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Please join us for our April 2025 MGS meeting.
Held at Day Block Brewing Company in Minneapolis from 6:00-8:30 PM
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(Happy hour from 6:00-7:00 (drinks included), dinner served around 7:00, and then announcements and the technical presentation from 7:30 – 8:30 pm)
Presenter: Van Komurka, GRL Engineers
Title: The Incremental Rigidity method, an innovative approach to converting measured strains to calculated internal forces (load-transfer response) in a static load test
Abstract: The Incremental Rigidity (“I.R.”) method determines the relationships between measured strain and a deep foundation’s axial rigidity (the product EA) at individual strain-gauge levels, permitting calculation of internal forces in a static load test without knowledge of either the foundation’s composite-section elastic modulus or its total cross-sectional area. This aspect of I.R. is especially beneficial for instrumented static load test piles which have a cementitious component (e.g., concrete-filled pipe piles, augered cast-in-place piles, bored piles). The presentation will describe the I.R. method, and illustrate a number of the method’s applications and its advantages over more conventional approaches using data from case histories. Uncertainties with the American concrete Institute (“ACI”) formula, and with a “modulus gauge” (a strain gauge near the ground surface in a head-loaded test), to estimate concrete elastic modulus will be discussed.
Bio: Mr. Komurka is a Senior Engineer at GRL Engineers, Inc. He received a B.S. degree from the University of Wisconsin–Platteville, an M.S. degree from Colorado State University, and has 39 years’ experience as a geotechnical engineer, specializing in deep foundations. He serves on the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Foundations for Buildings and Other Structures Committee, ASCE’s Geo-Institute’s Deep Foundations Committee, the Deep Foundations Institute’s Codes and Standards, Driven Pile, and Testing & Evaluation Committees, and on the Pile Driving Contractors Association’s (PDCA’s) Technical Committee. Van has extensively published and presented on new approaches to characterizing and incorporating soil set-up into the design and installation of driven piles, the value-engineering concept of support cost, the unique principle of load matching, the Incremental Rigidity method, and was an instructor for the course “Driven Pile Foundations – Design and Construction” offered by the Federal Highway Administration National Highway Institute (FHWA/NHI). He received the University of Wisconsin–Platteville College of Engineering Mathematics and Science Alumni Chapter Outstanding Entrepreneur/Businessperson Award, two PDCA Awards: the Professional Engineer’s Service Award and the Presidential Award for Distinguished Service, and the ASCE Geo-Institute’s Martin S. Kapp Foundation Engineering Award.
Registration is for in-person attendance only. We hope to see you there!