APTLY
DFI Committee Meeting - October 2000

(00.11.02)

Prior to the DFI Members Meeting in the Big Apple,  APTLY offered the third installment of a remarkable program, co-sponsored with DFI, which included the following contributors....

Topics and Presenters

        High Strain Testing and Analyses -- Mike Holloway, Frank Rausche
         Integrity Testing -- Bernie Hertlein, Mike Holloway
         Pile Installation Recorders -- Shachar Magali, Frank Rausche
         Pile Tester Certification -- Julian Seidel
         Rapid Load Testing Methods -- Mike Justason
         Vibration Monitoring and Vibratory Driving-- Rainer Massarch

This professional seminar (i.e. without overt commercial pitches)  provided methodology overviews, case history presentations and lively discussions among attendees with a broad range of practice and experience, many of whom attended the DFI Members Conference that followed.

This was the third version of this seminar attached to the DFI Members Meeting.  We are exploring other prospects for presenting these topics and related matters, with a focus on local practice, at venues elsewhere in the world.  Feedback in these matters would be greatly appreciated.
 

(00.11.02)

Following is a summary of the discussions during our committee meeting in New York on October 5th.  Any comments, corrections or additions from those in attendance would be appreciated.

Members Attending: Bengt Fellenius, Bernie Hertlein, Mike Holloway, Mike Justason, Shakar Magali, Peter Middendorp, Frank Rausche, Julian  Seidel

Member Regrets: Joram Amir, Hernan Goldemberg, Mohamed Hussein, Garland Likins, Rainer Massarsch, Kyle Rollins

The first items discussed included the experiences of our members in attending/participating in the StessWave2000 conference in Sao Paulo, Brazil in September (nine of those identified above were there).  Thereafter, the focus shifted to a post-mortem of the seminar on "Pile Testing Methods -- Uses and Abuses III" sponsored by DFI and APTLY, conducted on October 3rd and 4th in NY (seven of the committee members listed above made presentations).

The U&A seminar was clearly successful in presenting substantial content related to the effective use of the techniques employed  in foundation engineering practice today.  The program drew twenty-two attendees, including engineers and contractors, who all contributed valuable comments and observations to the lively discussions that ensued.  It afforded the group a remarkable opportunity to explore, face-to-face, areas of common interest in our industry .

A good portion of the committee meeting discussion involved finding better ways to get such seminar content disseminated more broadly to DFI members; region-specific seminars and joint-sponsorship with professional organizations attached to their meetings, were the two avenues of greatest interest to the members.  Each member was asked to explore ways in which the U&A seminar program could be produced to better suit the needs in their sphere of practice.

Bernie Hertlein described the progress to date in producing a practice users guide for testing drilled shafts.  Apparently, Joram Amir's draft submitted last year, was found to be too detailed for that (Drilled Shafts) Committee's purposes; a new working outline, expanded to include high strain testing methods as well, is being developed by that group.

The issues related to certification of high strain testing professionals (an initiative taken by Julian Seidel, FoundationQA) were discussed in some detail, with the primary goal of raising the level of testing practice worldwide.  The committee discussed the pros and cons of such a process, and concluded that we endorse the approach taken by Julian, and that DFI should participate actively in its implementation.  Frank Rausche and Peter Middendorp concurred with these conclusions, and both agreed to inform their respective customers of this certification activity and support its implementation among the users of their equipment.

Finally, geoforum.com is negotiating with DFI to implement a web platform for conducting committee business over the www.  This committee strongly endorses this process, and will actively develop its forthcoming business thereon.

Respectfully submitted,
Mike Holloway
Chairman
 

Created by Jason Ernst Holloway - Last modified: 03.07.31 (lkh)