Türker Mirata's Home Page

Türker Mirata


Professor
Department of Civil Engineering
Middle East Technical University
Ankara, TURKEY

 


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
    1. 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
    2. 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
    3. Mirata. T. & Tanfer, G. (2004). A modified way of testing filters for cracked clay cores of  embankment dams. EJGE Volume 9, 2004 - Bundle C
    4. 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.)
    5. 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  
    6. 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
    7. 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 ).
    8. 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
    9. 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.
    10. Mirata, T. (2001). A semi-automatic displacement recorder. EJGE Volume 6, 2001 .
    11. 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 ).
    12. 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 .
    13. 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 .
    14. Mirata, T., Gökalp, A., and Sakar, M. (1998). Achieving higher normal stress levels in the prismatic wedge shear test. EJGE Volume 3, 1998 .
    15. 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 ).
    16. Mirata, T. and Gökalp, A. (1997).  Discussion. Géotechnique , Vol. 47, No. 4, 1997, pp. 887-889.
    17. Mirata, T. (1997).  Laboratory Instructions for Soil Mechanics Students.  Department of Civil Engineering, METU, 1997, 78 pp.
    18. Mirata, T. (1992).  Discussion.  Géotechnique , Vol. 42, No. 4, 645- 648.
    19. 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.
    20. 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.
    21. 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.
    22.  Mirata, T. (1979).  Discussion.  Proceedings of the 7th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering, Brighton, Vol. 4, 75.
    23.  Mirata, T. (1979).  Discussion.  Proceedings of the 7th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering, Brighton, Vol. 4, 152-153.
    24. Mirata, T. (1977).  Discussion.  Géotechnique , Vol. 27, No. 3, 447-448.
    25. Mirata, T. (1976).  Discussion.  Géotechnique , Vol. 26, No. 3, 539-540.
    26. 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.
    27. 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.
    28. Mirata, T. (1970).  Discussion.  Géotechnique , Vol. 20, No. 1, 116-117.
    29. 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

    1. CE 361 Soil Mechanics I
    2. CE 362 Soil Mechanics II
    3. CE 364 Soil Mechanics
    4. CE 363 Soil Mechanics
    5. CE 461 Foundation Engineering I
    6. CE 465 Earth Structures

    Graduate Level

    1. CE 566 Measurement of Soil Properties ( Programs for students taking this course)


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    Recent Research Grants:

    1. 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.
    2. 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.
    3. Documentation and further studies on the wedge shear test, T. Mirata, M. Shakar, Middle East Technical University Research Grant, AFP-96-03-03-03.
    4. 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).
    5. 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.
    6. 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: 2 April 2007