Editorial Note - Vol. 14, No. 1, 2020-Article

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The DFI Journal’s first 2020 issue introduces an expanded editorial board representing expertise across deep foundation engineering and related fields. Its three-team structure is intended to strengthen technical rigor, reflect the Institute’s diverse membership, and promote practice-oriented research, case studies, and innovative construction techniques.<br /><br />The issue features five papers:<br /><br />- Abigail Bateman and Jamie Crispin, winners of the 2019 DFI Student Paper Award, develop theoretical pile “t-z” curves for radially inhomogeneous soil and propose a correction factor for pile installation effects.<br />- Victor Aguilar and co-authors present safety factors for drilled shafts subject to wind-induced torsion, accounting for soil type, reliability targets, and the in-situ test used to estimate soil strength.<br />- An Oregon State research team analyzes centrifuge tests of pile-supported wharves under inertial and liquefaction-induced lateral spreading. Liquefaction in loose sand substantially reduced soil resistance; pore-pressure-based p-multipliers were found useful for pseudo-static pile-demand estimates.<br />- Bengt Fellenius and Tony Ruban examine strain-gauge data from a static load test on a continuous-flight-auger pile. Their findings show how testing procedures, including load-holding and unloading–reloading sequences, can complicate interpretation, while strain data can help establish pile stiffness and load transfer with depth.<br />- Ehab R. Tolba and colleagues investigate how soft-clay properties affect finite-element analyses of a quay wall in Port Said, Egypt. Their results indicate that increasing soft-soil stiffness reduces the wall’s internal forces, while soil stratigraphy and stiffness also influence settlement.<br /><br />The editors invite feedback and discussion on the issue’s combination of research and case studies.

Keywords

deep foundation engineering

DFI Journal

pile t-z curves

drilled shafts

wind-induced torsion

liquefaction

pile-supported wharves

static load test

continuous-flight-auger pile

finite-element analysis