Welcome to the ISSMGE TC 302 website

The members of the Technical Committee, TC 302, on Forensic Geotechnical Engineering of the ISSMGE cordially welcome you to our website.

 

The International Society for Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering (ISSMGE) constituted a Technical Committee (TC) on Forensic Geotechnical Engineering (FGE) in 2005. During the first four years it was designated as TC40 and is now designated as TC302. This committee has conducted five international seminars on FGE. The theme of all the events is “Forensic Geotechnical Engineering”.  Lessons learned from failures of different types of geotechnical structures that can be attributed to any one or more of the topics below can be highlighted. Manuscripts highlighting the failures due natural hazards, lack of codal provisions, challenges in geo-environmental engineering and rock engineering are welcome.  During the conference, the following ten topics and their role in Forensic Geotechnical Engineering will be discussed.

 

Forensic geotechnical engineering involves scientific, legalistic investigations and deductions to detect the causes as well as the process of distress in a structure, which are attributed to geotechnical origin. Such a critical analysis will provide answers to “what went wrong, when, where, why, how, and by whom”. Cases of remedied installations, particularly those which, fall under public / or government category, where the analysis and evaluation of adopted remedial measures with regard to their effectiveness and economy may be subjected to judicial scrutiny also, fall under this purview. It also gives strong inputs to improve designs. The normally adopted standard procedures of testing, analysis, design and construction are not adequate for the forensic analysis in majority of cases. The forensic investigations involve fresh field and laboratory tests apart from collection of all available data. The test parameters and design assumptions will have to be representative of the actual conditions encountered at site. While the designs are mostly stress based, the forensic analysis has to be deformation based. The forensic geotechnical engineer (who is different than the expert witness) has to be not only thorough in his field of specialization, but also be familiar with legal procedures.

 

Please click on the following links for more information for Terms of Reference, Membership List and Additional Information on Forensic Geotechnical Engineering

International Society for Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering (ISSMGE)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Website developed and maintained by

 

Dr. B. Munwar Basha

(Website Coordinator)