New Technology for Nano-Scale X-Ray of Rock Pores

July 24, 2008 rockman Comments Off

Ingrain, Inc. has just announced the acquisition of a NanoXCT Imaging device to be used in conjunction with their reservoir modeling capabilities to provide geoscientists an unprecedented look at the pore properties of rock samples, even oil sands. From their press release:

The 3-D NanoXCT imaging device, which is the first of its kind to be used outside of the microchip industry and some of the synchrotron beams in the country, is capable of focusing an X-ray source onto an extremely small region of interest within a rock sample — as small as 20-60 microns. The best resolution of the new device is 0.05 microns (50 nanometers) or 1/1000th of the diameter of a strand of human hair.

Click through for the links to the press release and the company website which has some nice 3D animations of oil displacing water in rock pores. The image below is a screen capture from one of those animations. (All screen captures property of Ingrain, Inc.)

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Updated – DFI Committee Looking for Soil Nail Data

June 24, 2008 rockman Comments Off

[Update 2008-06-25 8am] I saw somewhere that they were looking for this info by July 1, but I don’t know where. I couldn’t find a deadline on the DFI Committee page. Maybe they erased it. [/Update]

The Tiebacks & Soil Nailing Committee of the Deep Foundations Institute is collecting data on soil nail wall performance. From the Tiebacks & Soil Nailing Committee page:

A request for information has been distributed to all DFI members, academia and various other industry members. Information being sought includes typical project, geotechnical and wall geometry information, design and analysis methods and software, construction and monitoring duration, settlement and lateral deformation data, and nail strain gauge data. Click here to download the PDF form to enter your project’s information to the committee for compilation and analysis.

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ADSC 2008 Faculty Workshop Wrapup

June 18, 2008 rockman Comments Off

Robert Thompson of Dan Brown and Associates has posted a wrapup of the 2008 ADSC Faculty Workshop. They had 20 Civil Engineering faculty attend the event. The field demonstration day was hosted by DBA at the Trial’s Training Center in Sequatchie, Tennessee. Apparently that site is Dan’s hobby. Read more about the workshop itself and also read Robert’s post about the field demonstration day including photos. In the photo at right (Robert Thompson, DBA) you can see the Statnamic test setup for a drilled shaft. A little more about the event:

Long Foundation and Hayward Baker have installed examples of several foundation and retaining structures, including drilled shafts, micropiles, and soil nails. During the field day demonstrations, the attendees will observe additional installations, load tests, and non-destructive testing.

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Dr. Jorj O. Osterberg – In Memorium

June 3, 2008 rockman Comments Off

Dr. Jorj O. Osterberg, inventor of the Osterberg Cell or "O-Cell" used for drilled shaft load tests has passed away at the age of 93. According to the Association of Drilled Shaft Contractors or ADSC, he died peacefully in his sleep on June 1, 2008. The geotechnical community has lost a truly legendary figure in our field.

Osterberg held degrees from Columbia, Harvard and Cornell Universities. He was a Professor Emeritus from Northwestern University. He was a former Chairman of the Soil Mechanics and Foundation Division of the ASCE, an Honorary Member of ASCE, and a member of the National Academy of Engineering. He delivered the Terzaghi Lecture in 1985, and later received the Terzaghi Award. He was one of the last surviving founding members of the International Society of Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering. He received the Distinguished Service Award from the Deep Foundations Institute and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Association of Drilled Shaft Contractors. (Adapted from a bio for the 2001 Burmister Lecture, Department of Civil Engineering and Engineering Mechanics, Columbia University). Read on for more.

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Dam Safety News Highlights

May 21, 2008 rockman Comments Off

The Association of State Dam Safety Officials publishes monthly news items related to levee and dam safety and associated projects. Their April news items were just published this week and there are several interesting items. Read on for more info.

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Video: State of Geoweb and Geospatial Technology from Google, ESRI and Autodesk

May 19, 2008 rockman Comments Off

The O’Reilly Where 2.0 conference just wrapped up last week in Burlingame, CA. It is a big deal for developers, geographers, GIS developers, GPS equipment manufacturers and anyone else interested in location web services, GIS, mashups, and the so-called Geoweb. There were two presentations by some high profile players that may be of interest to the readers of GeoPrac.net. I have video versions of both after the break.

First, a presentation titled "State of the GeoWeb" given by Google Earth and Maps Director, John Hanke with some help from Jack Dangemond of ESRI. I think it gives you some interesting insights into the direction things are headed, particularly with some of the upcoming releases of ESRI GIS software and the interplay between location data that people have been producing for some time now and new ways of tapping into it using the web. Kind of a long presentation at around 30 minutes.

Second, Geoff Zeiss of Autodesk, Inc. (makers of AutoCad etc.) gives a presentation titled "Convergence of Architectural and Engineering Design and Location Technology". It deals with bridging the information created by different disciplines such as engineers, architects, trades and contractors into something more productive and usable using techniques such as 3D visualization and simulation. Length is approximately 15 minutes.

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World Trade Center Slurry Wall to Become Part of Museum

April 28, 2008 rockman Comments Off

The only portions of the World Trade Center towers that survived the attack on 9/11 were the basement slurry walls, part of the original shoring and foundation system. The National September 11 Memorial and Museum at the World Trade Center that is currently under construction will preserve a portion of that wall making it the largest exhibit the museum will offer. The wall section displayed will be 62-ft by 64-ft.

The existing slurry walls are being incorporated into the foundation system of the new facility but not without some improvements. The are adding some kind of foundations improvements to stabilize the toe of the walls, the New York Times article calls them caissons, but I don’t know if its a tangent or secant wall or something else. They are also lining them with additional concrete and reinforcement in front of the walls along with additional tiebacks to stabilize them. In the portion of the wall that will be displayed, a counterfort wall will be constructed behind it and new tiebacks will be installed on the front. Work for the counterfort wall will be done by hand in order to avoid the existing tieback cables. All of the existing tiebacks will be left intact. Check out the NY Times article for a great graphic showing the system. (Illustration by New York Times)

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Geological Engineering Major Eliminated at University of Arizona

March 5, 2008 rockman Comments Off

[Editor’s Note] I am an alumn of the U of A’s Geological Engineering program, so this hits me in a sentimental spot. [/Editor’s Note]

A proposal submitted by Mary Poulton (Mining and Geological Engineering Department Head) and Jeff Goldberg (Associate Dean of College of Engineering) was submitted to the University of Arizona Faculty Senate to eliminate the geological engineering undergraduate major and merge the degree with Mining Engineering. The proposal was accepted by the Senate this week despite the efforts of Dr. Ben Sternberg who attended the hearing. The geological engineering degree will be combined with the mining engineering degree. The new degree will be a B.S. in Mining and Geological Engineering and there will be a mining engineering track and a geological engineering track. Budget cuts and small enrollment were the main reasons cited for the elimination of the degree. Read on for more. (Photo by Jacob Rader)

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Pilot Project for CO2 Sequestration

January 17, 2008 rockman Comments Off

A pilot study is about to be undertaken by the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory to study the possibility of CO2 sequestration in deep basalt formations throughout the West and Northwest. The study will involve injecting 3,000 to 5,000 tons of liquid CO2 at a depth of between 3,000 and 4,000-ft. The team hopes that mineralization will gradually transform the CO2 and basalt into limestone. The total cost of the pilot study is approximately $10 million and is funded primarily by the U.S. Department of Energy.

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Digital Mapping Duopoly

January 15, 2008 rockman Comments Off

By way of Geology.com, the Wall Street Journal reports on some interesting news related to GPS and even our beloved Google Maps / Google Earth. Apparently there are only two games in town when it comes to data providers for online and digital mapping products that are used by the aformentioned software as well as your GPS navigation system: Netherlands-based Tele Atlas NV, and Chicago-based Navteq Corp. (Photo by Websteria)

In October, Nokia bought Navteq for …wait for it… $8.1 billion. They plan to use the technology as the basis for a business model involving selling advertising tied to your phone’s location. A month later TomTom, a maker of GPS products, beat out rival Garmin and bought Tele Atlas for $4.2 billion. Were either of these companies really worth that much money? It doesn’t appear like it. Thus concern has been raised that the new owners of the technology might be in a position to hurt competitors by raising prices. We will have to see how things pan out.

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Miscellaneous