Pooneh Maghoul

Polytechnique Montréal · Department of Civil, Geological and Mining Engineering

In northern regions, the long-term serviceability of infrastructure founded on frozen ground is adversely affected by climate warming. Rates of change in temperature, which are not identical spatially and temporally, can remarkably dictate the magnitude and evolution of permafrost degradation. Investigating such impacts requires a non-isothermal ra...

Harsh environments are external conditions that present a heightened or unusual challenge to geotechnical engineering construction, geo-infrastructure operation, and geological disaster prevention. In the context that the construction and excavation activities of geotechnical engineering projects get deeper into the ground and cover a longer geomet...

Some lunar regions present better conditions to store water and other volatiles inside frozen traps at high latitudes [1]. The information collected can be interpreted as 1-10% ice in the near subsurface strata, some in the form of arctic like permafrost, but these results are still controversial [2]. The principal regions of present interest are P...

The ability to quantitatively and non-invasively characterize complex multiphase geomaterials is still a major challenge to the engineering, construction, and geophysical fields. In the context of accelerating climate change, construction on permafrost requires remedial measures and an appropriate characterization of permafrost (e.g., ice content,...

Horizontal directional drilling (HDD) is one of the popular pipeline trenchless construction techniques for sites where surface excavations and conventional trenching are not desirable. An integral part of the pipeline design and construction process is to perform stress analysis on the HDD overbends, which can be subjected to significant cross-sec...

The two-dimensional (2-D) basin-scale seismic site response of the Kitimat valley, located in the North Coast region of British Columbia, Canada, was investigated. The valley was subjected to a synthetic ground motion corresponding to a realistic local crustal earthquake of moderate magnitude consistent with the prevailing seismic hazard in the Kit...

In permafrost regions, the long-term serviceability of infrastructure founded on highly plastic foundation is adversely affected by slow-rate, time-dependent deformations (i.e., viscous or creep behavior) of permafrost subject to climate change. Investigating such deformations in a Thermo-Hydro-Mechanical (THM) framework requires a coupled non-isot...

Fatigue cracks are inevitable in the service life of engineering structures and can cause unexpected severe structural failures if left unattended. During structural vibrations, fatigue cracks, specifically at the initial stage, exhibit a repetitive open-close breathing-like phenomenon. Breathing cracks cause irregularities, bi-linearity, or pertur...

The non-destructive testing (NDT) plays a crucial role in geotechnical engineering and geophysical applications, especially in the design of earthquake-resistant foundations, geotechnical field investigation, and material characterization and detection of underground anomaly. Currently, the existing signal interpretation methods in NDT measurements...

Sound transmission loss (STL) occurs as waves propagate through a structure. In order to reduce the sound transmission through a cylinder with better STL, an acoustic quieting process needs to be implemented. One efficient ways to minimize sound transmission is using piezoelectric materials, which can be applied to reduce transmitted noise in diffe...

Fatigue cracks are inevitable in the service life of engineering structures. They can cause unexpected severe structural failures if left unattended. During structural vibration, fatigue cracks, especially at their initial stage, introduce a repetitive crack open-close breathing-like phenomenon. Breathing cracks cause irregularities, bi-linearity,...

The seismic site response of the Kitimat valley located in the North Coast region of British Columbia in Canada is carried out using the SiteQUAKE FEM/BEM numerical code. The two-dimensional (2-D) seismic response of this sedimentary valley is evaluated with particular attention to the combined effects of topography, geology, and geotechnical prope...

This paper verifies an elastic-thermoviscoplastic constitutive model of saturated soft clay. The model was formulated to describe the influence of temperature and strain rate in the Critical State soil mechanics framework. The coupled thermoplastic and viscoplastic E-TVP model accommodated the effect of temperature by defining a relationship betwee...

In this paper, the seismic response of lava tubes was estimated. Several dimensionless numerical analyses were carried out for various dimensionless geometries. The effects of key influencing factors such as the depth of the lava tubes, the gravitational effect of the Moon, and the frequency content of the incident motion on the dynamic response of...

Due to payload limitations in space missions, light and compact investigation tools should be developed for subsurface exploration on the Moon, Mars, and beyond. Here, we aim to investigate the effects of high-frequency vibrations on reducing the overhead load required for the penetration of a typical probe into granular media. The Discrete Element...

This paper examines the accuracy of a new elastic-thermoviscoplastic (E-TVP) constitutive model developed based on Critical State Soil Mechanics. The model can be used for simulating the temperature dependent, and strain-rate dependent behavior of clay soils. The study compares the E-TVP behavior of a single soil element with previously published t...

The adverse effects of climate warming on the built environment in (sub-)arctic regions are unprecedented and accelerating. The planning and design of climate-resilient northern infrastructure, as well as predicting deterioration of permafrost from climate model simulations, require characterizing permafrost sites accurately and efficiently. Here,...

Microbially induced calcium carbonate precipitation (MICP) is a nature-based soil stabilization technique, which has been developed for the past 20 years. Nevertheless, the application of the MICP method for stabilization of clays has received less attention in the literature as it is necessary to boost its effect in various ways to ensure its effi...

The bender element (BE) test has been widely used for the dynamic characterization of soil specimens at low-shear strain levels. However, the actual behavior of the BE inside a soil specimen remains unknown. Thus, the current ASTM standard does not consider the interference of compressional and shear waves in BE testing, which can lead to significa...

The ground is a natural grand system; it is composed of myriad constituents that aggregate to form several geologic and biogenic systems. These systems operate independently and interplay harmoniously via important networked structures over multiple spatial and temporal scales. This paper presents arguments and derivations couched by the authors, t...

Typical subsurface investigation tools used on Earth are not applicable for subsurface exploration of the Moon and other extraterrestrial bodies due to payload limitations in space missions. Instead, light and compact subsonic projectile probes can be considered as an alternative subsurface investigation tool in such exploratory missions to overcom...

This presentation deals with the identification and tracking of linear infrastructure from satellite imagery of northern Canada in order to estimate deformation of infrastructure affected by permafrost degradation. The purpose is to perform semantic segmentation of linear infrastructure such as roads or railways utilizing deep learning models for m...

Ground surface temperature is an essential parameter in permafrost studies. Long-term forecasts of ground surface can provide valuable insights on the stability of permafrost concerning climate change. The current methods for the estimation/calculation of ground surface temperature have their challenges and limitations. At the Sustainable Infrastru...

A series of full-scale experiments were conducted to estimate lateral soil constraints on the pipes buried in dense sandy slopes at different burial depths. The experimental data indicated that the soil force on the pipe increases with increasing the slope grade and burial depth ratio. The lateral soil force versus relative pipe displacement respon...

A series of full-scale experiments was conducted to estimate lateral soil constraints on pipes buried in dense sandy slopes at different burial depths. The experimental data indicated that the soil force on the pipe increases with increase in the slope grade and burial depth ratio. The lateral soil force against relative pipe displacement response...

A two-dimensional infinite length porous slab is employed to simulate biomimetic porous scaffold. The pores of slab are saturated with a relatively low and high viscous fluids such as air and bone marrow. Ultrasonic waves based on the Biot-JKD formulation travel through the porous slab and create viscous exchanges between the skeletal frame and the...

The study of wave propagation in biomimetic porous scaffold requires the inclusion of some complex physics such as the interaction of the ultrasonic wave with pore fluid, solid phase, and porous material. Also, due to viscous interactions between the pore fluid and skeletal frame, the dynamic tortuosity as a fractional function of frequency in the...

This paper describes a three-dimensional (3D) analytical solution for the acoustic response of cancellous bone-like porous materials saturated with a viscous fluid. The effect of dynamic tortuosity, especially in clinically relevant ultrasound frequency ranges, is considered to investigate the effect of viscous interaction between the fluid and sol...

This study investigated the long-term effect of horizontal Ground-Source Heat Exchangers (GSHEs) on mitigating permafrost thaw settlement. In the conceptual system, a fan coil was used to chill the recirculating fluid in the linear High-Density Polyethylene (HDPE) ground loop system. A fully coupled thermo-hydro-mechanical finite element framework...

Soils' responses to cyclic and dynamic loadings due to construction-induced ground vibration or earthquakes are governed by the dynamic properties of the foundation soil, including shear modulus, Poisson's ratio, and damping. Several factors such as the soil type, rate and number of cycles in cyclic loadings, effective stress, and over-consolidatio...

This study investigated the long-term effect of Ground-Source Heat Exchangers (GSHEs) on mitigating permafrost thaw settlement. In the conceptual system, a fan coil was used to chill the recirculating fluid in the High-Density Polyethylene (HDPE) ground loop system. A fully coupled thermo-hydro-mechanical finite element framework was employed to an...

The bender element (BE) test has been widely used for the dynamic characterization of soil specimens at low-shear strain levels (i.e. shear modulus, shear wave velocity). However, the actual behavior of the BE inside a soil specimen remains unknown. Thus, the current ASTM standard does not consider the interference of compressional and shear waves...

The adverse effects of climate warming on the built environment in (sub)arctic regions are unprecedented and accelerating. Planning and design of climate-resilient northern infrastructure as well as predicting deterioration of permafrost from climate model simulations require characterizing permafrost sites accurately and efficiently. Here, we propo...

Fatigue crack is usually inevitable in the service life of engineering structures and can cause unexpected severe failures if left disregarded. This work introduces a new crack localization method using spatially distributed wavelet entropy measurements. During structural vibration, fatigue closed cracks, especially at their initial stage, introduc...

Many space systems are equipped with chemical, optical, and microwave analytical tools to analyze surface or environmental conditions. However, some of the most valuable geophysical data regarding the subsurface structure of a planetary body are obtained from seismic and gravity measurements. Despite the need for this information, the gravity and s...

Mass and volume transportation restrictions prevent us from sending conventional heavy tools used on earth for Lunar or Mars subsurface investigation. Instead, compact and light portable probes for space exploration are required to overcome transportation limitations. On the other hand, while heavy equipment can provide the required penetration int...

Typical geotechnical rigs penetrate up to the required depth by employing heavy equipment to overcome the resistance force of the soil's layers. Due to mass and volume transportation restriction to remote surface areas, especially in space explorations , carrying heavy equipment to provide the required penetration depth is not a viable option. Inst...

Characterization of permafrost soils plays an important role in the design and monitoring of structures built on foundation permafrost. The ultrasonic test is one of the promising methods in the characterization of physical (e.g., ice content , unfrozen water content and porosity) and mechanical properties (e.g., shear and compression wave velocity...

This paper aims to study the combined effects of incident wave angularity and geometrical characteristics on the seismic spectral response of curved valleys filled with alluvium. The parametric studies were carried out using a numerical tool, called HYBRID, which combines the Finite Element Method (FEM) and Boundary Element Method (BEM) to model th...

The bender element (BE) test has been widely used for the characterization of soil specimens to determine the dynamic or low-strain shear modulus. However, the actual behavior of the BE inside the soil specimen still remains unknown. The current ASTM standard does not consider the interference of P waves in BE measurements, which can lead to signif...

Geothermal heat pump (GHP) systems have recently gained popularity in providing heat to buildings. In this study, the short-term and long-term performance of closed-loop horizontal GHP systems in cold regions and the effectiveness of seasonal balancing were investigated. A period of 50 years was simulated to cover the life of a conventional system....

Non-destructive testing (NDT) plays an important role in material inspection and characterization. In geotechnical engineering, the popular seismic NDT includes Spectral Analysis of Surface Wave (SASW), Multichannel Analysis of Surface Waves Method (MASW) and Continuous Surface Wave (CSW). A forward solver and a back-calculation algorithm are requi...

Geothermal heat pump (GHP) systems have recently gained popularity in providing heat to buildings. In this study, the short-term and long-term performance of closed-loop horizontal GHP systems in cold regions and the effectiveness of seasonal balancing were investigated. A period of 50 years was simulated to cover the life of a conventional system....

Energy piles are bi-functional structural elements that are used to support the structural loads of a building and to operate as a geo-heat exchanger for shallow geothermal energy systems. In urban areas, energy piles can eventually be used to harvest the heat loss through the basement enclosure and re-inject the energy to the building for the heat...

SiteQUAKE is a computational software developed mainly for 2D seismic site effect analyses in the field of soil science and (geotechnical) civil engineering. The product benefits from a fast hybrid Finite Element/Boundary Element (FE/BE) numerical framework, which can be widely used in various geotechnical engineering problems.

In the current industry practice guidelines, the soil restraints to assess the behaviour of pipelines subject to permanent ground displacements are numerically characterized using independent “soil springs”. These guidelines have been primarily generated by considering the typical configurations of buried pipelines in level ground. The assumption o...

In this paper, a semi-analytical elastodynamic forward solver was proposed for the Multichannel Analysis of Surface Waves (MASW) using the spectral element technique for the first time. A root finding method based on Brent's algorithm was proposed to accurately extract the dispersion curves. The trust region reflective method, an effective bound-su...

Harvesting shallow geothermal energy for heating and cooling building spaces in winter and summer is considered environmentally friendly and renewable. Recently, geothermal energy piles have been used as heat exchanger elements in ground source heat pump systems to exchange heat with the ground underneath buildings for heating and cooling purposes....

The propagation of poroelastic waves in a soil specimen is dependent on the physical and mechanical properties of the soil. In the geotechnical practice, such properties are obtained through in-situ geotechnical testings or element soil testings in the laboratory. These methods require almost advanced equipment and both testing and sample preparati...

Extracting heat from a sewage pipe through a typical horizontal ground heat exchanger has recently been introduced as a renewable energy alternative to reduce fossil fuel usage. This paper presents a novel design for a ground heat exchanger that extracts heat from the surrounding soil and sewage within the pipe while simultaneously being carried to...

Release of metal debris from a pair of gear teeth is a consequence of their contact. Any excessive metal debris can lead to the onset of fatigue and failure. This paper aims to derive a contact mechanics-based model to obtain the energy absorption of helical gear teeth. The proposed model includes the roughness effect of teeth contact surfaces. The...

In this paper, the transient acoustic wave propagation in a bone-like porous material saturated with a viscous fluid was investigated using Biot’s theory. Due to the interaction between the viscous fluid and solid skeleton, the damping behavior is proportional to a fractional power of frequency, i.e., the dynamic tortuosity was written in terms of...

The near-surface lunar characterization and seismic site effect analysis play an important role in the establishment of future human colonization on the Moon. NASA, CSA and other agencies are following an ambitious program to "go to the Moon to stay, by 2024". The seismic experiments data collected during the Surveyor, Apollo and Luna missions prov...

Harvesting geothermal energy through the use of thermo-active pile systems is an eco-friendly technique to provide HVAC energy demand of buildings. Mechanical behaviour of thermo-active piles is impacted by thermal cycles. Moreover, in urban areas, the temperature of the ground is higher than non-constructed areas due to the heat loss through the b...

Due to population growth and increasing energy demand all over the world, geothermal energy, which can be extracted from both deep and shallow geothermal resources, is widely applied in recent years. In the current paper, application of shallow geothermal energy using ground-source heat pump system is assessed and different elements of this system...

In this paper, the effects of transverse acoustic waves in characterizing a bone-like, porous medium filled with a viscous fluid are analyzed for the first time. Scattering operators along with stress fields are derived by using the standard Biot-JKD model. A short duration acoustical pulse is applied to one side of a bone-like, porous medium so th...

Ground-source heat pump (GSHP) systems are known as environmentally-friendly technology for heat and air conditioning purposes. The thermal capacity of GSHPs depends on site conditions and are specific to the system parameters. Numerical simulations, e.g., finite element analysis can be used to predict the performance of such systems, by taking mos...

In this work, a numerical model is calibrated using the force-displacement data of Trautmann et al. (1985). The numerical technique is implemented to study the effects of slope angle on soil-pipeline interaction loading. For this purpose, the pipe is displaced in horizontal, upward and oblique directions and force-displacement curves are plotted fo...

Energy piles, used as ground heat exchanger elements in ground source heat pump systems to heat or cool building spaces, have been gaining popularity in recent years. It is important to understand the behavior of energy pile systems in local climatic and geotechnical conditions. This paper aims to investigate the behavior of the energy piles under...

The application of renewable energy resources can be proposed as a solution for addressing global warming caused by applying fossil fuels for energy supply. The application of the GSHP system, as an alternative of clean energy source, in cold regions may contribute to some potential problems such as the ground thermal imbalance. This study aims to...

The serviceability of infrastructure such as buried utilities, pavement structures, and building foundations in cold regions can be adversely affected by seasonal frost actions in cold regions. Frost actions on road structures including culverts can be more complicated to assess and mitigate due to the existing double-cooling sources, i.e. pavement...

Damage due to the frost penetration in soils can be detrimental to buried utilities such as water and gas pipes. It would not only reduce their service life but may also induce service interruptions and public safety concerns. Therefore, buried pipes should be located below the frost depth to prevent them from the frost damage. An alternative appro...

Thermal performance of a proposed group of geothermal piles for supplying the energy demand of a building is studied in this paper. The building is located in the Fort-Garry campus of the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, MB, Canada. Due to the heat loss of the below-grade envelope of buildings in urban areas, soil temperature rises significantly...

The effects of freeze-thaw cycles on the thermal properties of foundation soils are often neglected in many building energy simulation programs. Consequently, there is a lack of research focused on the energy dissipation through the below-grade enclosure of buildings in cold regions, where freeze-thaw cycles occur in soils. This paper aims to inves...