Research Interests:
- Measurement of shear strength of unsaturated fissured
clays
- Measurement of shear strength of gravels and crushed
rock
- Embankment dams
- Stability of slopes
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Biography:
Turker Mirata was born in Nicosia, Cyprus in 1937. After
graduating from the English School, Nicosia in 1955, he worked as
a clerk in government offices for one year, before receiving a 4-year
Cyprus Government Scholarship for B.Sc. studies in Civil Engineering.
One year at the Polytechnic, Regent Street (now the Polytechnic of
Central London) and two years at the Northampton College, London (now
the City University) was sufficient for him to complete his B.Sc.(Eng),
after which he worked as an executive engineer in the Department of
Water Development, Cyprus for 3 years, taking full responsibility of the
completion of the composite concrete gravity - rockfill dam at Lefka,
and the site investigation, design and supervision of the construction
of the Morphou earth dam. A Commonwealth scholarship enabled him to complete
a DIC (Diploma of Membership of Imperial College) course followed by
an M.Sc. course in Soil Mechanics at the Imperial College, London. He
was elected to membership of the Institution of Civil Engineers (London)
in 1963. Having completed his M.Sc.(Eng) (called M.Phil., Master
of philosophy, as from September 1965) in May 1965, under the supervision
of the late Prof. A.W. Bishop, he joined the staff of the Civil Engineering
Department, Middle East Technical University (METU) in October 1965 as
an instructor. His Ph.D. thesis, prepared at METU was accepted by the
University of London in November 1976. He became an assistant professor
in 1969, associate professor in 1973, was ‘promoted’ to professorship
in 1981, and became a professor in 1988. He was visiting professor at the
Eastern Mediterranean University between 1993 - 1995. He has supervised
one PhD and 37 M.S. theses
to date. Having reached the age limit of 67 on 4 November
2004, he was pensioned from his duties at METU, but continues to
lecture part-time. The major part of his research was devoted to the
development of three different versions of a relatively new shear testing
technique, advantageous particularly for fissured and/or gravelly unsaturated
clays, and for gravels and crushed rock. For an overview of these tests
please click here
.
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Patent
Patent Title: The determination
of the undrained shear strength of cohesionless soils by shearing
a wedge of the in-situ soil by means of a single hydraulic jack, and the
special devices developed for implementing this test.
Patent Number: 18600 (Ministry
of Industry and Technology, Republic of Turkey )
Date of Issue:
9 October, 1974.
Period of validity:
Fifteen years from the date of issue.
Inventor: Türker
Mirata
Patent Owner:
Turkish Scientific and Technical Research Council.
Publications in
English
- Mirata, T. & Erzin, Y. (2007). Strength
of sands in wedge shear, triaxial shear, and shear box tests. Geotechnical
Testing Journal, Vol. 30, No. 2, 152 - 163. Available online at:
www.astm.org
- Mirata, T. & Filiz, E. (2006). Effect on
measured strength of wedge shear box spacing. Geotechnical Testing
Journal, Vol . 29, No. 1, 80-86. Available online at:
www.astm.org
- Mirata. T. & Tanfer, G. (2004). A modified
way of testing filters for cracked clay cores of embankment
dams.
EJGE Volume 9, 2004 - Bundle C
-
Mirata, T. (2004). Manual for wedge shear testing
of soils . Department of Civil Engineering, METU, 2004 version,
170 pp. (Click here
to access the pdf version.)
-
Mirata, T. (2003). Manual for wedge shear testing
of soils . Department of Civil Engineering, METU, 2003 version,
170 pp. (See corrigenda
.) (Obtainable from ULAKBIM (Turkish Scientific &
Technical Documentation Centre). Contact Mrs. C. Yazicioglu at:
cevza@ulakbim.gov.tr
or
ulakbim@gov.tr
- Mirata, T. (2002c). Discussion on "Development
of a New In-Situ Direct Shear Test" by H Matsuoka, S. Liu, D. Sun,
and U. Nishikata. Geotechnical Testing Journal,
Vol. 25, No. 3, 342-343. Available online at:
www.astm.org
-
Mirata, T. (2002b). Manual for wedge shear testing
of soils . Department of Civil Engineering, METU, 2002 version,
170 pp. (See corrigenda
.) (see 2003 version for
acquisition
).
- Mirata, T. (2002a). Discussion on "A
Device For Extracting Large Intact Soil Samples Developed and used
in a remote region of Bolivia" by Ian Coker and Roger Flores.
EJGE Volume 6, 2001
- Mirata, T. (2001). Total stress approach
for shear strength of unsaturated soils. Proc. 15th International
Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering, Istanbul,
Volume 1, pp. 607-608.
- Mirata, T. (2001). A semi-automatic displacement
recorder.
EJGE Volume 6, 2001
.
- Mirata, T. (2000). Manual for wedge shear
testing of soils . Department of Civil Engineering, METU, 2000
version, 170 pp. (See
corrigenda
.) (see 2003 version for
acquisition
).
- Tosun, H., Mirata, T., Mollamahmutoglu,
M. and Çolakoglu, N.S. (1999). Shear strength of gravel
and rockfill measured in triaxial and prismatic wedge shear tests.
EJGE Volume 4, 1999
.
- Mirata, T., Varan, M., Seçkin, A.,
and Gün, F. (1999). Applications of the cylindrical wedge shear
test to the study of shear strength of compacted clays.
EJGE Volume 4, 1999
.
- Mirata, T., Gökalp, A., and Sakar, M.
(1998). Achieving higher normal stress levels in the prismatic wedge
shear test.
EJGE Volume 3, 1998
.
-
Mirata, T. (1998). Manual for wedge shear testing
of soils. Department of Civil Engineering, METU,
170 pp. (See corrigenda
for this and subsequent versions
) (see 2003 version for
acquisition
).
- Mirata, T. and Gökalp, A. (1997).
Discussion. Géotechnique , Vol. 47,
No. 4, 1997, pp. 887-889.
- Mirata, T. (1997). Laboratory Instructions
for Soil Mechanics Students. Department of Civil Engineering,
METU, 1997, 78 pp.
- Mirata, T. (1992). Discussion.
Géotechnique , Vol. 42, No.
4, 645- 648.
- Mirata, T. (1991). Developments in
wedge shear testing of unsaturated clays and gravels. Géotechnique
, V.41, No. 1, 79-100. Corrigenda: Géotechnique
41, No. 2, 296; 41, No. 4, 639.
- Mirata, T. (1980). Potential of the
in situ wedge shear test in landslide forecasting. Proceedings
of the International Conference on Engineering for Protection Ffrom
Natural Disasters, Bangkok, Thailand, 659-671.
- Mirata, T. (1979). Strength parameters
for short term stability problems in stiff fissured unsaturated
clays. Proceedings of the 7th European Conference
on Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering, Brighton, Vol. 3,
113-114.
- Mirata, T. (1979). Discussion.
Proceedings of the 7th European Conference on Soil
Mechanics and Foundation Engineering, Brighton, Vol. 4, 75.
- Mirata, T. (1979). Discussion.
Proceedings of the 7th European Conference on Soil
Mechanics and Foundation Engineering, Brighton, Vol. 4, 152-153.
- Mirata, T. (1977). Discussion.
Géotechnique , Vol. 27, No.
3, 447-448.
- Mirata, T. (1976). Discussion.
Géotechnique , Vol. 26, No.
3, 539-540.
- Mirata, T. (1975). Expansible rings
for support of test pit walls. Proceedings of Istanbul Conference
on Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering, Vol. 1, 291-297.
- Mirata, T. (1974). The in situ wedge
shear test -- a new technique in soil testing. Géotechnique
, Vol. 24, No. 3, 1974, pp. 311-332. Corrigenda: Géotechnique
24, No. 4, 698; 25, No. 1, 157-158; 36, No. 1, 144; 37, No.
3, 420; 38, No.1, 163.
- Mirata, T. (1970). Discussion.
Géotechnique , Vol. 20, No.
1, 116-117.
- Mirata, T. (1969). A semi-empirical
method for determining stresses beneath embankments. Géotechnique
, Vol. 19, No. 2, 188-204.
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Courses Taught
Undergraduate Level
- CE 361 Soil Mechanics I
- CE 362 Soil Mechanics II
- CE 364 Soil Mechanics
- CE 363 Soil Mechanics
- CE 461 Foundation Engineering I
- CE 465 Earth Structures
Graduate Level
- CE 566 Measurement of Soil Properties (
Programs
for students taking this course)
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Recent Research Grants:
- The shear strength of Anatolian sands of various
minerological composition as measured in triaxial and plane strain
tests -- I , T. Mirata, A. Türkemenoglu, Y. Erzin, Middle
East Technical University Research Grant, AFP-2000-03-03-01.
- Updating of the Turkish versions of reports
on the wedge shear test, T. Mirata, Middle East Technical University
Research Grant, AFP-99-03-03-12.
- Documentation and further studies on the wedge
shear test, T. Mirata, M. Shakar, Middle East Technical
University Research Grant, AFP-96-03-03-03.
- Application of the wedge shear test to the
stability problems of embankment dams and other structures,
T. Mirata, H. Tosun, I. Usta, Z. Yungul, The Scientific and Technical
Research Council of Turkey , Project No. INTAG-702 (1993 - 1995).
- New applications and written and visual documentation
of the wedge shear test, T. Mirata, A. Gökalp, Middle East
Technical University Research Grant, AFP-93-03-03-01.
- Wedge shear testing of gravels and crushed
rock under higher normal stresses, T. Mirata, E. Z. Turp, Middle
East Technical University Research Grant, AFP-90-03-03-03.
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Office: Room K1-314
Middle East Technical University
Ankara 06531 Turkey
Phone: (90 - 312) 210 24 09
Fax: (90 - 312) 210 54 01
E-Mail:
mirata@metu.edu.tr
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Last update: 11 June 2009
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