2019 Northwest Geotechnical Graduate Student Symposium

GIGSO members attend the 2019 Northwest Geotechnical Graduate Student Symposium in University of Washington on April 12th, 2019. Professor Armin Stuedlein, student member Margaret Exton, Yingqing Qiu, Amalesh Jana and Nicolas Mattews present thier research during the symposium.

 

 

Tunnel Visit: Existing Train Tunnels along Pacific Coast in Oregon, USA

Interested geotechnical engineering students from Oregon State University (OSU) had the chance to visit two existing single track train tunnels along the Pacific Coast of Oregon just south of Florence, OR, USA earlier this year on February 1st, 2019. A summary of our experience and some pictures can be found by following this link

 

 

Tunnel and Shaft Excavation with SEM

A large group of OSU students and GIGSO members were able to visit the Bellevue Tunnel, which was under construction. The City of Bellevue - and the tunnel is located east of Seattle, Washington. The tunnel was excavated with SEM - sequential excavation method - with diggers, excavators, steel sets, and sprayed concrete. A summary of our experience and some pictures can be found by following this link

 

DFI Educational Trust Student Paper Competition

GIGSO alumnus, and recent Oregon State M.S. graduate, Youssef Bougataya was selected as the winner of the Deep Foundations Institute (DFI) Educational Trust 2016 Student Paper Competition. Youssef's paper, titled "Region Specific Calibration of Resistance Factors for Use with Static and Wave Equation Analyses of Driven Piles", can be found in a future issue of the DFI Journal, and more information on the achievement may be found here.

 

Tunneling Short Course

On June 20-23, 2016, GIGSO member Stephie Lange had the opportunity to attend a short course, titled "Tunneling Fundamentals, Practice, and Innovations", at the Colorado School of Mines. The course provides a setting for experts in the tunneling field to share knowledge with industry professionals, and is offered on an annual basis. Stephie has been kind enough to write up a summary of her experience, which can be found by following this link.

 

GeoPrediction 2016

Our club is pleased to announce that the prediction of master's student and GIGSO member, Youssef Bougataya, and undergraduate senior, Nathan Jones, has won the prestigious Mohr's Circle trophy by placing first in the 2016 Geo-Institute GeoPrediction competition. More details on this year's project, and competition rules, can be found here, while a nice writeup by the College of Civil and Construction Engineering may be found here.

 

6th International Conference on Earthquake Geotechnical Engineering

On November 1-4, 2015, the city of Christchurch, New Zealand hosted the 6th Interntional Conference on Earthquake Geotechnical Engineering. Participants from Oregon State University were GIGSO members, Stephie Lange and Kengo Kato, as well as College of Engineering Dean, Scott Ashford, and School of Civil and Construction Engineering faculty, Michael Olsen, Armin Stuedlein, Ben Mason, and Daniel Gillins. Stephie has provided a summary of her experiences at the conference, and New Zealand in general, which can be found by following this link.

 

Mohr's Circle Trophy! Congratulations to Andrew Strahler and Trevor Bineham

Andrew and Trevor received first place at the GeoPrediction Competition at Geo-Congress 2014!  They most accurately predicted results from a geotechnical case history.  Andrew and Trevor presented their results to conference attendees and produced a poster describing their award winning analysis. Overall 26 international teams were involved in the competition for this years Geo-Congress conference held in Atlanta, Georgia.

Andrew and Trevor would like to thank Dr. Armin Stuedlein, P.E., their graduate and undergraduate classmates, reviewers, OSU CCE and everyone else typically thanked by Hollywood award winners (with a Corvallis alpha angle of inclination of course).

Mohr's Circle Award to Drew and Trevor

 

Graduate Student Research Exposition in Portland Oregon

In March 2014 the Civil Engineering-Geotechncial graduate students participated in the OSU School of Civil and Construction Engineering and School of Mechanical, Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering Graduate Student Research Expo at the Double Tree by Hilton in Portland Oregon.  This provided an opportunity to present ongoing research to industry professionals, prospective graduate students and faculty of the two schools.  There was a competetion of the top-ranked presentations and posters, judged by the attending industry professoinals.  Drew Strahler took home the overall 3rd place prize for his research regarding mechanically stabilized earth (MSE) walls...take a look at his poster below!

Here is a listing of the geotechncial graduate students presentations:

"Characterization of Willamette Valley Silt," Abbas Abdollahi, Ph.D. candidate, Advising Professor: Dr. Ben Mason

"Finite Element Parametric Study of MSE Walls Under Surcharge Loading," Spencer Ambauen, MS candidate, Advising Professor: Dr. Ben Leshchinsky

"Soil-Bridge System Response During Sequential Earthquake and Tsunami Loading," Trevor Carey, MS candidate, Advising Professor: Dr. Ben Mason

"Particulate Models for Prediction of Bio-Cemented Soil Behavior," Ali Khoubani, Ph.D. candidate, Advising Professor: Dr. Matthew Evans

"Behavior of High Strength Steel Bars and Steel Casing on Response of Drilled Shafts," Qiang Li, Ph.D. candidate, Advising Professor: Dr. Armin Stuedlein, P.E.

"Effect of Soil Moisture and Shear Strength on Capacity of Aggregate Piers," John Martin, MS candidate, Advising Professor: Dr. Armin Stuedlein, P.E.

"Shear Reinforcement Mechanism of Stone Columns in Liquefiable Silty Soil," Deepak Rayamajhi, Ph.D. candidate, Advising Professor: Dr. Scott Ashford

"Investigation of Ultimate and Serviceability Limit State Reliability-based Axial Capacity Methodologies for Deep Foundations," Seth Reddy, Ph.D., Advising Professor: Dr. Armin Stuedlein, P.E.

"Behavorial Thresholds in Sand and Clay Mixtures: Experimental and Numerical Studies," Daniel Simpson, MS candidate, Advising Professor: Dr. Matthew Evans

"Characterization of Frictional Interface in Closely-spaced Reinforcements in MSE Walls," Andrew Strahler, Ph.D. candidate, Advising Professor: Dr. Armin Stuedlein, P.E.

"Influence of Geosynthetic Reinforcement Spacing on MSE Wall," Yonggui Xie, Ph.D. candidate, Advising Professor: Dr. Ben Leshchinsky

"Earthquake and Tsunami Induced Sand Liquefaction," Lei Zhang, Ph.D. candidate, Advising Professor: Dr. Matthew Evans

"Development of Algorithms for Quantification and Simulation of Three-Dimensional Microstructure in Granular Materials," Nan Zhang, Ph.D. candidate, Advising Professor: Dr. Matthew Evans

"Thermally Induced Mechanical Shakedown in Granular Soil," Shuai Zhou, MS candidate, Advising Professor: Dr. Matthew Evans

"Multihazard Performance and Design of Ecoroofs," Kim Kilroy, MS candidate, Advising Professor: Dr. Ben Mason

 

Deep Foundation Institute 2013 Young Professor Paper Winner

Congratulations to Dr. Stuedlein, P.E. on winning the Deep Foundation Institute 2013 Young Professor Paper Competetion!  Our own Seth Reddy, Ph.D candidate, provided his humble assistance as well.

 

Improvements to the Graduate Geotechnical Laboratory                                               

Geotechnical professor, Matt Evans, Ph.D. has been heading up extensive upgrades and additions to the Graduate Geotechnical Laboratory along with Daniel Simpson ...

The Instructional Lab Space within OSU's Graduate Geotechnical Lab has undergone a large transformation over the last 6 months. New additions include direct shear, stress & strain controlled load frames, constant rate and incremental loading consolidation, microscopic imaging, and fall cone apparatus.

Instructional Lab Space (1)

 

Instructional Lab Space (2)

 

Shaker Box

Shaker Box- A new sound dampening enclosure now makes it tolerable to be in the lab while sieving is going on!

 

Trautwein GeoTrac

Trautwein GeoTac- State-of-the-art triaxial and consolidation testing with precise volume, pressure, and load control.

 

TX Specimen (1)

 TX Specimen- Ottawa 20/30 sand ~15% strain

 

Recent Graduates

Congratulations to our recent graduates:

Seth Reddy - (Winter 2014) - Ph.D.

Chris Newton - (Winter 2014) - M.S.

Travis Kraupa - (Fall 2013) - M.S.

Jordan Melby - (Fall 2013) - M.Eng.

Nasim Adami - (Fall 2013) - M.S.

John Raugust - (Fall 2013) - M.S.

James Walters - (Fall 2013) - M.S.

Kyle Romney (June 2013) - M.S.

William White (May 2013) - M.S.

Stephan Stys (Mar. 2013) - M.Eng.

Tadesse Meskele (Feb. 2013) - Ph.D.

Quadri Owokoniran (Dec. 2012) - M.S.

Abby Chin (June 2012) - M.S.

Jesi Young (June 2012) - M.S.

Paul Barker (Mar. 2012) - M.S.

Thomas Keatts (Dec. 2011) - M.Eng.

 

Congratulations to Seth Reddy and Travis Kraupa

Seth and Travis received second place for their Axial Pile Capacity Prediction Report for the GeoPrediction Competition at GeoFrontiers 2011! Overall 26 international teams were involved in the competition for this years GeoFrontiers conference held in Dallas, Texas.

Seth and Travis would like to thank Dr. Armin Stuedlein, Dr. Scott Olson, the reviewers and OSU CCE.