Staff Profile

Background

I am a geotechnical engineer and engineering geologist with experience in the computer modelling of shallow mining subsidence (as part of my PhD) and significant experience of the hydrological and mechanical modelling of slopes and slope stability as part of my postdoctoral work.

I am currently employed as a research associate within the UKRI and DfT funded National Hub for Decarbonised, Adaptable, and Resilient Transport Infrastructures (DARe) where I work to address transport infrastructure resilience.

Prior to this, I have worked at Newcastle University as a research assistant on the BIONICS project, In 2011 I undertook a 1 year secondment into the geotechnics group of ARUP's Newcastle office working on slope stability modelling and then worked as an assistant lecturer teaching on both undergraduate and postgraduate modules in geotechnical engineering. From 2013 to 2018 I worked as a research associate on the EPSRC funded iSMART project. I recently finished working on the (Dec. 2023) ACHILLES programme grant, where my research primarily focussed on the modelling of the deterioration of geotechnical infrastructure subject to annual weather cycles.

ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6866-5568

Reviewer

• Acta Geotechnica
• Canadian Geotechnical Journal
• Engineering Geology
• Geotechnical Engineering (Proceedings of the ICE)
• Geotechnical and Geological Engineering
• Journal of Infrastructure Systems
• Quarterly Journal of Engineering Geology and Hydrogeology
• Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews

Invited Speaker

• Modelling deterioration in cut slopes: Geotechnical Asset Owners Forum (April 2021)
• ACHILLES - Deterioration of long linear assets: Geotechnical Asset Owners Forum (Nov 2019)
• Modelling the deterioration of infrastructure slopes: TC208 Workshop, XVII European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering, Reykjavik Iceland (Sept 2019)

Qualifications

• 2002 - BSc - Geology - Durham University
• 2004 - MSc - Geotechnical Engineering - Newcastle University
• 2011 - PhD - Analysis of the stability of shallow abandoned colliery workings - Newcastle University

Memberships

• TUD COST Action TU1202 member
• Fellow of The Geological Society
• Member of the British Geotechnical Association

Grants / Awards

• Co-organiser of an International Training School entitled ‘The Vadose Zone Workshop’. An event for European Early Stage Researchers convened at Durham University (15,000 EUR) - Responsible for the numerical modelling component of the workshop
• Awarded funding to undertake a collaborative scoping study into improving the derivation of vegetation parameters for numerical modelling (£9910)

Teaching

I have experience of teaching on the following undergraduate Civil Engineering and postgraduate MSc Geotechnical Engineering and Engineering Geology modules:

• CEG2201: Geotechnics
• CEG2001: Design of Sustainable Engineering Systems 2
• CEG3001: Design of Sustainable Engineering Systems 3
• CEG8201: Geomechanics
• CEG8202: Ground Investigation - Design, Principles and Practice
• CEG8208: Geotechnical Design

Research to date has focused on applied computational geomechanics to investigate shallow mining subsidence as well as rainfall induced slope instability, using software such as the FDM and FEM codes FLAC 3D and PLAXIS as well as LE codes such as SLOPE.

I currently work within the Research Hub for Decarbonised Adaptable and Resilient Transport Infrastructures (DARe) funded by UKRI and the Department for Transport with my work focusing on the long term weather and climate driven deterioration and resilience of infrastructure. Previous research (ACHILLES) primarily focused on the modelling of the deterioration of geotechnical infrastructure subject to annual weather cycles.

My typical work involves the modelling of the effects of meteorological parameters on pore water pressures in infrastructure slopes and how this in turn affects their stability. This is primarily undertaken with the hydrological code SHETRAN and the geomechanics modelling code FLAC (with the two phase flow add on to allow the modelling of partially saturated flow behaviour).

In the past I worked as a research associate on the ESPRC iSMART project and as a research assistant on the BIONICS project (Biological and engineering impacts of climate on slopes) and was seconded into a consultancy firm where I undertook validation of their finite element software for use in slope stability analysis.

• Articles

  • Morsy A, Helm P. Failure Prediction of Clay Embankments Subject to Weather-Driven Deterioration. Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering 2024, 150(12), 04024128.
  • Helm PR, Svalova A, Morsy AM, Rouainia M, Smith A, El-Hamalawi A, Wilkinson DJ, Postill H, Glendinning S. Emulating long-term weather-driven transportation earthworks deterioration models to support asset management. Transportation Geotechnics 2024, 44, 101155.
  • Armstrong J, Helm P, Preston J, Loveridge F. Economics of geotechnical asset deterioration, maintenance and renewal. Transportation Geotechnics 2024, 45, 101185.
  • Monforte, L, Rouainia, M, Helm, P, Najdi, A, Glendinning, S. An extended kinematic hardening constitutive model to include unsaturated behaviour for the prediction of soil deterioration. Géotechnique 2024. In Preparation.
  • Postill H, Helm PR, Dixon N, El-Hamalawi A, Glendinning S, Take WA. Strength parameter selection framework for evaluating the design life of clay cut slopes. Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers - Geotechnical Engineering 2023, 176(3), 254-273.
  • Briggs KM, Helm PR, Smethurst JA, Smith A, Stirling R, Svalova A, Trinidad González Y, Loveridge FA, Glendinning S. Evidence for the weather-driven deterioration of ageing transportation earthworks in the UK. Transportation Geotechnics 2023, 43, 101130.
  • Morsy A, Helm P, El-Hamalawi A, Smith A, Hughes P, Stirling R, Dijkstra T, Dixon N, Glendinning S. Development of a Multi-Phase Numerical Modeling Approach for Hydromechanical Behavior of Clay Embankments Subject to Weather-Driven Deterioration. Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering 2023, 149(8), 04023062.
  • Stirling RA, Toll DG, Glendinning S, Helm PR, Yildiz A, Hughes PN, Asquith JD. Weather-driven deterioration processes affecting the performance of embankment slopes. Géotechnique 2021, 71(11), 957-969.
  • Svalova A, Helm P, Prangle D, Rouainia M, Glendinning S, Wilkinson DJ. Emulating computer experiments of transport infrastructure slope stability using Gaussian processes and Bayesian inference. Data-Centric Engineering 2021, 2, e12.
  • Postill H, Helm PR, Dixon N, Glendinning S, Smethurst JA, Rouainia M, Briggs KM, El-Hamalawi A, Blake AP. Forecasting the long-term deterioration of a cut slope in high-plasticity clay using a numerical model. Engineering Geology 2020, 280, 105912.
  • Rouainia M, Helm P, Davies O, Glendinning S. Deterioration of an infrastructure cutting subjected to climate change. Acta Geotechnica 2020, 15(10), 2997-3016.
  • Elia G, Cotecchia F, Pedone P, Vaunat J, Vardon PJ, Pereira C, Springman SM, Rouainia M, Esch JV, Koda E, Josifovski J, Nocilla A, Askarinejad A, Stirling R, Helm P, Lollino P, Osinski P. Numerical modelling of slope-vegetation-atmosphere interaction: an overview. Quarterly Journal of Engineering Geology and Hydrogeology 2017, 50(3), 249-270.
  • Glendinning S, Hughes P, Helm PR, Chambers J, Mendes J, Gunn D, Wilkinson P, Uhlemann S. Construction, management and maintenance of embankments used for road and rail infrastructure: implications of weather induced pore water pressures. Acta Geotechnica 2014, 9(5), 799-816.
  • Helm PR, Davie CT, Glendinning S. Numerical modelling of shallow abandoned mine working subsidence affecting transport infrastructure. Engineering Geology 2013, 154, 6-19.

• Conference Proceedings (inc. Abstracts)

  • Morsy AM, Helm PR, El-Hamalawi A, Smith A, Stirling RA. Simulation of weather-driven deterioration of clay embankments. In: Geo-Congress 2024. 2024, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada: American Society of Civil Engineers.
  • Armstrong J, Preston J, Helm PR, Svalova A. ACHILLES: reducing infrastructure whole-life cost. In: Proceedings of 10th International Conference on Railway Operations Modelling and Analysis. 2023, Belgrade, Serbia.
  • Svalova A, Helm P, Prangle D, Rouainia M, Glendinning S, Wilkinson D. Bayesian Emulation of Computer Experiments of Infrastructure Slope Stability Models. In: 8th International Symposium for Geotechnical Safety and Risk (ISGSR). 2022, Newcastle, Australia: Research Publishing.
  • Armstrong J, Preston J, Helm P, Svalova A. ACHILLES: reducing earthworks failure risks and whole-life costs. In: Proceedings of the 3rd International Railway Symposium. 2021, Aachen, Germany.
  • Stirling RA, Glendinning S, Hughes PN, Hen-Jones R, Asquith JD, Helm P. Deterioration of geotechnical infrastructure: the influence of asset aging through environmental cycling. In: 19th International Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering. 2017, Seoul, Korea.
  • Helm P, Stirling RA, Glendinning S. The Implications of Using Estimated Solar Radiation on the Derivation of Potential Evapotranspiration and Soil Moisture Deficit within an Embankment. In: 3rd International Conference on Transportation Geotechnics. 2016, Guimaraes, Portugal: Elsevier.
  • Glendinning S, Helm PR, Rouainia M, Stirling RA, Asquith JD, Hughes PN, Toll DG, Clarke D, Powrie W, Smethurst J, Hughes D, Harley R, Karim R, Dixon N, Crosby C, Chambers J, Dijkstra T, Gunn D, Briggs K, Muddle D. Research-informed design, management and maintenance of infrastructure slopes: development of a multi-scalar approach. In: International Symposium on Geohazards and Geomechanics. 2015, Warwick, UK: IOP Publishing.
  • Helm PR, Davie CT, Glendinning S. Numerical modelling of the stability of shallow mine workings. In: Advances in transportation geotechnics : proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Transportation Geotechnics. 2008, Nottingham, UK: Taylor & Francis: London.

• Reports

  • Armstrong A, Loveridge F, Helm PR. ACHILLES Reading Guide 7: Intervention strategies and business case. Newcastle upon Tyne: Newcastle University, 2023.
  • Loveridge F, Svalova A, Helm PR, Armstrong A, Oakley J. ACHILLES Reading Guide 6: The role of data analytics in decision-making. Newcastle upon Tyne: Newcastle University, 2023.
  • Helm PR, Smith A, Loveridge F, Huang W, Johnston I. ACHILLES Reading Guide 5: Design considerations for clay earthworks. Newcastle University, 2023.
  • Helm PR, Morsy AM, Postill H, El-Hamalawi A, Stirling R, Rouainia M, Briggs KM. ACHILLES Reading Guide 3: Asset scale deterioration. Newcastle University, 2023.
  • Helm P. Summary of Cut Slope Modelling Used for the Derivation of Climate Change Deterioration Factors. Newcastle upon Tyne: Newcastle University, 2022. SaM‐Ext‐1.1‐Apr‐2022.

• Research Datasets/Databases

  • Morsy AM, Helm PR. Meteorological data used for water-balance calculations at ground surface in failure prediction of clay embankments subject to weather-driven deterioration. 2024. Newcastle upon Tyne: Newcastle University.
  • Helm P, Svalova A, Morsy A, Rouainia M, Smith A, El-Hamalawi A, Wilkinson D, Postill H, Glendinning S. Data: Emulating long-term weather-driven transportation earthworks deterioration models to support asset management. 2024. Newcastle upon Tyne: Newcastle University, 6.57MB.
  • Morsy A, Helm P, El-Hamalawi A, Smith A, Hughes P, Stirling R, Dijkstra T, Dixon N, Glendinning S. Data used for the validation of the BIONICS research embankment hydromechanical model. 2023. Newcastle upon Tyne: Newcastle University, Newcastle Data Repository, 2.2MB.
  • Helm P, Postill H, Dixon N, El-Hamalawi A, Glendinning S, Take A. Dataset: Strength parameter selection framework for evaluating the design life of clay cut slopes. 2021. Newcastle upon Tyne: Newcastle University, Newcastle Data Repository, 2.8 MB.