ISSMGE Bulletin: Volume 5, Issue 4 Page 45 NEWS Arrigo Croce Lecture To all members of ISSMGE Roma, July 15th 2011 Dear members of the ISSMGE, Since 2000 the Italian Geotechnical Society (Associazione Geotecnica Italiana – AGI) has been organising every year a series of conferences dedicated to the memory of the late Professor Arrigo Croce, who was the first professor of soil mechanics in Italy, President of AGI, vice-President for Europe of the ISSMFE and co-founder of the technical committee devoted to the geotechnical aspects of preservation of historic sites. The first Arrigo Croce Lecture was delivered by Prof. Carlo Viggiani, followed by Prof. Michele Jamiolkowski, Prof. Ruggiero Jappelli, Prof. Giovanni Calabresi, Prof. Giovanni Barla, Prof. Beniamino D’Elia, Prof. Giuseppe Ricceri, Prof. Luciano Picarelli and Prof. Alberto Burghignoli. Also written versions of past lectures have been published in the Rivista Italiana di Geotecnica. These papers (except the last two, not yet available on the site) can be downloaded from the website of AGI (www.associazionegeotecnica.it), following the path “RIG”, “Croce Lecture”. Photograph of Prof. Arrigo Croce Last year, the Council of AGI decided to open the event also to international people with very high qualification in the field of soil mechanics, rock mechanics and geotechnical engineering. ISSMGE Bulletin: Volume 5, Issue 4 Page 46 NEWS Arrigo Croce Lecture (continued) I am very happy to announce you that the next lecturer will be: Prof. Eduardo ALONSO Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya who decided to give a lecture with the very stimulating title: Crystal Growth in Geotechnics Details of this lecture are presented below. The Conference is scheduled on December 15th, 2011 in Rome, at 10.30 am in the Conference Room of CNR (National Research Council). After the lecture, a light buffet will be provided for exchanging greetings for the coming new year. The lecture is free of charge and all members of ISSMGE are welcome. We ask you to fill-in the registration form attached to the present letter and send it by e-mail to the Secretariat of the Italian Geotechnical Society ([email protected]). The maximum number of 300 people will be allowed to participate; hence the rule of “first-come, first-service” will be applied. I hope to see many of you at this occasion, to attend the interesting Lecture of Prof. Alonso and have the chance of visiting Rome, a very pleasant town also in the period before Christmas. With my best regards, Stefano Aversa President of the Associazione Geotecnica Italiana CRYSTAL GROWTH IN GEOTECHNICS Eduardo Alonso Lilla tunnel and two long viaducts (Pont de Candí and Pallaressos), all of them being parts of the high speed Madrid-Barcelona railway link, have suffered in recent years extreme swelling phenomena immediately after being built. In all of them the origin of the observed swelling is crystal growth. The concerned crystals were gypsum crystals in the case of Lilla tunnel and Pont de Candí viaduct and ettringite-thaumasite crystals in the case of Pallaressos. Lilla tunnel, 2km long, was excavated in hard sulphate rich claystones of Eocene age by a traditional head and bench scheme using blasting and a conventional support. The tunnel floor experienced vertical displacement reaching in some sections 80 cm in a few months. As a result, the tunnel was heavily instrumented (continuous Prof. Eduardo Alonso extensometers, pressure cells, floor displacement monitoring) and large diameter samples were taken for laboratory testing. In addition, alternative support systems were tested “in situ” with the purpose of ISSMGE Bulletin: Volume 5, Issue 4 Page 47 NEWS Arrigo Croce Lecture (continued) selecting the best design for the repair of the tunnel. A circular cross section lined with a high strength concrete ring, heavily reinforced, was eventually built at a high cost. Maximum pressures recorded so far reach 6 MPa. Pont de Candí Viaduct is founded on large diameter piles of 20 m in length socketed on hard anhydritic claystones. It has suffered a sustained heave dating from the end of construction at a rate of 1-2 mm/month. An “active layer” was detected and monitored by continuous extensometers. It is located below pile’s tip. Therefore piles and viaduct are heaving as a single unit. In Pallaressos Viaduct the two access embankments, 18m high, have experienced severe heaving which has required a continuous levelling work of the rail tracks. The “active layer” in this case is located in the upper 8 m of the embankments. The swelling induces a longitudinal compression of the bridge and abutments resulting in severe structural damage. The three outlined cases are rather exceptional. Expansive phenomena in tunnels around the Alps in Triassic sulphated rocks are well known. But Lilla tunnel reached extreme swelling pressures and swelling displacements. No similar phenomena have been found in the literature for the additional two cases. The lecture will describe the fundamental observations carried out “in situ” and the attempts to reproduce the swelling phenomena in the laboratory. Models were developed to simulate the hydro- mechanical and chemical interactions, and the crystal growth as well as its application to real conditions will be also presented and compared with real observations. The lecture will end with a description of the mitigation measures adopted to protect the damaged structures and to allow the safe operation of the high speed railway line. Gypsum crystals growing in a discontinuity in Lilla claystone ISSMGE Bulletin: Volume 5, Issue 4 Page 48 NEWS Arrigo Croce Lecture (continued) Lilla tunnel. Heave of the floor The viaduct of Pont de Candí being repaired ISSMGE Bulletin: Volume 5, Issue 4 Page 49 NEWS Arrigo Croce Lecture (continued) Pallaressos Viaduct and one of the access embankments affected by thaumasite crystal growth Damage in Pallaressos structure ISSMGE Bulletin: Volume 5, Issue 4 Page 50 NEWS Arrigo Croce Lecture (continued) ISSMGE Bulletin: Volume 5, Issue 4 Page 51 NEWS INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON GEOTECHNICAL ENGINEERING FOR DISASTER PREVENTION AND REDUCTION This conference took place from July 26 to 29, 2011, at Far Eastern State Transport University in Khabarovsk, Russia (Photos 1 to 2). It was organized by Professor Sergey A. Kudryavtsev, General Secretary of Organizing Committee of 4IGS under auspices of Asian Technical Committee 3 for geotechnical natural disasters (ATC3), Russian Geotechnical Society and Kazakhstan Geotechnical Society. As shown in its title, this series of conference is intended to exchange and disseminate in Far East the up-to-date knowledge and experience both internationally and domestically. The first conference was realized in 2005 in Astana of Kazakhstan by Prof. Askar Zhussupbekov (Eurasian National University, Kazakhstan) and Prof. Takaji Kokusho (Chuo University, Tokyo, Japan) under the auspices of ATC3 for geotechnical natural disasters and this frame work has been maintained during the following occasions in Yuzno-Sakhalinsk (2007, Russia) and Harbin (2009, China). This year, the Khabarovsk conference attracted more than 150 paper submissions and about 180 participants from China, Korea, Japan, India, Poland, Russia, and Kazakhstan (Photo 1). The opening ceremony was led by Prof. Boris Dynkin who is the rector of the Far Eastern State Transport University (Photo 4) and keynote lectures together with oral presentations followed. The discussed topics included earthquakes and landslides together with a special emphasis on soil freezing. Photographs below show some aspects of the Photo 1 Group photograph of participants conference. Photo 2 Conference going on Photo 3 Dinner cruise on Amur River The main attention is given to sharing knowledge on reliable preventive geotechnical measures directed towards damage minimization when the available information is either incomplete or inconsistent. ISSMGE Bulletin: Volume 5, Issue 4 Page 52 NEWS INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON GEOTECHNICAL ENGINEERING FOR DISASTER PREVENTION AND REDUCTION (continued) International experts are invited to take part in the Symposium, present keynote and special lectures, make oral and poster reports, exhibit the equipments and devices, introduce various achievements in the geotechnical engineering field, and also discuss the lessons learned from resent disasters in order to share the modern knowledge and technologies implemented into practice for damage mitigation. As a result it is expected to receive papers dealing with the improved practical approaches and engineering solutions, unified new construction, codes and regulations for the purpose of preventing and reducing the disasters before they strike again. Photo 4 Opening ceremony of 4IGS,2011: from Photo 5 Prof. Askar Zhussupbekov (VP of ISSMGE left to right: Dr. V.D. Kalashnikov– Vice- for Asia) awarded of Dr. H. Toyota (Nagaoka Chairman of Government of Khabarovsky Krai , University of Technology, Japan) for his Minister of Economic Development and Foreign excellent Keynote Lecture Policy of Khabarovsky Krai; Prof. B.E. Dynkin- Rector of Far Easten State Transport University; Prof. Askar Zhussupbekov-VP of ISSMGE for Asia Photo 6 Prof. E.C. Shin (University of Incheon, Photo 7 Prof. H. Hazarika (Kyushu University, Korea)-Chairman of Section 1 “Geomonitoring, Fukuoka, Japan) presented his book “Soil monitoring the geodynamic processes, prognoses Mechanics Fundamentals” to General Secretary of natural phenomena awarded of Prof. Ikuo of 4IGS, 2011 Prof. Sergey Kudryavtsev (for Towhata (Appointed Board Member of ISSMGE, Library of Far Eastern State Transport University of Tokyo, Japan) for his excellent University, Khabarovsk, Russia) Special Lecture ISSMGE Bulletin: Volume 5, Issue 4 Page 53 NEWS INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON GEOTECHNICAL ENGINEERING FOR DISASTER PREVENTION AND REDUCTION (continued) The Organizing Committee of 4IGS invited Prof. M. Okamura (Ehime, Japan) to present a Keynote Lecture 1 “In–situ Air Injection as a Liquefaction Countermeasure.” Dr. H. Toyota (Nagaoka, Japan) gave Keynote Lecture 2 (Photo 5) about “Observation of Slope Failures during Natural Disasters - Case study in the Chuetsu Area of Niigata, Japan.” Dr. G. Wang (Kyoto, Japan) gave Keynote Lecture 3 “Role of Pore Fluid Pressure on the Initiation and Movement of Fluidized Landslides.” Dr. A.T. Bekker (Vladivostok, Russia) gave Keynote Lecture 4 “Specificity of the Coastal Construction in the Far East.” Keynote Lecture 5 was presented by Prof. I. Saharov and Prof. V. Paramonov (Saint-Petersburg, Russia) on the decision of a spatial problem of freezing and heaving for the building which have not been protected for the winter period. The Keynote Lecture 6 “Dynamic Response Analysis of Reinforced Embankment Dam and Buried Pipe Using Kinematic Hardening Constitutive Model” was presented by Prof. T. Tanaka (The Japan Association of Rural Resource Recycling Solutions, Japan). Prof. Z. Maocai (Harbin, China) gave Keynote Lecture 7 “The Study on Key Geotechniques of Stockman Nevsky Centre Project in Saint Petersburg City.” Keynote Lecture 8 “An Analysis of Frost Penetration Depth for Road Design by Field Monitoring in Korea” was delivered by Prof. E.C. Shin, J.S. Lee, and G.T. Cho (Incheon. Korea). Keynote Lecture 9 “Interaction Research between the Soil Ground and a Pile Arranged by Displacement Technology” was presented by Prof. Askar Zhussupbekov (Columbia University, New York, USA and Eurasian National University, Astana, Kazakhstan). Prof. T. Kozlowski (Kielce University of Technology, Poland) gave Keynote Lecture 10 entitled “Characteristic Temperatures of Phase Transitions in Soil-Water Systems below 0ºC.” Keynote Lecture 11 “An Approach of Risk Analysis for Shallow Landslide over a Wide Area” was delivered by Prof. G. Chen (Kyushu, Japan). Keynote Lecture 12 “Towards Sustainable Countermeasure against Liquefaction – A Smart Geomaterial and Its Evaluation” was presented by Prof. H. Hazarika (Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan); see Photo 7. Also Special lectures were given as what follows. Special Lecture 1: Assessment of seismic damage extent by dynamic analysis and its application to microzonation - Prof. Ikuo Towhata (Tokyo, Japan) (Photo 6). Special Lecture 2: Liquefaction-induced damage in the reclaimed lands along Tokyo Bay during the 2011 Tohoku-Pacific Ocean Earthquake in Japan – Prof. S. Yasuda, K. Harada (Tokyo Denki University, Japan). Special Lecture 3: Seismic site amplification formula using average Vs instead of Vs and effect of soil 30 nonlinearity – Prof. T. Kokusho (Tokyo, Japan). Special Lecture 4: Standard buildings, structures, territories, acquirements of safety under tsunami impact- Dr. M. Klyachko, I. Nudner, V. Maximov, E. Peelenovsky, and V. Filkov (Original Alliance for disaster analysis and reduction ,RADAR, NPO, Saint-Petersburg, Russia). Special lecture 5: Development of geotechnical approaches and design solutions on making slope processes stable on “Amur” road section in condition of frost degradation in foundation - Prof. S.A. Kudryavtsev, Y.B. Berestyany, E.V. Fedorenko, T.Y. Valyseva, R.G. Michailin, and E.D. Goncharova (Khabarovsk, Russia). Several social and technical tours were also provided by the organizing committee of 4IGS in Khabarovsk (Far East Russia); see Photos 8 and 9. The next venue of the 5th International Geotechnical Symposium on Geotechnical Engineering for Disaster Prevention and Reduction was decided to be Incheon, Korea, in May, 2013 under auspices of Korean Geotechnical Society, ATC 3 and University of Incheon. The chairman of organizing committee of 5IGS will be Prof. Eun Chul Shin, University of Incheon, South Korea. ISSMGE Bulletin: Volume 5, Issue 4 Page 54 NEWS INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON GEOTECHNICAL ENGINEERING FOR DISASTER PREVENTION AND REDUCTION (continued) Photo 8 Reception at Russian Restaurant at Photo 9 Group photograph of technical tour to Khabarovsk coastal area of Amur River