Location
Arlington, Virginia
Date
14 Aug 2008, 11:35 am - 11:55 am
Abstract
Exactly 40 years ago, one sunny September day, I found myself at the secretarial office of Geotechnical Engineering at UC Berkeley. I was very excited because it was going to be the first meeting with my advisor, Professor James K. Mitchell. Although I had previously received a very warm welcome letter from Professor Mitchell, I was convinced the meeting would be a very different experience for a foreign student from Turkey. Upon entering his office, and receiving a warm welcome, my assignment as a Research Assistant at the Richmond Field Station was explained to me and my schedule of classes for the Fall Quarter was identified. Professor Mitchell was apparently not impressed with my "fluent" English! He advised me to add a course entitled "English for Foreign Students" to my schedule. After a successful academic year and the completion of a series of tests to investigate the effect of salt water intrusion on the hydraulic conductivity of aquitard clays in southern California, Professor Mitchell asked me if I would be interested in participating in the NASA Lunar Soil Mechanics research program. I answered "yes" and that was the beginning of my involvement in the development of static penetration testing and analysis for the lunar environment, the topic of my doctoral dissertation under Professor Mitchell's guidance and great motivation. It is a great privilege for me to present this paper on a very special day honoring my dear Professor. Obviously, it was not easy to decide on the topic. The inspiration for the paper evolved in my mind in the following manner. First, this Conference focuses on case histories in Geotechnical Engineering and, therefore, the paper should be within the theme of the Conference. Second, Jim has been interested throughout his professional life in soil improvement and soil reinforcement. Consequently, the choice of soil nailing would be of interest to him. Third, Jim is also interested in the soil behavior and performance of soil-structures. Therefore, the topic should incorporate performance monitoring. As a result, I have decided to present a summary of my experience during the last decade related to the behavior of deep soil nailed walls in Istanbul, Turkey. Throughout my academic and professional life in Geotechnical Engineering, I always found Professor Mitchell very willing to share his views and to give advice to solve a myriad of problems with which I was confronted. I could always count on Professor Mitchell. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Jim for his friendship throughout my adult life and his untiring dedication to the advancement of my professional career.
Department(s)
Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering
Meeting Name
6th Conference of the International Conference on Case Histories in Geotechnical Engineering
Publisher
Missouri University of Science and Technology
Document Version
Final Version
Rights
© 2008 Missouri University of Science and Technology, All rights reserved.
Creative Commons Licensing
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Document Type
Article - Conference proceedings
File Type
text
Language
English
Recommended Citation
Durgunoğlu, H. Turan, "Performance of Deep Soil Nailed Walls" (2008). International Conference on Case Histories in Geotechnical Engineering. 3.
https://scholarsmine.mst.edu/icchge/6icchge/session14/3
Performance of Deep Soil Nailed Walls
Arlington, Virginia
Exactly 40 years ago, one sunny September day, I found myself at the secretarial office of Geotechnical Engineering at UC Berkeley. I was very excited because it was going to be the first meeting with my advisor, Professor James K. Mitchell. Although I had previously received a very warm welcome letter from Professor Mitchell, I was convinced the meeting would be a very different experience for a foreign student from Turkey. Upon entering his office, and receiving a warm welcome, my assignment as a Research Assistant at the Richmond Field Station was explained to me and my schedule of classes for the Fall Quarter was identified. Professor Mitchell was apparently not impressed with my "fluent" English! He advised me to add a course entitled "English for Foreign Students" to my schedule. After a successful academic year and the completion of a series of tests to investigate the effect of salt water intrusion on the hydraulic conductivity of aquitard clays in southern California, Professor Mitchell asked me if I would be interested in participating in the NASA Lunar Soil Mechanics research program. I answered "yes" and that was the beginning of my involvement in the development of static penetration testing and analysis for the lunar environment, the topic of my doctoral dissertation under Professor Mitchell's guidance and great motivation. It is a great privilege for me to present this paper on a very special day honoring my dear Professor. Obviously, it was not easy to decide on the topic. The inspiration for the paper evolved in my mind in the following manner. First, this Conference focuses on case histories in Geotechnical Engineering and, therefore, the paper should be within the theme of the Conference. Second, Jim has been interested throughout his professional life in soil improvement and soil reinforcement. Consequently, the choice of soil nailing would be of interest to him. Third, Jim is also interested in the soil behavior and performance of soil-structures. Therefore, the topic should incorporate performance monitoring. As a result, I have decided to present a summary of my experience during the last decade related to the behavior of deep soil nailed walls in Istanbul, Turkey. Throughout my academic and professional life in Geotechnical Engineering, I always found Professor Mitchell very willing to share his views and to give advice to solve a myriad of problems with which I was confronted. I could always count on Professor Mitchell. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Jim for his friendship throughout my adult life and his untiring dedication to the advancement of my professional career.
