Geotechnical News December 2011
17
CGS NEWS
nonlinear as well as effective stress dy-
namic analysis. It provides a standard,
well maintained platform for a variety
of constitutive models with effective
pre- and post-processing capabili-
ties and has a very detailed operating
manual. It has replaced the many indi-
vidual programs developed by academ-
ics which generally required the inter-
vention of the developer to apply them
in practice by a single widely accepted
computational platform.
Now a few brief words about the
future. A major event looms in the im-
mediate future - a reassessment by the
profession under the guidance of the
US National Research Council (NRC)
of the assessment of liquefaction po-
tential and the estimation of residual
strength. Such reviews have been held
at roughly 10 year intervals since 1985.
The NRC review was initiated to re-
solve the uncertainty in the profession
caused by the recent controversy sur-
rounding the different procedures for
liquefaction assessment by the leading
research institutions in the field, UC
Davis and UC Berkeley. The proposed
NRC workshop will hear from both of
these proponents as well as studying all
other relevant evidence and in coopera-
tion with leading researchers and prac-
titioners will formulate a state of the art
report which hopefully will be widely
accepted in practice.
Soil-structure interaction (SSI) is
becoming an important issue for de-
signers, especially for tall buildings
with several levels of basements. The
questions they typically ask are: what
shall I use for input motions? where
shall I input the motions? how can I
model the interaction at the base and
on the basement walls? Thirty years
of research on SSI research has done
little to reduce the uncertainties associ-
ated with these problems. The design
of basement walls is itself a conten-
tious issue. Some codes require that
wall pressure for design using the
Mononobe-Okabe approach should use
peak ground acceleration. Many struc-
tural engineers feel that using a PGA
based on 2% exceedance in 50 years
is overkill because of the outstanding
behaviour of basement walls during
earthquakes. Fundamental centrifuge
studies are now being conducted in
California and analytical studies in
British Columbia to resolve the issue.
Preliminary results from both studies
suggest that 0.55- 0.65PGA may be all
that is required.
The future is still full of challenges
but engineers have much better analyti-
cal and experimental tools to deal with
these challenges. Practice will continue
to evolve in the constant struggle to
provide clients with robust, cost effec-
tive solutions to their problems. Geo-
technical engineering after 50 years
is still an exciting field and a worthy
profession for daring, inquiring minds.
Canadian Foundation for
Geotechnique
The
Canadian
Foundation
for
Geotechnique (the Foundation) was
established in 1970 as a registered
charitable organization that operates
at arm’s length from the Canadian
Geotechnical Society (CGS). Its
mission is to recognize and foster
excellence in geotechnique in Canada.
Specifically, the Foundation funds
the CGS student awards and prizes,
the CGS Colloquium, travel for the
Cross Canada Lecture Tours, and the
Foundation’s own National Graduate
Scholarship. In total the Foundation
requires approximately $35,000 every
year to fund these endeavours.
At the very successful, joint CGS/
Pan Am Conference in Toronto in Oc-
tober 2011, we were asked, “Where
does the Foundation gets its funding?”
Since 2000, the Cross Canada Lec-
ture Tours have been supported entirely
by corporate sponsorship. Over this pe-
riod of time there have been 22 very
generous companies who have helped
with the sponsorship.
The remainder of the Foundation’s
annual funding comes from 1) indi-
vidual donations, primarily from CGS
members and 2) the interest it earns on
its investments.
The principal from which the inter-
est is derived has been accumulated
over the years, initially from the profits
of the 6th International Conference on
Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engi-
neering, which was held in Montreal
in 1965, and latterly from interest-free
loans from the CGS, and both interest
free loans and donations from the CGS
local sections, some of which originate
as profits from various CGS confer-
ences.
But by far the most important source
of funding for the annual awards, priz-
es and the Foundation’s National Grad-
uate Scholarship is donations from in-
dividual CGS members. Each time you
renew your CGS membership on-line,
you are reminded to donate something
to the Canadian Foundation for Geo-
technique. If you aren’t already a regu-
lar donor, we would encourage you to
you join the CGS members that made
donations last year. Donations can also
be made directly to the Foundation by
completing a donation form that can be
downloaded from our website at www.
cfg-fcg.ca.
The donations do not need to be
large … “many hands make light
work”.
Over the years the Foundation has
had a number of significant donations
from individuals. The Foundation rec-
ognizes those individuals who have
donated a cumulative amount of more
than $25,000 as
Legacy Donors
. Dona-
tions can take the form of cash, securi-
ties or bequests. Contributions can be
made by an individual or by a group
to honour an individual. Contributions
can be targeted to a specific initiative
or for unspecified purposes. This past
year we initiated a similar
Legacy
Corporate Sponsor
program. Both the
Legacy Donors and Legacy Corporate
Sponsors are honoured annually at the
Canadian Geotechnical Conference.
The amount of the donation is never
disclosed.
So, for the individual who asked the
question … that’s the short answer. We
hope it gives everyone cause to pause
and donate to the Foundation when
joining the CGS for the first time, or
when renewing one’s membership.
Upcoming Conferences
Visit the CGS website
for information on a variety of local,
