The Corporate Associates Presidential Group extends its sincere thanks and congratulations to Australian Geomechanics Society, the Organising Committee and the Conference Organisers (ICMS Australia) on a highly successful 20th International Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering held in Sydney in early May this year. It was a remarkable achievement under very difficult and changeable circumstances. Well done to all.
The conference provided an opportunity for members the CAPG, the industry arm of the ISSMGE, to interact and participate in a number of CAPG sponsored sessions.
Are we overdesigning should be worried?
Since 2018, the CAPG has been running a survey to assess the extent of overdesign in geotechnical engineering practice. The survey was based on 10 simple geotechnical design problems including footings, piles slopes and retaining walls. An analysis of the 237 responses received from 40 countries was presented in a paper by Peter Day and Jean-Louis Briaud during a plenary session on the opening day of the conference. Many of the problems were based on full-scale load tests carried out at the National Geotechnical Testing Site at Texas A&M from whence the geotechnical data was obtained. An example of the responses received is given below.
The overall conclusion, following consideration of all ten problems was that, on average, we are OK. However, we should be very concerned about the extreme range of results. Peter Day reiterated the message given in his 2017 Terzaghi Oration that the ISSMGE needs to pay as much attention to the implementation existing knowledge as it does to the creation of new knowledge. More state-of-practice papers are needed.
For anyone who would like to take the analysis of results further, the full results of the survey are available at https://www.issmge.org/corporate-associates/downloads. The paper appears on pages 511 to 529 of Volume 1 of the conference proceedings.
Innovation and Achievements in Geotechnical Engineering Practice
In May 2020, the CAPG issued a call to its members for submission of abstracts dealing with innovation and achievements in geotechnical engineering practice. Twenty-two abstracts were received, 15 of which were accepted. This resulted in twelve papers which are included in pages 5151 5218 of Volume 2 of the conference proceedings.
Due to the large number of authors who attended in person, the Organising Committee granted the CAPG two consecutive, in person, parallel sessions on the final morning of the conference during which there were nine live presentations and one virtual presentation.
Dena Gabbassova (Tetra Tech Coffey) and Yuli (Chaido) Doulala-Rigby (Tensar International) chairing the CAPG Parallel Sessions.
The papers covered a wide range of topics including new design methods, innovative construction techniques, offshore foundations, digital transformation and efficient test equipment. At the end of the session, the audience were invited to participate in an online poll to select the two presentation that made the most significant contribution to geotechnical engineering practice.
The CAPG is glad to announce that Dar-Rocsiences innovative tool on shallow foundations, presented by Dr. Roger Estephan (Director of the Geotechnical and Heavy Civil Engineering Department at Dar) obtained the highest vote for their paper A new design tool for shallow foundations offering enhanced accuracy, reduced design time, and cost savings.
The second award, by a narrow margin, went to Chaido (Yuli) Doulala-Rigby (Chief civil engineer at Tensar International Limited) for her paper Surf Snowdonia: how geogrids brought waves to inland Wales, UK. This paper describes the innovative use of geogrids to reduce differential settlements of an embankment around a wave pool built on alluvial soils.
Winners of the best presentation awards, Dr Roger Estephan and Yuli Doulala-Rigby
CAPG and the Launch of the ISSMGE Time Capsule
The ISSMGE Time Capsule project is an initiative of Sukumar Pathmanandavel, Co-Chair of the CAPG. Its purpose is to capture past, current and future issues in Geotechnical Engineering. The Time Capsule consists of contributions from Past Presidents of the ISSMGE, Member Societies, Technical Committees and Corporate Associates, all of which are stored in virtual form on https://www.issmge.org/the-society/time-capsule.
A panel session during the launch of the ISSMGE Time Capsule in Sydney
The CAPG is pleased to have received contributions from nine Corporate Associates in which they showcase their capabilities and achievements. Additional contributions are still being accepted via the Contacts tab in the Time Capsule web page.
The CAPG congratulates Sukumar Pathmanandavel and the Time Capsule Project Design Team on a remarkable achievement which has initiated dialogue at all levels of ISSMGE membership.
