Swedish Geotechnical Society

Swedish Geotechnical Society
c/o Ernax Design AB
Sveaborgsvägen 16
SE-439 73 Fjärås
Sweden

Tel: +46 708 13 77 73   

E-mail: [email protected]
Website: www.sgf.net

President: Dr. Fanny Deckner ([email protected])
Secretary: Paula Nordberg ([email protected])

About

The Swedish Geotechnical Society was founded on 27th February 1950

FOUNDERS                                                                                                     

The founders were: Gösta Bjurström, Carl Ekman, BrorFellenius, Arne Hellgren, Bernt Jakobsson, Walter Kjellman, Nils Lilja, Göte Lindskog, Rune Lundström, John Marve, Ture Olofsson, John Olsson och Göte Åström.

Brief History

Geotechnical engineering in Sweden has a long tradition, dating back to the work of such outstanding engineers and scientists as Albert Atterberg, John Olsson, Wolmar Fellenius, Sven Hultin and Walter Kjellman. The "Geotechnical Commission of the Swedish State Railways" was instituted in 1913 because of repeated landslides along the main railroad lines and can be regarded as one of the milestones of modern soil mechanics. 

The term "geotechnics" (Swedish geoteknik) was coined by the Commission. The Geotechnical Commission worked under the leadership of Wolmar Fellenius, professor at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, and presented its report in 1922. The Commission investigated more than 300 embankment failures and land slips. The use of different field and laboratory investigation methods was discussed.

Besides the Swedish Geotechnical Commission, a special Harbour Committee was set up in Gothenburg in 1916 because of the failure of several quays.

The analysis of this slide, which was performed under the guidance of Sven Hultin and Knut Pettersson, resulted in the development of the "Swedish Slip Circle Method". As was usual at that time, the shear strength of the clay was expressed as a friction angle. The back-calculation gave a value as low as 9 degrees.

The Geotechnical Department of the National Swedish Road Authority was started as early as 1936 under Dr. Walter Kjellman, and was reorganised as the Swedish Geotechnical Institute in 1944. The Swedish Geotechnical Society was founded on February 27, 1950. The Swedish Geotechnical Institute plays an important role in the practical application of research and innovative foundation methods. During its 50 years of existence, SGI has been the breeding ground for many geotechnical engineers who have since contributed to the progress of Swedish geotechnical knowledge. In 1959, the Swedish Commission on Pile Research was created. 

Number of members
At start: No data on how many members. 13 people founded the Swedish Geotechnical Society
In 1975: about 300 individual members and 30 corporate memebers
At present: about 1800 individual members and 21 corporate members

Regional Meetings and Conferences
1st Nordic Geotechnical Meeting, NGM Stockholm 18-20 May 1950 (36 participants)
Slope congress Stockholm 1954
5th Nordic Geotechnical Meeting, NGM Gothenburg 1968
International Symposium "Soil Structure" Gothenburg 1-2 Aug. 1973
ESOPT, Stockholm 5-7 June 1974
1979 The first Groundengineering day is arranged. This is an annual event ever since.
1995 CPT´95 International conference on CPT testing
10th Nordic Geotechnical Meeting, NGM Ystad, 2004

Conference Proceedings, Publications, Publishers etc. 
The society has published several publications, prints, pamplets etc., for example:
1:93E Recommended Standard for Cone Penetration Tests 
2:93E Recommended Standard for Field Vane Shear Test 
1:95E Recommended Standard for Dilatometer Tests 
3:95 International Symposium on Cone Penetration Testing, CPT ´95, Linköping, Oct., 4-5, 1995. Proceedings, Vol. 1-3. 
4:95E Lime and Lime Cement Columns. Guide for project planning, construction and inspection. 

Today, the society is a vital and growing society. A lot of work to explore the geotechnial word further is done by the committees. SGF holds courses, seminars and conferences. We have a web-page that is continuously developed (http://www.sgf.net) and four local departments of the society, to get closer to our members. The number of women in the society is increasing and today 5 out of 10 members in the board are women. Also there is an increase of young members in the society, so there is a bright future for the Swedish Geotechnical Society.