CGS News

From the Society
Upcoming Conferences and Seminars

68th Canadian Geotechnical Conference and 7th Canadian Permafrost Conference
September 20 - 23, 2015, Québec City, Québec

The Eastern Quebec Section of the Canadian Geotechnical Society and the Canadian National Committee for the International Permafrost Association (CNC-IPA), invite you to GéoQuébec 2015, for the joint 68th Canadian Geotechnical and 7th Canadian Permafrost Conference. The conference will be held from September 20 - 23, 2015 in the Convention Centre in Québec City, Québec. It will cover a wide range of topics, including speciality sessions that are of local and national relevance to the fields of geo-engineering, permafrost and engineering geology. In addition to the technical program and plenary sessions, the conference will include a complement of workshops, short courses, technical excursions and local tours.

The official languages for the conference will be English and French. The Convention Centre is located in the historic downtown area of Québec City, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, facing onto Québec’s Parliament Hill. Old Québec City, which is the cradle of French civilization in North America, is best explored on foot and September is the best time of the year with a typically warm, dry weather and the maple trees just beginning to take on their colourful fall foliage.

The conference theme Challenges from North to South, reflects the diverse and complex challenges that the geotechnical, cold regions engineering and permafrost communities will need to address in order to support sustainable economic development. The Local Organizing Committee invites members from the Canadian and international communities to contribute papers on their recent research and advancements in geotechnical, geo-environmental and cold regions engineering, as well as permafrost science.

For more information regarding sessions, topics and the technical program, please visit the web site www.geoquebec2015.ca or contact Jean Côté (Conference Co-Chair - geotechnical) at jean.cote@geoquebec2015.ca or Michel Allard (Conference co-Chair - permafrost at michel.allard@geoquebec2015.ca. For geotechnical contributions, please contact Didier Perret (Technical Program co-Chair) at comtec_geot@geoquebec2015.ca and for permafrost and cold region engineering contributions, Richard Fortier (Technical Program co-Chair) at comtec_perg@geoquebec2015.ca.

Members in the News

Canadian Academy of Engineering (CAE)
Honorary CAE Fellowship Recipient - Dr. Norbert Morgenstern

Dr. Norbert Morgenstern has consistently produced internationally award-winning research that has shaped the civil engineering field, specifically in dam design, slope stability studies and major natural resource development. He has been invited to contribute his expertise by research institutions, multinational companies and governments in over 30 different countries on six continents. He has given a significant number of keynote addresses at major international conferences and symposia, and has had 330 manuscripts published in technical journals, conference proceedings and books – an impressive and rare feat for many scholars. An inspiring educator for over 50 years, Dr. Morgenstern has transformed geotechnical engineering as it is taught and practiced in Canada and abroad.

Through his leadership and reputation as an international authority on geotechnical engineering, he established one of the leading geotechnical schools in North America, attracting top specialists and talented graduate students from around the world. This award was in recognition of his exceptional contributions and outstanding productivity in education, research and consulting that have profoundly influenced geotechnical engineering practice worldwide, and in recognition of his service to the civil engineering community in Canada and internationally through numerous committees and task forces that have assisted government and professional societies at all levels. Dr. Morgenstern was presented his Honorary Fellowship on June 18 in Calgary by Kim Sturgess, CAE past president.

Canadian Foundation for Geotechnique News

Cross Canada Lecture Tour
Twice a year, the Canadian Foundation for Geotechnique (CFG) funds the Cross Canada Lecture Tour. The tour is sponsored each time by the generous donations of corporate sponsors from within our membership. The spring CCLT was sponsored by KGS Group, Tetra Tech EBA, Geo-Slope International, and Thurber Engineering.

The Canadian Geotechnical Society Spring Cross Canada Lecture Tour
May 4 – 14, 2015
The spring CCLT was presented by Dr. Nicholas Sitar from the University of California at Berkeley. Dr. Sitar, Ph.D., P.Eng. (BC), is the Edward G. Cahill and John R. Cahill Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of California at Berkeley. He received his B.A.Sc. in Geological Engineering from the University of Windsor in 1973, his M.S. in Hydrogeology in 1975 and his Ph.D. in Geotechnical Engineering in 1979, both from Stanford University. He taught in the Geological Engineering Program at UBC from 1979 to 1981, then joined the faculty in Geotechnical Engineering at UC Berkeley in 1981. Most recently he served as the Director of the University of California Earthquake Engineering Research Center from 2002 to 2008.

Dr. Sitar’s professional and research interests include engineering geology, geotechnical earthquake engineering, rock mechanics, groundwater modeling, groundwater remediation and the application of numerical and stochastic methods to engineering analysis. He is the author and co-author of over 170 publications in geotechnical engineering, engineering geology, groundwater and groundwater remediation. His particular interests in geotechnical earthquake engineering include seismic slope stability, seismic response of retaining structures and mechanically stabilized walls, and the performance of improved ground. In engineering geology he has concentrated on the influence of the depositional environment on the properties of coarse sediments, debris flow initiation, and modeling of jointed rock masses.

The intensive schedule of 13 lectures in two weeks included 7 locations in Eastern Canada in the first week and 6 lectures in Western Canada in the following week:

• Monday, May 4 - Halifax (lunch), Fredericton (dinner)

• Tuesday, May 5 - Montreal (dinner)

• Wednesday, May 6 - Quebec (dinner)

• Thursday, May 7 - Ottawa (lunch), Toronto (dinner)

• Friday, May 8 - Kingston (lunch)

• Monday, May 11 - Winnipeg (lunch)

• Tuesday, May 12 - Edmonton (lunch), Calgary (dinner)

• Wednesday, May 13 - Victoria (lunch)

• Thursday, May 14 - Prince George (lunch)

• Thursday, May 14 - Vancouver (dinner)

Dr. Sitar made three different topics available to the local organizing committee for each venue where he presented. The topics that were presented included:

Seismic Earth Pressures on Retaining Walls and Basements
Methods for evaluating the seismically induced lateral earth pressures gradually evolved from the seminal Japanese work performed in the 1920’s. The resulting design procedures suggest large dynamic loads during strong ground motion. However field evidence from recent major earthquakes fails to show significant problems with the performance of retaining structures designed for static earth pressures only. Similarly, the results of extensive centrifuge experiments indicate that seismically induced lateral earth pressures at high PGA are significantly less than those estimated using the most current design methods based on the Mononobe-Okabe assumptions. The presentation will focus on latest results from centrifuge model studies, recent observations in large earthquakes, and their implications for a rational seismic design of retaining structures and basement walls.

Influence of Fabric on Engineering Properties of Coarse Sediments
Lightly consolidated and/or weakly cemented coarse sediments: silts, sands, and gravels of various origins are found in many depositional environments. For example, steep slopes in the marine terraces along the Pacific Coast, bluffs in glacial sediments along the Great Lakes, and the Athabasca Tar Sands, all share similar characteristics of being able to stand in steep slopes, and in being difficult to sample and test in conventional tests.. This presentation will first address some of the factors controlling the engineering properties of these materials, concentrating on the role of fabric and cementation. Then the results of geotechnical investigations of the stability of slopes in weakly and moderately consolidated/cemented sands and gravels will be presented. Examples of similar behavior in a range of different geologic deposits will be discussed.

On the Importance of Kinematics in the Analysis of (Large) Landslides
The most convenient methods of slope stability analysis rely on limit equilibrium solutions which assume a pre-determined slide plane geometry and rigid body deformation. However, many, particularly very large landslides are composed of many individual blocks that may be toppling, rolling or otherwise moving downslope in a manner inconsistent with the above assumptions. Example results of discrete body deformation modeling will be used to show that in such cases the traditional limit equilibrium methods would lead to erroneous and possible very unconservative conclusions.

Heritage Committee

History of Local Chapters of the Canadian Geotechnical Society
The Heritage Committee believes that the history of the local chapters of the Canadian Geotechnical Society to be valuable part of the Society and its members. The CGS Heritage Committee would like to assemble if at all possible, a collection of historical summaries of all the chapters. Hopefully these stories will encourage other local chapters of the CGS to gather their archives and write their own history.

If you have any questions or have other historical information that you wish to share or know of any opportunities to acquire material that is at risk of being lost, please contact the Chair of the CGS Heritage Committee, Suzanne Powell, P.Eng., at spowell@thurber.ca.