All civil engineering and construction projects require some sort of solid foundation, but ground conditions bring some degree of uncertainty to every project. Dealing properly with uncertainty over ground conditions can make the difference between the commercial success and failure of a project. With margins in the construction industry at historic lows, and with costs of failing to accurately predict ground conditions becoming increasingly high, the importance of proper management of the variety of ground-related risk is paramount. Risk management has demonstrated its value in many industries, but the full lessons of that experience has not yet fully reached all aspects of civil engineering. In particular the importance of individuals and their own awareness of risks and how to manage them has often been overlooked. Martin van Staveren has written a new kind of book on ground risk management. Based on many years of professional experience and proven risk management techniques, Uncertainty and Ground Conditions demonstrates how to ensure the construction and civil engineering projects succeed in delivering on time and on budget.

All civil engineering and construction projects require some sort of solid foundation, but ground conditions bring some degree of uncertainty to every project. Dealing properly with uncertainty over ground conditions can make the difference between the commercial success and failure of a project.With the costs of failing to accurately predict groun

Since the need to protect ground water from pollution was recognized, researchers have made progress in understanding the vulnerability of ground water to contamination. Yet, there are substantial uncertainties in the vulnerability assessment methods now available. With a wealth of detailed information and practical advice, this volume will help decision-makers derive the most benefit from available assessment techniques. It offers: Three laws of ground water vulnerability. Six case studies of vulnerability assessment. Guidance for selecting vulnerability assessments and using the results. Reviews of the strengths and limitations of assessment methods. Information on available data bases, primarily at the federal level. This book will be indispensable to policymakers and resource managers, environmental professionals, researchers, faculty, and students involved in ground water issues, as well as investigators developing new assessment methods.

Geotechnical Investigation and Improvement of Ground Conditions covers practical information on ground improvement and site investigation, considering rock properties and engineering geology and its relation to construction. The book covers geotechnical investigation for construction projects, including classic case studies with geotechnical significance. Additional sections cover soil compaction, soil stabilization, drainage and dewatering, grouting methods, the stone column method, geotextiles, fabrics and earth reinforcement, miscellaneous methods and tools for ground improvement, geotechnical investigation for construction projects, and forensic geotechnical engineering. Final sections present a series of site-specific case studies.

Model Uncertainties in Foundation Design is unique in the compilation of the largest and the most diverse load test databases to date, covering many foundation types (shallow foundations, spudcans, driven piles, drilled shafts, rock sockets and helical piles) and a wide range of ground conditions (soil to soft rock). All databases with names prefixed by NUS are available upon request. This book presents a comprehensive evaluation of the model factor mean (bias) and coefficient of variation (COV) for ultimate and serviceability limit state based on these databases. These statistics can be used directly for AASHTO LRFD calibration. Besides load test databases, performance databases for other geo-structures and their model factor statistics are provided. Based on this extensive literature survey, a practical three-tier scheme for classifying the model uncertainty of geo-structures according to the model factor mean and COV is proposed. This empirically grounded scheme can underpin the calibration of resistance factors as a function of the degree of understanding – a concept already adopted in the Canadian Highway Bridge Design Code and being considered for the new draft for Eurocode 7 Part 1 (EN 1997-1:202x). The helical pile research in Chapter 7 was recognised by the 2020 ASCE Norman Medal.

WIDTH: 405pt; BORDER-COLLAPSE: collapse border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=540> WIDTH: 405pt; mso-width-source: userset; mso-width-alt: 19748 width=540> HEIGHT: 31.5pt height=42> BORDER-BOTTOM: #f0f0f0; BORDER-LEFT: #f0f0f0; BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent; WIDTH: 405pt; HEIGHT: 31.5pt; BORDER-TOP: #f0f0f0; BORDER-RIGHT: #f0f0f0 class=xl65 height=42 width=540>GSP 229 contains 54 papers on risk and uncertainty in foundation engineering presented in honor of Fred H. Kulhawy.

Uncertainty, Modeling, and Decision Making in Geotechnics shows how uncertainty quantification and numerical modeling can complement each other to enhance decision-making in geotechnical practice, filling a critical gap in guiding practitioners to address uncertainties directly. The book helps practitioners acquire a working knowledge of geotechnical risk and reliability methods and guides them to use these methods wisely in conjunction with data and numerical modeling. In particular, it provides guidance on the selection of realistic statistics and a cost-effective, accessible method to address different design objectives, and for different problem settings, and illustrates the value of this to decision-making using realistic examples. Bringing together statistical characterization, reliability analysis, reliability-based design, probabilistic inverse analysis, and physical insights drawn from case studies, this reference guide from an international team of experts offers an excellent resource for state-of-the-practice uncertainty-informed geotechnical design for specialist practitioners and the research community.