Staff Profile
Dr Helen Mitrani
Lecturer in Civil Engineering
- Email: helen.mitrani@ncl.ac.uk
- Telephone: +44 (0) 191 208 7099
- Address: School of Engineering
Room 2.13, Drummond Building
Newcastle University
Newcastle upon Tyne
NE1 7RU
Background
Dr Mitrani works part-time, Monday to Wednesday.
Background
Dr Helen Mitrani joined the School of Engineering in 2012, as part of the Geotechnical and Structural Engineering (GEST) Group. Prior to this, Dr Mitrani spent 5.5 years working as a structural engineer in the London and Newcastle offices of Arup, a global firm of consulting engineers. During this time, she gained chartered civil engineer status and was involved in the design and construction of diverse and challenging structures, including a new facility for testing 100m long wind turbine blades. Dr Mitrani’s research background is in seismic geotechnics – specifically the centrifuge testing of liquefaction remediation methods. This and her structural design experience inform her current research interests.
Qualifications
MEng Civil and Structural Engineering (University of Sheffield)
PhD Seismic Geotechnics (University of Cambridge)
Memberships
EPSRC Early Career Forum in Manufacturing Research (ecfmanufacturing.org)
CEng MICE Chartered Member of the Institution of Civil Engineers
Associate Fellow of The Higher Education Academy
Google scholar: Click here.
Research
Research Interests
- Responsive materials
- Novel ground improvement techniques
- Dynamic soil-structure interaction
- Effects of long-term cyclic loading on soils and structures
- Liquefaction and liquefaction remediation
Funded Projects
Current Projects
Thinking Soils. Co-I for EPSRC funded project (EP/R003629/1). This project builds on the work in Computational Colloids to develop a living material which can respond to physical forces in its environment through the synthesis of strengthening materials. This concept is partly biomimetic inspired by, for example, the way in which our bones strengthen, becoming more dense under repeated load. However, we are also proposing to build this system using living bacteria cells which have no such functional requirement in nature.
Soil-structure interaction under long term cyclic loading. Funded by the SAgE Faculty of Newcastle University, under the EPSRC Doctoral Training Award scheme. This project investigates how long-term cyclic loading effects the behaviour of shallow onshore wind turbine foundations.
Previous Projects
Computational Colloids. Co-I for EPSRC funded project (EP/N005791/1). This project investigates how Civil Engineering may be integrated with the emerging field of Synthetic Biology. Combining these fields has potentially transformative implications for both and may generate a new field of Engineering Design.
Current PhD Supervision
Rose Hawkswood Soil-structure interaction under long-term cyclic loading
Javier Rodriguez Corral Computational Colloids
Thora Arnardottir Thinking Soils
Esteem Indicators
Reviewer for 'Géotechnique', Soil Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering', 'Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering' and 'International Journal of Physical Modelling in Geotechnics'.
Authored an Arup internal guidance note on ‘Fatigue design of Concrete to EC2’
Links
Teaching
Undergraduate Teaching
Module Leader for:
- CEG3301 Design of Building Systems
Contribution to:
- CEG3004 Sustainable Engineering Systems Design Project
- CEG3099 Individual Project - project supervision
- CEG8099 Investigative Research Project - project supervision
Postgraduate Teaching
Degree Programme Director for MSc Structural Engineering
Module Leader for:
- CEG8310 Structural Engineering Field Course
Contribution to:
- CEG8396 MSc Project and Dissertation in Structural Engineering - project supervision
- CEG8296 MSc Project and Dissertation in Geotechnical Engineering and Engineering Geology - project supervision
Publications
- Dade-Robertson M, Mitrani H, Rodriguez-Corral J, Zhang M, Hernan L, Guyet A, Wipat A. Design and modelling of an engineered bacteria-based, pressure-sensitive soil. Bioinspiration & Biomimetics 2018, 13(4), 046004.
- Dade-Robertson M, Rodriguez-Corral J, Guyet A, Mitrani H, Wipat A, Zhang M. Synthetic Biological Construction: Beyond 'bio-inspired' in the design of new materials and fabrication systems. In: 3rd International Conference Biodigital: Architecture & Genetics. 2017, Barcelona: UIC.
- Dade-Robertson M, Corral JR, Mitrani H, Zhang M, Wipat A, Ramirez-Figueroa C, Hernan L. Thinking soils. In: ACADIA 2016: Posthuman Frontiers: Data, Designers, and Cognitive Machines - Proceedings of the 36th Annual Conference of the Association for Computer Aided Design in Architecture. 2016, Ann Arbor, Michigan: ACADIA.
- Dade-Robertson M, Corral J, Mitrani H, Zhang M, Wipat A, Ramirez-Figueroa C, Hernan L. Thinking Soils: A synthetic biology approach to material based design computation. In: ACADIA 2016 - Posthuman Frontiers: Data, Designers and Cognitive Machines. 2016, Ann Arbor, Michigan: Association for Computer Aided Design in Architecture.
- Mitrani H, Madabhushi SPG. Geomembrane containment walls for liquefaction remediation. Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers: Ground Improvement 2012, 166(1), 9-20.
- Mitrani H, Madabhushi SPG. Rigid containment walls for liquefaction remediation. Journal of Earthquake and Tsunami 2012, 6(4), 1250017.
- Mitrani H, Madabhushi SPG. Cementation liquefaction remediation for existing buildings. Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers: Ground Improvement 2010, 163(2), 81-94.
- Mitrani H, Madabhushi SPG. Centrifuge modelling of inclined micro-piles for liquefaction remediation of existing buildings. Geomechanics and Geoengineering 2008, 3(4), 245-256.