Dear all,
> I have been following the debate on EC7.
>
Sorry that I did not manage to join in the debate earlier. I was
reading and trying the make sense of what is being said.
> Therefore the method of determine the characteristic strength parameters
> varies considerably. I recall a paper from the nordic geotechnical meeting
> in 92 where it was shown that the strength parameters determined by triaxial
> test carried out using British standard differs considably from the results
> found from triaxial tests carried out using Danish standard. If different
> values are used for the same design and calculation method, then you will
> get two different results.
I think that Morten has made a very important point inadvently. When
different values are obtained using the British method and the Danish
method, BOTH of them has led to safe design before is because the
calculation method is different.
I think that the debate has made the assumption that the same
calculation method is to be used in whole of Europe. But this is not
what is written in EC7. Any method that stands the test of load
tests qualify.
Just like what Hight said in his Rankine lecture, a lot of times our
conventional design method has implicitly compensated for parameters
we have not taken into account. It is important to follow the whole
recipe.
This makes the question whether a single characteristic value exists
for a certain type of soil redundant. The key question is whether we
are measuring what the calculation method requires.
Thank you for your attention.
regards,
Andrew
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9th Annual Conference of the UK Association of Computational Mechanics http://www.bham.ac.uk/CivEng/acme/acme2001.htm
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12th European Conf on Earthquake Engrg http://www.12ecee.org.uk/
Deadline for abstract extended to 19th Feb 2001
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Only the one who tied a bell can untie it. - Old Chinese saying
Dr. Andrew H.C. Chan: [log in to unmask]
Reader, School of Civil Engrg, Univ of Birmingham B15 2TT UK
Tel: +44(0)121 414 5100 Fax: +44(0)121 414 3675 Mobile: +44(0)777 324 3055
http://www.bham.ac.uk/CivEng/staff
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