26
Geotechnical News • December 2018
COMPUTING IN GEOTECHNICAL ENGINEERING
From the GS Board
The
2006 Fourth Edition
is the first
edition in which the
CHBDC
was
referenced.
Although some revisions and additions
were made to the
2006 Fourth Edition
,
the length of this edition was reduced
to 488 pages, down slightly from the
512 pages of the
1992 Third Edition
.
This reduction was accomplished by
reducing the content of some chapters,
such as “Background Information for
Site Investigations”, by combining a
number of chapters, and by using a
slightly smaller font and a wider col-
umn width. Chapters that were added
or substantially enlarged included
“Selection of Design Parameters”,
“Earthquake-Resistant Design”, and
“Machine Foundations”.
As might be expected, the
1992 Third
Edition
chapter on “Safety and Limit
States Design” was totally revised
in the
2006 Fourth Edition
and was
renamed “Limit States and Limit
States Design”. The introduction to
this chapter provides background to
the development and benefits of using
limit states design in geotechnical
engineering practice, specifically when
working on projects with structural
engineering components. The intro-
duction to the chapter indicates that
some design codes in the early 2000s
had already introduced or required
limited states design for foundations.
It concludes with the statement:
“LSD [limit states design] can be
viewed as a logical extension to the
traditional WSD [working (allowable)
stress design] approach for foundation
design. It is considered that LSD will
eventually become the general state of
practice by geotechnical engineers for
foundation design.”
The
2006 Fourth Edition
has been
reprinted in 2008 (2
nd
printing), in
2012 (3
rd
printing) and again in 2017
(4
th
printing) but without any revi-
sions. As with all English and French
editions since 1985, the
2006 Fourth
Edition
has been distributed by BiTech
Publishers. Approximately 5,000 cop-
ies of the 2006 Fourth Edition have
been printed in the four print runs. In
2006 the selling price was $160 for
CGS members, $235 for non-members
and $100 for students. Currently
(2018) the selling price is $204 for
CGS members, $284 for non-members
and $139 for students. Most of the
price increase over the years has been
due to increased postage rates for this,
almost 1.5 kg, document.
Any document of the size and com-
plexity of the
CFEM
is bound to have
a few corrigenda and errors. Those
noted up to the end of March 2018,
were corrected in an April 1, 2018
Errata, available on the CGS website
2013 Fourth French Edition of
the CFEM (MCIF)
In 2013, the French translation of the
2006 Fourth Edition
of the
CFEM
was completed under the editorship of
Jean Lafleur (SCG, 2013, Figure 8).
The 488-page French version is called
MCIF
,
4e
(Fourth Edition). (There is
no
Third Edition
of the
MCIF
. The
numbering of editions jumped from
the
1994 Second Edition
of the
MCIF,
a translation of the
1992 Third Edition
of the
CFEM
, to the
2013 Fourth Edi-
tion
of the
MCIF
, a translation of the
2006 Fourth Edition
of the
CFEM
).
Less than 1,000 copies of the
2013
Fourth French Edition
were printed
and are being distributed by BiTech
Publishers. The current (2018) prices
for the
2013 Fourth French Edition
are the same as for the 2006
Fourth
(English) Edition;
$204 for CGS
members, $284 for non-members and
$139 for students
.
Currently (2018)
The
2006 Fourth Edition
of the
CFEM
and the
2013 Fourth French Edition
of the
MCIF
are currently (2018) the
most-up-to-date editions.
The CGS has purposely not scanned or
otherwise made the
2006 Fourth Edi-
tion
and the
2013 Fourth French Edi-
tion
available “online”. Besides being
distributed by BiTech Publishers, new
and used hardcopies of the current
(and earlier editions) are sometimes
available online through distributors
such as Amazon and eBay.
The
CFEM
and
MCIF
continue to
have a positive effect on CGS revenue,
and this continues to subsidize many
of the Society’s other activities and
keeps the membership fee relatively
low.
Future Edition (Online)
In 2014, the CGS decided to start
planning for a future edition of the
CFEM
, and proposed that this future
edition would be an ‘online’ edition.
Again it is changes to the
NBCC
and
CHBDC
that are driving the need
to update
CFEM
, specifically with
respect to limit states design for
foundations. It’s important, if not
imperative, that the
CFEM
keep up to
date because the
CFEM
is referenced
by these codes and is the primary
authoritative reference in Canada for
foundation engineering.
In 2015 a CGS CFEM Technical
Advisory Committee (TAC) was
formed, chaired by Dennis Becker of
Golder Associates (co-Editor of the
2004 Fourth Edition
). Shortly after
the formation of the TAC, a search
Figure 2: Cover of the 2013 Fourth
French Edition (there was no Third
French Edition).
