Skip to main content

Staff Profile

Dr Peter Helm

Researcher in Infrastructure Deterioration and Resilience

  • Email: peter.helm@ncl.ac.uk
  • Address: Civil and Geospatial Engineering
    School of Engineering
    Stephenson Building
    Newcastle University
    Newcastle upon Tyne
    NE1 7RU
Background


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

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

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.

Publications