Fourth International Soil Mechanics Conference

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Technical Note (National Research Council of Canada. Division of Building Research), 1957-10-01

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Fourth International Soil Mechanics Conference

Legget, R. F.

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DIVISION OF BUILDING RESEARCH

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FOR INTERNAL USE PREPARED BY R.F. Legget CHECKED BY APPROVED BY

PREPARED FOR

SUBJECT _{Fourth International SolI Mechanics}

Conference

October, 1957

Professor Karl Terzaghi was elected ｈｯｮｯｲ｡ｾｹ President of the International Society of Soil Mechanics and Foundation

Engineering at the end of its fourth conference, over which he presided. This Conference was held in London, England, from

August 12th to 21st. Previous meetings had been in Cambridge, Mass. (1936), Rotterdam ＨＱＹＴｾ and Zurich (1953). The 1961 conference

will be held in Paris, at the invitation of ｴｨｾ French National

ｃｯｭｭｾｴｴ･･ on Soil Mechanics. Professor A.W. Skempton, of Imperial

College, London, succeeds Dr. Terzaghi as President. Six Vice Presidents for continental areas were elected as follows: Europe, A. Mayer of France; Africa, J.E. Jennings of South Africa; Asia, K.L. Rao of India; Australasia,

c.n.

The Conference was successful far beyond the expectations of the British National Committee which was responsible for the excellent arrangements. Over 40 countries were represented in the attendance of 1,200. Nine half-day technical sessions and two plenary sessions were held; all were packed to the doors, taxing

to its maximum capacity the magnificent Great Hal] of the Institution of Civil Engineers, which turned over almost its entire building to

the Conference. Mexico and the U.S.S.R. were admitted to member-ship in the International Society, bringing to more than thirty the countries which now have duly constituted and active national

committees on soil mechanics.

This intense activity contrasted greatly with the modest meeting of less than 200 which assembled at Harvard University 1n

1936 to give soil mechanics its first pub11c reoognition. The contrast was most clearly shown by the technical aspects of the Conference. Only by the firm use of a strict system of quotas for each member country was the number of papers accepted by the

Conference kept as low as 176. All papers had to be ｳｵ｢ｾｩｴｴ･､ one year ago, with the result that those attending the Conference

received, about two months before the meeting, two finely printed volumes containing not only all of the 176 papers but also the concise reports of the General Re:porters for t he eight sections into whioh the subject matter of soil mechanios and foundation engineering was divided.

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-No papers were therefore read at the Conference. Even the General Reporters were given only 10 minutes each for an oral

summary of their written summary reports. Practically the full time of the sessions was available for discussion. This was also rigidly but effectively controlled, signal lights and even the occasional physical persuasion of the secretaries maintaining a maximum allowance of

7

limitation was necessary was seen at all sessions. At the last technical meeting, for example, 30 people had applied to speak but only 20 could be accommodated in the time available. All discussions, spoken and written, will appear in the third volume of the Proceedings which will appear later this year. The pithy comments with which Dr. Terzaghi himself concluded each technical session will also be included.

Since there were over 200 separate contributions delivered to the technical sessions, it is clearly impossible to present any summary of their technical content or even to make any useful

selection. The coverage was wide indeed, ranging from an analysis of ｴｾ･ gradients of naturally stable slopes in the London Clay

(around London) to a progress report on the construction of the new large steel sheetpile bulkhead wall in New York Harbor -- with a promise of a report to the next conference upon the deflection and other measurements now being made upon the bulkhead by P.N.Y.A. engineers. A number of speakers described measurements currently being made of the actual stresses in tunnel linings, and of the strains in rocks exposed in underground excavations. These

significant additions to the case histories of geotechnical studies were welcomed, although Dr. Terzaghi warned that such records are not complete without the inclusion of full information on the relevant local geology.

ｓ･ｶｾｲ｡ｬ speakers reported upon geotechnical investigations

of obvious importance in the countries of eastern and central

ｅｵｲｯｰ･ｾ Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Roumania and Poland. Two

engineers were present from Hungary. A number of reports were given by representatives of the U.S.S.R. (who also showed some films of current Russian engineering construction at an informal

session). Professor Litvinoff reported that in the Ukraine unstable claK bands have been strengthened by circulating hot air (up to

800 C) through 4-in. diameter boreholes, 35 ft deep and also by actually burning gases in similar boreholes. The same contributor whose statements were read for him, stated that at the BUilding Research Institute of the Ukraine a special portable field soil

testing unit had been developed. Packed in 3 boxes weighing only 25 lb_s the unit had proved to be so successful that over 4,000 sets were now in use in the U.S.S.R.

3

-The session devoted to the bearing capacity of piles

probably provoked, as perhaps was to be expected, the most lively discussion, the excellent introductory statement by P.C. Rutledge of New York (the General Reporter) acting as a good spur. It was clearly the sense of the meeting, supported by the printed papers in this section, that the proper use of piles is still an art. Calculation of the bearing strength of piles in granular materials is almost on a rational basis but the same cannot be said of

friction piles in clay. H. Zweck of Karlsruhe, Germany, presented, in this connection, a comparison between the settlements of

identical reinforced concrete slabs on the same clay, one pile supported and the other bearing directly on the clay. Settlement was appreciably greater with the piles than without, a result confirmed by other speakers for other clays.

For busy practising engineers the appearance of these three huge volumes containing, as they ､ｯｾ the latest developments in

the field of soil mechanics will present a formidable task for even a superficial review. Without detracting from the ｶ｡ｬｾ･ of a

detailed study of individual papers, attention can be drawn to the general reports at the end of Volume 2. These reports are intended to give a clear summary of developments (since the last conference) in each of the six technical divisions.

By ｴｨｾ excellent arrangement the reader is provided with a relatively brief but complete series of reviews by the accepted leaders in the field of soil mechanics. Attention can then be directed to papers of particular interest and to the conference discussions in Volume

3.

The published Proceedings of the Conference ｷｩｬｾ have unusual value as a contribution to the literature of civil ･ｮｧｩｮ･ｾ

eringo The three volumes will be generally available, when the third volume has been printed, at a price of approximately $70. A limited number of sets only are being printed, by the London publishers (Butterworths). Inquiries should be addressed to A. Banister, Secretary, International Society of Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering, c/o Institution of Civil Engineers_s Great George Street, Westminster, London, S.W.l. '

The proceedings ｷｩｬｾ not be the only permanent result of this great London gathering for the Conference appointed strong subcommittees to invest.igate the possibility of achieving inter-national agreement upon standard nomenclature for soil mechanics on an agreed system of classifying soil mechanics literature (as a preliminary to developing an abstracting service), and for a

standard method of conducting penetration tests as a means J f

sub-surface investigation. It is intended and expected that all three subcommittees will have real progress to report by the time of the next Conference in

1961.

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4

-Beyond this, the very success of the Conference led to the most critical private discussion of the conduct of large international gatherings that this reporter has ever heardo There was general agreement that, despite the fact that the large majority of those present at the London meeting had a general interest only in soil mechanics and its application, it would be most undesirable to limit in any way personal attendance of those who are members of' the International Society. At the same time, the presence of such large nUmbers at the technical sessions severely limited their effectiveness and valueo

Simultaneous sessions on speoific technical subjects will probably be essential at the next conference as will also be the allowance of more time for small group discussions. On the one free after-noon of the London program, five separate discussion sessions were hurriedly organized and proved to be among the most useful meetings of the entire Conference. This showed, yet once again,

that when those with common interests in such scientific fields as soil mechanics meet together for mutual discussion, even the