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Geotechnical News December 2010
Geotechnical Instrumentation News
John Dunnicliff
Introduction
This is the sixty-fourth episode of GIN.
Two articles this time.
Web-based Data Management
Software
In the previous GIN I told of a request
from a colleague for information
about web-based data management
software and responded with, “ What
an excellent suggestion!” Here’s an
article by David Cook that identifies
things to consider
, intended to assist
a person who needs instrumentation
geotechnical database management in
determining what is important, before
committing to a particular system.
A few weeks ago I sent the article
to several firms who supply web-based
data management software, inviting
each to respond with a one-page “Ours
will do this” article. I’ve had positive
responses from seven firms and plan to
include their contributions in the next
GIN, March 2011.
More on Fiber-Optic Sensing
Systems
Earlier GINs have included:
• From Switzerland: “Overview of
Fiber Optic Sensing Technologies
for Geotechnical Instrumentation
and Monitoring”, and “Distributed
Fiber Optic Sensors: Novel Tools
for the Monitoring of Large Struc-
tures”, both by Daniele Inaudi and
Branko Glisic, September 2007.
• From England: “Distributed Optical
Fibre Strain Measurements in Civil
Engineering”, by Peter Bennett,
December 2008.
Here’s another article about distrib-
uted fiber-optic sensing by colleagues
from the Institute for Geotechnical En-
gineering, ETH Zürich - Swiss Federal
Institute of Technology, who appear to
be playing a leading role in developing
this technology. Because I expect that
you’d like to have information on com-
mercial sources, I asked the authors to
include this but, being a professional
institute, they preferred not to do so.
At the end of the article I’ve therefore
included an
Editor’s Note
with eight
commercial sources - if you know of
others, please let me know, and I’ll up-
date the list in a later GIN.
Next Instrumentation Course in
Florida
Since my previous GIN column, the
dates of the next course have been
changed. Dates are now April 3-5,
2011 at Cocoa Beach. Details are on
page 33
and on
.
ufl.edu/geotech.
Next International Symposium
on Field Measurements in
Geomechanics (FMGM)
As many of you will know, FMGM
symposia are organized every four
years, the previous one being in Boston
in September 2007. They are “the
places to be” for folks in our club.
The next FMGM will be in Berlin,
Germany on September 12-16, 2011.
Information is on
.
og. The deadline for submission of
abstracts is December 31, 2010.
Alex Feldman
The following has been sent to me
by Alex’s colleagues at Shannon &
Wilson, Inc., Seattle, Washington.
Alexander I. Feldman, an in-
ternationally known structural
and instrumentation engineer,
passed away on August 14, 2010.
Alex came to the US in the late
1970s following a meeting with
Stan Wilson, one of Shannon &
Wilson’s co-founders, at a con-
ference in Russia. Stan was im-
pressed and later sponsored Alex
and his family to emigrate to the
U.S.
Alex had a brilliant mind, par-
ticularly for instrumentation,
and never backed down from a
challenge. Among his other ac-
complishments, he pioneered
the use of open-channel liquid
level systems to monitor vertical
displacements of sensitive struc-
tures such as tunnels and dams.
Alex was a long-time member
of Shannon & Wilson. Ever the
innovator, he secured patents for
Alex Feldman.
