Geotechnical and Geological Engineering, 1992, 10, 87-88

Meeting report

9th Asian Regional Conference on Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering 9-13 December 1991, Bangkok, Thailand

The 9th Asian Regional Conference on Soil Mechanics and Foundation Enginering was held in the Imperial Hotel, Bangkok. Some 500 delegates attended, largely from the Asian region.

The technical sessions of the conference were opened by the Presidential Address given by Professor N.R. Morgenstern (University of Alberta, Canada and President, ISSMFE). He called his address The Emergence of Environmental Geotechnics and discussed the differing approaches required for environmental geotechnics (in particular waste management) compared to more conventional geotechnical practice. He identified the different style of regulation which applies in the environmental field and also the socio-political implications of such work. He suggested that academic programmes were lagging behind practice (based on a brief survey of North American institutions).

The Presidential Address was followed by the inaugural Tan Sri Datuk Professor Chin Fung Kee Lecture given by Dr Z.C. Moh (Moh & Associates, Taiwan) on Geotechnical Considerations for Underground Mass Rapid Transit Systems, a subject of considerable interest in Asia where a number of MRT schemes are under construction. He described aspects of the Tapei MRT scheme, in particular the use ofa SHANSEP approach to design as limited past experience of such deep excavations in Tapei meant that the traditional semi- empirical approach could not be used.

The conference was divided into six themes, each with a theme lecture and a discussion session. There was no individual presentations of papers by authors. Some of the theme lecturers made a token effort at reviewing the papers submitted, but generally they simply presented their view of the theme or an aspect of it. The 'Discussion' sessions actually comprised short presentations by panelists and invited contributions from the floor. These sessions generally lacked any sense of coherence and there was no genuine discussion.

Theme 1 covered Development of Theory and Practice in Geotechnical Engineering. Professor F. Tatsuoka's (University of Tokyo, Japan) theme lecture covered deformation characteristics of soils and rocks measured in field and laboratory tests. He presented the stiffness characteristic of a wide range of materials, highlighting the behaviour at small strains (< 0.001%). He concluded that apparent differences between Field and Laboratory, Static and Dynamic, Monotonic and Cyclic test results were eliminated if the measurements were compared at the same strain levels.

The theme lecture for Theme 2 Regional Soils and their Engineering Behaviour was given by Mr A. Agha (National Engineering Services, Pakistan). He reviewed the engineering be]haviour of what he described as problematic soils, including under this heading stiff fis,;ured clays with which he dealt in depth. One came to the conclusion after the discussion that all soils are 'Problem Soils'.

Theme 3 was Soil Structure Interaction and Foundations and the theme lecture was given

0960-3182 © 1992 Chapman & Hall

88 Meeting report

jointly by Dr W.H. Ti~g (Consulting Engineer, Malaysia) and Dr S.F. Chan (Pilecon Engineering Bhd., Mal~ysia). They dealt mainly with piling and diaphragm walling (including Barrette piles -~a short length of diaphragm walling used in place of piles) as these are the dominant foundation types in much of the Asian region. They also covered other foundation types in reviewing the papers submitted to the session.

Professor A. Komornik (Technion, Israel) presented the theme lecture for Theme 4 on Embankments, Excavations and Buried Structures. He presented a straightforward discussion of embankments and cut/fill slopes and concluded by advising engineers to be be more generous with factors of safety.

Theme 5 covered Natural Hazards and Environmental Geotechnics. Professor Yudhbir (Indian Institute of Technology) dealt with applications of geotechnical engineering to environmental control, discussing in detail the problems and uses of fly ash. His co-presenter Dr Y. Honjo (Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand) discussed the subsidence problems caused by ground water extraction in Bangkok and Shanghai.

The theme lecture for Theme 6 Ground Improvement Techniques was given by Dr M. Kamon (Kyoto University, Japan) who discussed where the different techniques are appropriate, dealing particularly with soil reinforcement, grouting and deep mixing and replacement with light-weight fill.

The final session of the conference comprised three guest lectures from (i) Professor K. Ishihara (University of Tokyo, Japan) on Characterization of Cyclic Behaviour of Sand and Post-seismic Stability Analysis, (ii) Professor E.W. Brand (University of Hong Kong) on Failures in Geotechnical Engineering dealing with slope failures on residual soils and embankment failures on soft clays, and (iii) Professor S.L. Lee (National University of Singapore) on Grouting in Substructure Construction who covered jet grouting to restrict ground movements in deep excavations and base grouting to improve the bearing capacity of bored piles.

The 10th Asian Regional Conference on Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering will be held in Beijing, People's Republic of China in 1995.

DAVID TOLL