B.Sc. (Urmia University), M.Sc. (Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz), PhD (University of Western Australia), P.Eng.

• Associate Professor

Contact Information

Ph: 709-864-2738
Em: hshiri[at]mun.ca
Office: EN3016

Expertise

• Offshore foundations and geotechnique
• Subsea pipelines and risers
• Offshore and subsea installation
• Arctic subsea hazards
• Offshore fatigue and fracture
• Reliability assessment
• Offshore construction techniques
• Numerical and experimental studies

Research Interests

Fluid-soil-pipeline interaction, fatigue performance of deep water risers, arctic seabed hazards and its impact on subsea flowlines and subsea structures, VIV fatigue performance and the integrity of subsea flowlines, offshore foundations and geotechnique, arctic subsea renewable energies, the impact of seabed hazards on mobile jackup units, catenary mooring and performance of anchoring systems, subsea and offshore installation techniques, offshore construction challenges etc.

Personal Profile

After completing my B.Sc degree in civil engineering ( Urmia University, 1996) and my M.Sc in geotechnical engineering ( Shahid Chamran University, 1999) I joined SADRA group and entered into offshore oil and gas construction industry as offshore installation engineer. From 1999 to 2006, I quickly grew up in oil and gas community and worked on various large offshore field development projects as design engineer, project engineer and project manager, where I closely collaborated with many professionals from worldwide recognized companies such as Samsung, Statoil, Petropars, Worly-Parsons, Technip, JPKenny, Intecsea, Aker marine, Kaeverner, Allseas etc. I worked on range of EPCI projects mainly including subsea export and infield pipelines, loadout, transportation and offshore installation of topsides, jackets and subsea structures, SPMs, semi-subs and floating platforms, marine construction etc. Besides my extremely busy time in industry, I had a chance to conduct few R&D projects publishing couple of technical papers on case studies and lessons learnt within some challenging projects. I hold also various workshops and short courses for young professionals.

In 2006, I received a full PhD scholarship from University of Western Australia and WA Energy Alliance (WAERA) and joined the Centre for Offshore Foundation Systems (COFS), where I achieved my dreams of entering into the deep water subsea technologies having an excellent opportunity to work with Prof. Mark Randolph until 2010, one of the world’s most recognized scientists in offshore geotechnique. I focused on fatigue performance of Steel Catenary Risers (SCR) in touchdown zone having the influence of non-linear hysteretic riser-seabed interaction and published few referred journal and conference papers. My PhD dissertation was graded as excellent and very good by scholars from Oxford and Texas A&M universities. I was also served as invited lecturer in UWA oil and gas department for three years and recommended as the candidate to receive the best engineering lecturer prize of the faculty in 2009. In addition, I spent a year in COFS working on performance of deep water drag embedment anchors in sand in an industry supported project. During my PhD education (2006 to 2010), I kept continue a close contact with the WA offshore industry providing casual and part time design and consulting services to WA North West shelf development as senior pipeline and subsea installation engineer.

In 2010, I established the department of civil engineering in Urmia University of Technology and served as the first Dean until 2012 giving graduate lectures in finite element analysis and soil-structure interaction as well. I was also providing R&D advices to the offshore industry. In 2012, I joined Delta Offshore Group as Projects Director, leading the R&D and T4B projects at the same time, where I focused on subsea pipelines and innovative subsea installation technologies particularly on mega pipelines and seawater intakes.

In June 2015, I joined the civil engineering department of Memorial University of Newfoundland in St. John’s as Assistant Professor and Wood Group Chair in Arctic and Harsh Environments, where my research and teaching activities are mostly focused on arctic offshore pipelines and subsea developments. My research interests lie in the areas of fluid-soil-pipeline interaction, fatigue performance of deep water risers, arctic seabed hazards and its impact on subsea flowlines and subsea structures, VIV fatigue performance and the integrity of subsea flowlines, offshore foundations and geotechnique, arctic subsea renewable energies, the impact of seabed hazards on mobile jackup units, catenary mooring and performance of anchoring systems, subsea and offshore installation techniques, offshore construction challenges etc.

I am also member of various industrial R&D and T4B committees and the invited reviewer for range of journals as well as have participated in international and national conferences and workshops as keynote speaker, session chair, and committee member.

If you are interested in doing your master's or PhD in the areas referred above, please contact me at hshiri[at]mun.ca. I enjoy collaborative industry orientated research works, share my knowledge and experience with others, and pay particular attention on serving the communities.