Keynote Speaker: Reducing Risk Through Prediction and Performance Monitoring-PPT Presentation

PPT Presentation

Pdf Summary

The presentation argues that foundation design can be safer and more economical when engineers combine high-quality site investigation, performance prediction, and construction monitoring. Rather than designing only for worst-case conditions, the observational method establishes likely ground conditions and predicted performance, monitors actual behavior, and adjusts design or construction when needed.<br /><br />For major projects, the presenter recommends investing in advanced field and laboratory testing—including pressuremeter, dilatometer, vane shear, seismic cone, triaxial, and consolidation tests—and using realistic soil parameters in numerical analyses. Monitoring tools include piezometers, survey points, inclinometers, settlement plates, extensometers, and newer technologies such as drones and LiDAR.<br /><br />Chicago’s deep foundations illustrate how testing and measured performance supported progressively higher design bearing pressures on hardpan. Pressuremeter data and settlement records helped raise allowable pressures from about 6 tons per square foot to as high as 25 tsf for belled caissons. Predictions for several high-rise buildings generally agreed well with observed settlements, often around one inch or less. The presentation emphasizes “small steps” and verifying assumptions through testing and monitoring.<br /><br />The Epic Systems underground auditorium project in Wisconsin demonstrates adaptive earth-retention design. Discovery of a highly plastic, weak clay layer made the original design unstable. Engineers redesigned the lower anchors to be deeper, steeper, and prestressed, while monitoring wall movement and groundwater. The completed wall’s movement remained within the project’s limits and stabilized after construction.<br /><br />Overall, the case studies show that informed risk management, credible predictions, and active performance monitoring can enable efficient designs while protecting nearby structures and infrastructure.

Keywords

foundation design

site investigation

observational method

performance prediction

construction monitoring

pressuremeter testing

deep foundations

settlement monitoring

earth-retention design

risk management