ISSMGE TC 214 – Foundation Engineering in Difficult Soft Soil Conditions

Svensk representant: Minna Karstunen, Chalmers

The objectives of Committee TC214 are:

To foster cooperation and exchange of information on engineering characterization of difficult soft soil sites, focusing on the definition of representative soil profiles and static and dynamic properties to be considered in foundation design.
To elaborate recommendations for in situ and laboratory testing related to extreme soft soil conditions.
To contribute to the advancement of design method and technology issues related to foundations in soft soils taking into account factors that are commonly significant in those soils such as regional subsidence and seismic amplification.
To prepare proposals for monitoring schemes as well as for pile testing, in cases of foundation in extreme soft soil and/or earthquake conditions.
To collect and publish well‐documented case histories regarding analysis, design, construction and behaviour of foundations and earth structures built on soft soils.

SGF is represented by Minna Karstunen from Chalmers, who is an Executive Member of the Committee. In 2013, TC214 organised a meeting in Paris, as part of XVIIIth ICSMGE, and a special volume called Extreme Soil Mechanics: The Challenge of dealing with soft soils edited by J.L. Rangel, E. Ovando, G. Auvinet and M. Juárez was presented at the Paris International Conference. This volume was published by TC‐214 with the assistance of the Mexican Society for Geotechnical Engineering and Institute of Engineering, UNAM. Attached are also the minutes of Paris meeting. The most active members of the committee are our colleagues from Mexico, where they have extremely challenging soft soil conditions. The committee aims to write an state-of-the-art reports on soft soil in 2014.