My research interest is mainly on applied geotechnics. I am a geotechnical engineer researcher on the SUCCESS project (Sustainable Urban Carbon Capture: Engineering Soils for Climate Change) funded by EPSRC. My role involves designing and implementing field experiments to monitor geotechnical properties of the field during the carbonation process, assess the impact of soil carbonation on flood risk and determine a validation process for measuring the carbonation process. Prior to this, I worked on advanced CPTu and laboratory investigation of geotechnically critical on-shore and near-shore soft sediments in Germany and New Zealand and soft soil stabilisation of tropical clay in Malaysia.
I am currently working as a lecturer in geotechnical engineering in the Division of Natural and Built Environment in the School of Science, Engineering and Technology having formerly served as a research associate in geotechnical engineering at Newcastle University.
I am a geotechnical engineer by training and have been working on advanced geotechnical investigation of on-shore and off-shore soft sediments. I have worked for several years in both industry and academia in various universities and industrial sectors across the globe.
– Sustainable Urban Carbon Capture: Engineering Soils for Climate Change (SUCCESS) https://research.ncl.ac.uk/success/
The essence of the SUCCESS project is to determine the performance of soils to act as a carbon sink, by engineering them to absorb carbon and to convert them into a benign state. The overarching research idea in SUCCESS is this: is it possible to design a carbon capture function into soils that permits the phenomenon of pedogenic carbonate formation to be exploited to enable urban and restored soils to remove significant amounts of CO2 from the atmosphere? The urgent need to compensate for emissions derived from fossil fuel combustion means that this work is timely, and drivers affecting the behavior of developers require research inputs through partnerships with universities. The aims of the project are to specify a practical design for soils used in engineering, restoration and construction works that maximizes sequestration of atmospheric CO2 through natural soil processes, including the use of ‘Carbon Capture Gardens’.
– Utilising crushed dolerite columns to stabilise unstable substrates using microbial induced calcite precipitation (MICP): coupling ground improvement and climate mitigation
This project will merge the discipline of geotechnical engineering and microbiology in order to address one of the oldest and most important concerns for geotechnical engineers, which is unstable substrate stabilisation.
Journal articles:
– Kluger, M.O., Moon, V., Kreiter, S., Lowe, D.J., Churchman, G.J., Hepp, D.A., Siebel, D., Jorat, M.E., Mörz, T. “A new attraction-detachment model for explaining landsliding in clay-rich tephras”. Geology (Accepted).
– Jorat, M.E., Moon, V., Hepp, D., Kreiter, S., de Lange, W., Feldmann, S. & Mörz, T. “Characterisation of sub-surface materials capable of creating turbidity issues during capital dredging: An example from the Port of Tauranga, New Zealand”. Journal of Coastal Research 2016 (In-press).
– Kolosz, B.W., Goddard, M.A., Jorat, M.E., Aumonier, J., Sohi, S.P. & Manning, D.A.C. “A Sustainability Framework for Engineering Carbon Capture Soil In Transport Infrastructure”. International Journal of Transport Development and integration 2017, 1, 74-83 (In-press).
– Jorat, M.E., Mörz, T., Moon, V., Kreiter, S. & de Lange, W. (2015). “Utilizing piezovibrocone in marine soils”. Journal of Geomechanics and Engineering, 9(1): 1-14.
Conference proceedings:
– Jorat, M.E., Kolosz, B.W., Goddard, M.A., Sohi, S., Akgun, N., Dissanayake, D. & Manning, D.A.C. (2016). "Geotechnical requirements for capturing CO2 through highways land". In Sixth International Conference on Geotechnique, Construction Materials and Environment, Bangkok, Thailand (In-press).
– Jorat, M.E., Goddard, M.A., Kolosz, B.W., Sohi, S. & Manning, D.A.C. (2015). “Sustainable Urban Carbon Capture: Engineering Soils for Climate Change (SUCCESS)”. In: 16th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering (XVI ECSMGE 2015), 2015, Edinburgh, 2559 – 2564.
– Jorat, M.E., Kolosz, B.W., Sohi, S., Lopez-Capel E. & Manning, D.A.C. (2015). “Changes in geotechnical properties of urban soils during carbonation”. In: 15th Pan-American Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering – From Fundamentals to Applications in Geotechnics, 2015, Buenos Ares, Argentina, 912 – 918.
