

• St. Elizabeth's Hospital – Geopiers
• Interstate 70 Tri Level Connection, Mississippi River Bridge Project, April 2010
• Metro East Levee System
• Mississippi River Levee Systems
• Glen Carbon Storm Water Master Plan
• Current MSE Retaining Wall Projects in Central U.S.

ASCE Geo-Institute Case History Meeting was held in Engineering Club, St. Louis on April 28, 2016. Dr. Jean-Louis Briaud, the Geo-Institute's Cross USA Lecturer for 2015-2016, provided the lecture, "Behavior of Two Mats undert Heavy Load- Washington Monument and San Jacinto Monument." The lecture presented geotechnical investigations of two large mat foundations over several decades. Dr. Briaud is Professor and Holder of the Buchanan Chair in the Zachry Department of Civil Engineering, Texas A&M University.
In this meeting four university research investigations were also presented by research fellows in Southern Illinois University and University of Missouri Science and Technology. The presentation titled "Seismic Earth Pressure Variations in Retaining Walls with Cohesive Backfill Material" was presented by Siavash Zamiran, PhD candidate and instructor in Southern Illinois University. The presentation file for this research is provided as following. 

Download Powerpoint: 

Geo-Institute SIUE seminar with the title of Monitoring Micropile Foundations of Bridge During Construction was held on March 1st 2016 in School of Engineering, SIUE. Dr. Ronaldo Luna professor and chair of Civil Engineering Department in Saint Louis University presented the seminar. He covered a summary of the installation of instrumentation and results of the monitoring program of micropile foundations during construction of the Foothills Parkway Bridge No. 2 in eastern Tennessee completed in December of 2012. ​