We are delighted that Eng. Emad Sharif and Dr Man T Bui attended the Big5 event in Dubai on the 5th December 2022, in which we contribute a talk entitled “Using Advanced Laboratory Tests to Address Geotechnical Risks”. In the talk, we highlighted some common risks in UAE and middle East such as:

 

• Collapsible of SAND led to different settlements and serious house wall cracks.

• Swelling of CLAY.

• Creep settlement of CALCAREOUS SAND.

• Using triaxial tests to address Earthquake loads.

• Excessive long-term settlement of oil storage facilities due to repeating loading and unloading cycles.

• Subsurface subsidence of sand due to vibratory machine loads/ operations.

• Small strain and None-linear stress-strain behaviour of soil and rocks, and application in deep excavation

• Overcome of particle oversize (and soil heterogeneity) using larger size of oedometer cell (100mm in diameter and 200mm in length), and large diameter triaxial cell.

• Uncertainties and how to evaluate and remove uncertainties on UCS testing on Dubai ROCK.

• Uncertainties in geophysics surveys and benefits of advanced laboratory tests to overcome to uncertainties.

• Using advanced laboratory tests to calibrate soil models for use in numerical simulation such as critical state soil mechanic (e.g, Nor Sand) and hardening soil model.

 

In the talk, we emphasized the importance of reliable input soil parameters and stressed that the risks cannot simply get away using a larger safety factor(s) (e.g., larger foundation size). Indeed, the risks shall be firstly identified then addressed properly to ensure a safe and economical foundation solutions.