Expertise · AGL Consulting
Mehdi Ebadi is an Associate Director at AGL Consulting in Ireland, a geotechnical engineer whose career has also covered teaching, research and founding companies. This story is about a 22-storey building that had settled up to 220 mm before it was finished, and about holding to engineering principles when a design is under pressure.
In Mehdi Ebadi's own words.
"If an adjustment is needed, I would rather redo the design properly than compromise on engineering principles."
I believe in not bending the boundaries to make a design work. I believe in informing the client of all risks and problems, even if it means we do not get the job or the solution they are looking for. I see engineering as design that combines creativity and principles.
Before joining AGL Consulting in 2022 as Principal Geotechnical Engineer, I spent thirteen years as an Assistant Professor at Azad University in Iran, worked as a senior geotechnical engineer, and co-founded several companies. I have run Geotechnics.org since 2011.
I managed the remediation and straightening of a 22-storey building that had experienced differential settlements of up to 220 mm when 15 storeys had already been built. The settlement was caused by extensive ancient, historical made ground forming an entire hill, which had not been identified in the original ground investigation or accounted for in the original design.
I developed and implemented an innovative remediation method to straighten the building and address the underlying settlement. Because of a non-disclosure agreement I cannot give further details, but the building has now been in service for more than ten years with no reported problems related to the remediation.
Q. Where has MIDAS made the biggest difference in your work?
I carried out a load-deformation analysis of the building foundations for a €7 billion mega-project in Europe. I used MIDAS GTS NX to model a 250 m × 160 m multi-level foundation, with details and openings down to 0.2 m in size and approximately 1,800 loading points, without any modelling, meshing or computational issues. Among the geotechnical-only software I know, that is unique and exceptional.
A hill of made ground that previous investigations had missed was put right, and the building has stood for more than ten years since. Mehdi Ebadi tells clients about the risks even when doing so could cost him the job. MIDAS shares his view of what an engineer owes a client.