Corporate Associates Presidential Group
CAPG March 2019 update
In this 2017 – 2021 term, the CAPG is focussing on providing a number of visible and prominent platforms to discuss, debate, and promote issues relating to geotechnical engineering, that have or are perceived to have a significant impact on the commercial sector of the ISSMGE. The five ISSMGE regional conferences in 2019, and the international conference in Sydney in 2021 have been chosen as suitable venues for creation of these platforms. It is intended that local issues are focussed on at the regional conferences, to ensure a higher level of relevance to the audience. Additionally, the CAPG is facilitating a number of smaller, city/country specific discussions on these topics to raise broader awareness. The support by the YMPG (Young Members Presidential Group) in these activities in gratefully acknowledged.
The following plenary sessions have been organised, in conjunction with the Organising Committes of the regional conferences.
- 13th Australia New Zealand Conference on Geomechanics, 1-3 April 2019, Perth, Western Australia - Plenary session of 60 minutes duration on “Collaboration in Geotechnical Engineering – Impact on Research and Project Delivery".
- The 17th European Conference on Soil Mechnics and Geotechnical Engineering, Reykjavik, Iceland, 1-6 september 2019 - Plenary session of 60 minutes duration on ‘‘Bridging the gap between designers and constructors: how do we ensure effective ‘transfer’ of design into construction?”.
- XVII African Regional Conference Soil Mechnics and Geotechnical Engineering Cape Town, South Africa, 7-9 October 2019 - Plenary session of 60 minutes duration featuring presentations of reviewed technical papers by the commercial sector on innovation in geotechnical engineering practice, with a focus on ISSMGE Corporate Associates's innovations.
- The 16th Asian Regional Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering, Taipei, Taiwan, 14-18 October 2019 - Plenary session of 60 minutes duration on "Are we overdesigning?".
- XVI Pan American Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering, Cancún, Mexico, 17-20 November 2019 - Plenary session on Geoeducation for the future.
Furthermore, CAPG will be launching a global survey in 2019 on "Are we overdesigning?", a survey of international practice, a joint initiative by the ISSMGE Corporate Associates Presidential Group, TC205 and TC304.
- Motivation
At the XVI Danube European Conference (Skopje Macedonia, June 2018), the question was raised “Are we overdesigning?”. Although the question originated from the Asian Region, it is valid internationally where different countries and users of various testing techniques or design codes tend to follow local practice about foundation design. This survey is intended to assess the consistency of calculation models and design methods for a variety of geotechnical structures and, where possible, to compare the results with full-scale tests and reliability analyses.
- Outline
The survey is based on two soil profiles, one in clay and the other in sand. Soil test results, typical of those one would find in a geotechnical investigation report, are provided for each soil profile. A limited number of specimen problems have been proposed, namely concentrically and eccentrically loaded spread footings, axially and laterally loaded piles and slopes. The idea is to keep the problems easy to analyse and representative of every-day geotechnical structures. Some problems require the prediction of performance of the geotechnical structure (prediction problems) while others call for the design of the structure as it would be constructed (design problems). The prediction problems are aimed assessing the selection of parameters and calculation models. The design problems are aimed at assessing the provisions made for safety and serviceability in geotechnical structures.
- Timing
Timing of the survey is quite soon, with the intent of distributing the survey questions through the member societies. It is hoped that sufficient progress will have been made to give some preliminary findings for the Asia region by the time of the 16ARC (October 2019). There will be a great deal of work to do to analyse the results of the survey, and the plan is to provide the full and final findings at the Sydney 2021 quadrennial ICSMGE.
Finally, ISSMGE would like to increase the Corporate Associate numbers, currently 36. We have updated the benefits document for Corporate Associates to reflect all the progress made, see https://www.issmge.org/corporate-associates/why-how-to-join, Please contact the undersigned should you wish to learn more details about the Corporate Associates scheme, or wish to join as a Corporate Associate.
Sukumar Pathmanandavel , Chair CAPG
Global Service Leader – Ground & Underground Engineering, Aurecon
T +61 2 9465 5289 M +61 413 941 487
au.linkedin.com/in/sukumarpathmanandavel
S.Pathmanandavel@aurecongroup.com
Background Briefing on the CAPG
The Corporate Associates Presidential Group (CAPG) was established in 2011 to develop actions and activities to enhance the commercial sector of the ISSMGE. CAPG is a Board level committee of the ISSMGE and comprises representatives drawn from the Corporate Associates (CAs) of the ISSMGE. The Corporate Associates cover corporations, consultancies, contractors, equipment manufacturers, and product manufacturers. A full list of CAs, along with links to their company web sites are provided in the accompanying tab, List of CAs.
The December 2017 revised Terms of Reference of the CAPG can be viewed through this link
https://www.issmge.org/filemanager/article/17/ISSMGE_CAPG_terms_of_reference_17-21_Rev2.pdf
In the 2013 - 2017 term, the CAPG in conjunction with the TOC and others, promoted awareness in the geotechnical community of the gap between state of art and state of practice in geotechnical engineering, through the mechanism of a global survey. The 2017 CAPG/TOC Global state of the art and state of practice in geotechnical engineering survey findings is now considered well disseminated, through, publication of the survey findings in the ISSMGE bulletin, Australian Geomechanics Journal, South African Institute of Civil Engineering Journal, enewsletter of the Ground Engineering magazine (UK), NZ Geotechnical Society Journal, and in French language, in Revue Française de Géotechnique. The links below allow access pdf files of the presentations at the Seoul workshop, which contain both general and specific information about the global survey.
https://www.issmge.org/filemanager/article/17/CAPG_Seoul_Workshop_presentation.pdf
https://www.issmge.org/filemanager/article/17/Seoul_Survey_feedbackV1a.pdf
CAPG Conference Calls
Please let Kim Chan (kim.chan@ghd.com) know your interest in joining in on the call, which are held at 6 weekly intervals.
