This is a rather unusual invited paper, written in the first person with a mix of personal anecdote and technical aspects. In preparing it, I have enjoyed the opportunity for reflection, but suspect that the lessons learned may well prove a disappointment! As an academic, I have become largely immune to the grandiose claims of most grant applications, where goals often prove elusive; as a consultant, I am constantly reminded of persisting gaps in our knowledge, and the need to rely on potentially inferior design solutions that have stood the test of time, even though recent approaches based more closely on the physics of the problem might appear superior. I will present examples of these in the paper, and also muse on the drivers that eventually overcome inertia in our design practice.
Mark F. Randolph
Keywords: design, geotechnical, guidelines, offshore, practice, research
Publisher: DFI