Mohammad Pournaghiazar

Mohammad Pournaghiazar is a Principal Geotechnical Engineer at PSM, with over 18 years of experience in research and consulting engineering. Mohammad’s experience includes dams, civil / infrastructure and tunnelling projects including Sydney Metro and WestConnex and large-scale earthworks for industrial developments.  He is experienced in the design and control of earthworks, geotechnical construction phase services, analysis and design of temporary and permanent shaft support systems, retaining structures, shallow and deep foundations and primary tunnel support.

Mohammad worked as the lead designer of the temporary surface works on Rozelle Interchange and Western Harbour Enabling Works project. The design scope included temporary cut ramps, retaining structures and cut batters requiring development of cost-effective design solutions to address the project challenges associated with soft alluvial soils and high ground water levels.

He has been heavily involved in the ground movement and impact assessments for the major infrastructure and tunnelling projects in Sydney at tender and detailed design stages. The ground movement and predicted effects scope of works include risk assessments for the existing assets / infrastructure interfacing the project works using the detailed analyses methods and development of risk mitigation measures in collaboration with the designers and construction team.

Mohammad completed his PhD at UNSW in 2012. His research focused on design and development of a suction controlled large-scale calibration chamber for laboratory testing of CPTs in unsaturated soils and development of a new analytical procedure for solving cavity expansion problems incorporating a hardening / softening elastic-plastic constitutive model. His PhD research won the Australian Geomechanics Society Research Award.

Mohammad has published technical papers in international journals and conferences on cavity expansion theory and interpretation of the CPT in unsaturated soils. He is on the NER and is a CPEng in civil and geotechnical engineering.

Fields of special competence include:

• Laboratory and in situ geotechnical testing
• Geotechnical characterisation / interpretation
• Slope stability analysis
• Finite element analysis
• Primary support design for shaft excavations
• Pile and shallow foundation design
• Geotechnical construction phase services
• Ground movement analysis and impact assessments
• Geotechnical due diligence reports