NEWS 2011

Posted September 26, 2011

Event: October 6, 2011

GSE: Prof. Askar Zhussupbekov - Geotechnical and Construction Considerations of Pile Foundations in Problematical Soils in Kazakhstan

Location: Valley View Room, Petroleum Club, Edmonton (11110 - 108 St)

Time: 11:45am - 1:30pm

Cost: $30 Members, $40 Non-members, $10 Students

To estimate the geotechnical engineering and geological conditions of the ground in the developed area of Astana, the capital city of Kazakhstan, the first Geoinformation Database in Kazakhstan has been developed which is based information collected in various engineering projects. This database provides information for a preliminary analysis of the regional ground conditions prior to a more detailed site investigation. In addition, the Geoinformation Database provides the possibility to include graphical applications such as cutting and pasting geological maps into the database. The database can create geological maps on the occurrence of the Quaternary deposits and bedrock. Combining this information with geozoning, a special geotechnical zoning maps, the founding depth for the base of pile foundations the optimum length of the driven piles for building foundations can be determined.

The first part of this seminar discusses the Geoinformation Database and the results of static and dynamic pile integrity tests on problematical soils along the shores of the Ishim River in Astana and in the western part of Kazakhstan around the Caspian Sea. The method has been used to determine the length of H-piles for the new USA Embassy in Astana which is founded in soft soils. The advantages of applying different techniques in different type of foundations will be discussed. This lecture will also present the geotechnical considerations for highrise buildings and buildings with unique architecture in difficult ground conditions in Astana. The method of calculation of pile capacity and settlement based on static and dynamic pile integrity tests will be presented. It is found that geozoning is very important in design, construction and testing of piles in problematic ground in Kazakhstan especially in the new capital city of Astana.

The second part of the seminar presents the geotechnical challenges in the construction of piling foundations in problematical soils for Mega highway projects in Western Kazakhstan. The project involves a road that connects Western Europe with China passing through 3000 km in Kazakhstan and going through the city of Astana-Shushinsk and the coastal city of Aktau by the Caspian Sea. Many factors, such as ground freezing, collapsing of soils, seismic zoning, need to be considered for design, testing and construction of the pile foundation. Numerical analyses have been carried using the Finite Element Method to study the interaction between piles and soils. The results of the numerical modeling are compared with experimental results and static pile load tests on continuous flight auger(CFA) piles, DDS, and cast-in-place driven piles.