Australian Geomechanics Society South Australia & Northern Territory – 2010 Meetings
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15 February 2010
Pavement Design And Construction For Airfields And Container Terminals
Robert Smith
This presentation will cover a range of pavement types - concrete, asphalt and interlocking concrete blocks. The particular differences between road and aircraft / container pavements will be highlighted. The background to the design methods will be presented along with a discussion of examples.
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15 March 2010
In Situ Testing
Allan McConnell
Allan McConnell will discuss in situ geotechnical testing. The underlying theme will be "reducing geotechnical uncertainty".
The presentation will be a "warts and all" dialogue, covering:
- What is reasonably available to a geo-engineer in Australia.
- What is it good for – and strengths and weaknesses.
- How good is it really?
- Why does it help to reduce geotechnical uncertainty?
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19 April 2010
AS 2159-2009: A Brief Outline
Slav Tchepak
The revised Standard "Piling — design and installation", referred to locally as the Australian piling code, was introduced in late 2009.
The changes from the 1978 Standard to the 1995 Standard were major, with the introduction of limit state analysis among other significant changes.
AS 2159-2009 has continued that trend, with major changes throughout the code, but in particular to the design, installation and testing sections.
This presentation will elaborate on the changes introduced in the new Standard and will highlight the impact of those changes on the Australian piling market.
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May 17, 2010
Pizza & Videos Night
The production of high quality, engineering related documentaries has increased greatly over the last 5 to 10 years. You may have seen some of these on free to air television, while many others are only available on pay television or DVD and hence may be unfamiliar to you.
Through the agency of Australian Geomechanics Society committee members, a selection of geo-engineering related documentaries will be available for viewing for our May meeting. Come along to see what is on offer, and help choose which ones we look at. The selection will include documentaries on contemporary mega-projects and well as on famous failures of historical engineering infrastructure.
Reflecting the approach of winter, the videos will be preceded by a hot pizza supper.
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June 15, 2010
Concepts & Parameters Related to Ground Improvement Illustrated by Case Histories
Serge Varaskin
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July 26, 2010
2009 E.H. Davis Memorial Lecture
Recent Advances in the Application of Vertical Drains and Vacuum Preloading in Soft Soil StabilizationProfessor Buddhima Indraratna
Much of the world’s essential infrastructure is built along congested coastal belts composed of highly compressible and weak soils up to significant depths. Alluvial and marine soft clay deposits have very low bearing capacity and excessive settlement characteristics, with direct design and maintenance implications on tall structures, large commercial buildings, as well as port and transport infrastructure. Stabilizing such soft soils prior to construction is essential for both short and long term stability.
Pre-construction consolidation of soft formation soils by applying a surcharge load alone often takes too long. Moreover, attributed to the low permeability and high thickness of lowlying clay deposits, the required surcharge load to achieve more than 90% degree of consolidation can be excessively high over a prolonged period. A system of vertical drains combined with vacuum pressure and surcharge preloading has become an attractive ground improvement alternative in terms of both cost and effectiveness. This technique accelerates soil consolidation by promoting rapid radial flow, decreasing the excess pore pressure while increasing the effective stress.
This E.H. Davis Memorial Lecture presents an overview of the theoretical and practical developments and salient findings of soft ground improvement via PVD and vacuum preloading with applications to selected case histories in Australia, Thailand and China.