Plenary Lecture

Geotechnical Design for Construction in Natural, Partially Cemented Sand Profiles

Professor Sam Frydman
Faculty of Civil & Environmental Engineering
Technion – Israel Institute of Technology
Israel
E-mail: cvrsfsf@technion.ac.il

Abstract: Various regions in the world, such as Israel’s coastal region, consist, mainly, of Pleistocene and Holocene sands with varying degrees of calcareous cementation. Previous studies of the Israeli materials emphasized the difficulty in their geotechnical characterization, due to their extreme variability. Consequently, it is difficult to estimate construction stability, displacements and deformations on, or within these soils. Due to the spatial variability of the extent of cementation, which varies within meters, geotechnical design requires adoption of macro, representative parameters rather than micro, localized values. It is suggested that SPT and Menard pressuremeter tests may be used to characterize representative properties of these materials. Values of elastic modulus obtained from pressuremeter tests may be used for displacement analyses at different strain levels, while accounting for the geometric dimensions (length/ diameter ratio) of the test probe. A relationship has been obtained between pressuremeter modulus and SPT blow count, consistent with published data for footing settlements on granular soils. Cohesion values may be estimated, by comparing field pressuremeter curves to curves from numerical (finite element or finite difference) analyses, while assuming a reasonable friction angle.

Brief Biography of the Speaker: Sam Frydman was born and educated in Australia, receiving his degree in Civil Engineering from Melbourne University. After doing research at the Soil Mechanics Division of CSIRO in Melbourne for two years, he settled in Israel and received his MSc and DSc degrees from the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, in Haifa. He did his post-doctoral studies at Cambridge University in England, and became professor at the Technion. He spent sabbatical periods at Cambridge and Oxford universities and Imperial College in England, as well as Melbourne and Monash universities in Australia, Auckland University in New Zealand, University of Massachussets and U.C San Diego in USA. Professor Frydman served as Head of the Structural Engineering and Construction Management Department, and Head of the Geotechnical Area at the Technion, and was chairman of the Israel Geotechnical Society. He received the prize of the Israel Institute of Civil Engineers for his contributions to geotechnical engineering in Israel, and was awarded a Distinguished Visiting Research Fellowship of the British Royal Academy of Engineering for a research period at Imperial College in London. He has published over 100 research papers in the professional literature and international conferences, and has supervised 35 post-graduate students. He is presently an emeritus professor at the Technion, and is a partner in a geotechnical consulting company.

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