The School of Civil Engineering and Surveying

Profile

Dr. Rezania obtained his BSc (Eng) in Civil Engineering from the Sharif University of Technology in 2002, his MSc (Eng) in Geotechnical Engineering from the Iran University of Science and Technology in 2004, and his PhD in Geotechnical Engineering from the University of Exeter in 2008.

His BSc project was on the assessment of earthquake induced soil liquefaction and lateral displacements. His MSc project involved the experimental investigation of the mechanical properties of municipal solid waste (MSW) materials and the numerical analyses of the behaviour of MSW landfills under static and dynamic loadings. His PhD project (supported by an ORS award and a University of Exeter Studentship) was on the development of an evolutionary based constitutive model for soils and its incorporation in finite element analysis. He developed an innovative methodology to capture the mechanical behaviour of soils, and demonstrated the practical usefulness of the proposed methodology in finite element analysis of boundary value problems in geotechnical engineering. Before joining University of Portsmouth as a Lecturer in 2012, Dr Rezania worked as a temporary lecturer and KTP Associate at University of Exeter, Postdoctoral Research Associate at Aalto University (formerly Helsinki University of Technology) and University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, and Marie-Curie Fellow at the research division of Plaxis bv in the Netherlands. His main field of research during his postdoctoral works was constitutive modelling of soft natural clays behaviour, taking into account the anisotropy, particle bonding, rate-effect and time-dependency aspects of their behaviour.

Professional Affiliations/ Memberships

• Member of International Society for Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering (ISSMGE)
• Member of British Geotechnical Association (BGA)
• Member of Iranian Geotechnical Society (IGS)

Research Interests and Supervision

My current research interests lie primarily in the areas of constitutive modelling of clays and soft soils, considering particular aspects of their behaviour including anisotropy, rate-effects and creep, with the aim of better predicting the stability of natural slopes and man-made embankments. I am also interested in soil improvement and embankment stabilisation using new technologies.

My other research interests include:

• Robust implementation of numerical schemes for the integration of advanced soil constitutive models
• Modelling progressive failure of embankments and natural slopes
• Numerical modelling of geotechnical structures and processes using advanced constitutive models
• Geo-environmental modelling

I am always keen to support students wishing to undertake high quality PhD research in geotechnical engineering, particularly in computational geomechanics, please contact me if you wish to discuss this.

Selected Publications

1. Karstunen, M., Rezania, M., Sivasithamparam and Yin, Z.-Y. (2013). Comparison of anisotropic rate-dependent models for modelling consolidation of soft clays. International Journal of Geomechanics (doi: 10.1061/(ASCE)GM.1943-5622.0000267).
2. Karstunen, M., Rezania, M. and Sivasithamparam (2013). Comparison of anisotropic rate-dependent models at element level. Constitutive Modeling of Geomaterials, Springer Series in Geomechanics and Geoengineering, pp 115-119.
3. Mousavi Nezhad, M., Javadi, A.A. and Rezania, M. (2011). Modeling of contaminant transport in soils considering the effects of micro- and macro-heterogeneity. Elsevier Journal of Hydrology, 404(3-4): 332-338.
4. Jafarian, Y., Baziar, M.H., Rezania, M. and Javadi, A.A. (2011). Probabilistic evaluation of seismic liquefaction potential in field condition; A kinetic energy approach. Journal of Engineering Computations, 28(6): 675-700.
5. Rezania, M., Faramarzi, A. and Javadi, A.A. (2011). An evolutionary based approach for assessment of earthquake-induced soil liquefaction and lateral displacement. Elsevier Journal of Engineering Applications of Artificial Intelligence, 24(1): 142-153.
6. Rezania, M., Javadi, A.A. and Giustolisi, O. (2010). Evaluation of liquefaction potential based on CPT results using evolutionary polynomial regression. Elsevier Journal of Computers and Geotechnics, 37(1-2): 82-92.
7. Javadi, A.A. and Rezania, M. (2009). Intelligent finite element method: An evolutionary approach to constitutive modeling. Elsevier Journal of Advanced Engineering Informatics, 23(4): 442-451.
8. Javadi, A.A. and Rezania, M. (2009). Applications of artificial intelligence and data mining techniques in soil modeling. Journal of Geomechanics and Engineering, 1(1): 53-74.
9. Rezania, M., Javadi, A.A. and Giustolisi, O. (2008). An evolutionary-based data mining technique for assessment of civil engineering systems. Journal of Engineering Computations, 25(6): 500-517.
10. Rezania, M. and Javadi, A.A. (2007). A new genetic programming model for predicting the settlement of shallow foundations. Canadian Geotechnical Journal, 44(12): 1462-1473.
11. Javadi, A.A., Rezania, M. and Mousavi Nezhad, M. (2006). Evaluation of liquefaction induced lateral displacements using genetic programming. Elsevier Journal of Computers and Geotechnics, 33(4-5): 222-233.
12. Rezania, M., Cullen, P., Javadi, A.A. and Mousavi Nezhad, M. (2010) Compressive behavior of honeycomb modular drainage tanks. The 7th International Conference on Physical Modeling in Geotechnics, Zurich, Switzerland, pp. 1357-1362.
13. Mousavi Nezhad, M., Javadi, A.A. and Rezania, M. (2010). Stochastic finite element modeling of water flow and solute transport in unsaturated soils - a case study. The 13th International Conference on Computing in Civil and Building Engineering and the 17th Annual Workshop of the European Group for Intelligent Computing in Engineering, Nottingham, UK, pp. 487-488.
14. Javadi, A.A. and Rezania, M. (2009). Intelligent finite element method: An evolutionary approach to constitutive modeling. Journal of Advanced Engineering Informatics, 23(4): 442-451.
15. Mousavi Nezhad, M., Javadi, A.A. and Rezania, M. (2009). Stochastic finite element modeling of contaminant transport. The 1st International Symposium on Computational Geomechanics, Juan-Les-Pins, France, pp. 570-579.
16. Javadi, A.A. and Rezania, M. (2009). Applications of artificial intelligence and data mining techniques in soil modeling. Journal of Geomechanics and Engineering, 1(1): 53-74.
17. Rezania, M., Javadi, A.A. and Giustolisi, O. (2008). An evolutionary-based data mining technique for assessment of civil engineering systems. Journal of Engineering Computations, 25(6): 500-517.
18. Javadi, A.A. and Rezania, M. (2008). A new approach to constitutive modeling of soils in finite element analysis using evolutionary computation. The 15th Annual Workshop of the European Group for Intelligent Computing in Engineering, Plymouth, UK, pp. 147-156.
19. Rezania, M. and Javadi, A.A. (2008). Settlement prediction of shallow foundations; A new approach. The 2nd British Geotechnical Association International Conference on Foundations, Dundee, UK, pp. 1593-1603.
20. Rezania, M. and Javadi, A.A. (2007). A new genetic programming model for predicting the settlement of shallow foundations. Canadian Geotechnical Journal, 44(12): 1462-1473.
21. Javadi, A.A., Rezania, M. and Mousavi Nezhad, M. (2006). Evaluation of liquefaction induced lateral displacements using genetic programming. Journal of Computers and Geotechnics, 33(4-5): 222-233.
22. Rezania, M. and Javadi, A.A. (2006). Application of evolutionary programming techniques in geotechnical engineering. The 6th European Conference on Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering, Graz, Austria, pp. 677-682.
23. Shariatmadari, N., Samimi, M. and Rezania, M. (2004). Investigation and treatment analysis of Barikan landslide. The 5th International Conference on Case Histories in Geotechnical Engineering, NY, USA, Paper No. 2.03.
24. Shariatmadari, N. and Rezania, M. (2003). Investigation of surface settlement induced by underground metro excavation in Tehran. The 6th International Symposium on Field Measurements in Geomechanics, Oslo, Norway, pp. 355-361.