OBITUARY

Robert V. Whitman (1928-2012)

ROBERT V. WHITMAN, Professor Emeritus of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), died of Parkinson’s disease on February 25, 2012, at his home in Lexington, Massachusetts at age 84. He was world-renowned for his expertise and leadership in soil dynamics and geotechnical earthquake engineering, as an engineering educator, and for his dedication to public service.

Bob Whitman was born of academic parents on February 2, 1928, and raised in a small town near Pittsburgh, PA. After earning a BS degree (1948) in civil engineering from Swarthmore College, Bob attended MIT for his graduate studies in civil engineering, first in hydraulics and structural engineering (SM 1949), completing his doctorate (ScD) in structural dynamics in 1951. He joined Professor Donald Taylor’s geotechnical group as a Research Associate/Engineer and was appointed as an Assistant Professor of Civil Engineering in 1953. Apart from two years serving as an officer in the US Navy Civil Engineer Corps (1954-1956), Bob remained on the MIT faculty for the next 40 years, retiring as Professor Emeritus in 1993.

Whitman’s initial work with Taylor dealt with the effects of nuclear blasts on underground structures and marked the beginning of an illustrious career in the new discipline of soil dynamics. This included service on Air Force advisory panels for the design of hardened missile complexes and stable foundations for long-range radar stations. His research then expanded to the general problem of designing foundations with vibrating loads. Two ASCE papers co-authored with the late F.E. (Bill) Richart, Jr. in 1967, which treated the problem as a dynamically-loaded rigid disk resting upon an elastic half-space, represented a fundamental breakthrough in the understanding of foundation dynamics. Bob became one of the pioneers and leading experts in the area and generations of MIT students benefited from extensive drafts of his book on soil dynamics.

The devastating 1964 earthquakes in Alaska and Niigata, Japan, stimulated research on the effects of ground shaking on soil liquefaction and the associated damage to buildings and related infrastructure. Bob’s initial technical contributions to this new discipline of geotechnical earthquake engineering included developing the analytical method that was adopted for the well known and still widely used Newmark “sliding-block analysis” to estimate the movement of earth slopes during earthquakes. He then went on to: independently develop a method similar to the “Seed-Idriss Simplified Procedure” to predict the potential for soil liquefaction based on using in situ tests for assessing the sand’s resistance to shaking; draw the first national earthquake hazard maps utilizing probabilistic predictions developed by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS); and draft the 1985 National Research Council (NRC) report Liquefaction of Soils During Earthquakes that still serves as a general guide for earthquake liquefaction analyses. Bob also served for five years as chair of ASCE’s Technical Council on Lifeline Earthquake Engineering and received its C. Martin Duke Award (1992).

Read more from ISSMGE Bulletin: Volume 6, Issue 4 (p.19)
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Vol. 44 No.4 December 2013 ISSN 0046-5828
December 2013: Commemorative Issue on Prof. D. T. Bergado’s Retirement from AIT

Editors: Prof. Jinchun Chai & Prof. Shui-Long Shen

Sponsored by: Asian Institute of Technology

Content and Abstracts

Part I General papers

Behaviour of Clay Subjecting to Vacuum and Surcharge Loading in an Oedometer
By J.-C. Chai, J. P. Carter, A. Saito and T. Hino

Behaviour of Geogrid Reinforced Abutments on Soft Soil
By Ennio M. Palmeira, André R.S. Fahel and Gregório. L. S. Araújo

Geocell-Reinforced Granular Fill under Static and Cyclic Loading: A Synthesis of Analysis
By X. Yang and J. Han

Electrical Vertical Drains in Geotechnical Engineering Applications
By J. K. Lee and J.Q. Shang

Design and Performance of Soft Ground Improvement Using PVD with and without Vacuum Consolidation
By P.V. Long, D.T. Bergado, L.V. Nguyen and A.S. Balasubramaniam

Reassessment of Long-Term Performance of Geogrids by Considering Mutual Interaction among Reduction Factors.
By Han-Yong Jeon and Yuan Chun Jin

Part II State-of-the-art (review type) papers

Simulations of PVD Improved Reconstituted Specimens with Surcharge, Vacuum and Heat Preloading using Axisymmetric and Equivalent Vertical Flow Conditions
By P. Voottipruex and D.T. Bergado, and W. Wongprasan

Reinforced Embankments on Soft Deposits: Behaviour, Analysis and Design
By C. Taechakumthorn and R.K. Rowe

Current State of the Art in Vacuum Preloading for Stabilising Soft Soil
By C. Rujikiatkamjorn and B. Indraratna

Jet Grouting Practice: an Overview
By Z.F. Wang, S.L. Shen, C.E. Ho and Y.H. Kim

Deep Mixing Method in Japan
By Masaki Kitazume

Recent Studies of Geosynthetic Tubes and Mattress: an overview
By Wei Guo, Jian Chu and Shuwang Yan

Design Method for Bearing Reinforcement Earth Wall
By S. Horpibulsuk, C. Suksiripattanapong and A. Chinkulkijniwat

Current State of Knowledge on Thermal Consolidation using Prefabricated Vertical Drains
By H. M. Abuel-Naga, G. A. Lorenzo and D. T. Bergado

Vol. 44 No.3 September 2013 ISSN 0046-5828

Guest Editors: Prof. Fusao Oka & Prof. Helmut F. Schweiger

Sponsored by: Asian Institute of Technology

Content and Abstracts

Numerical Simulation of the Rainfall Infiltration on Unsaturated Soil Slope Considering a Seepage Flow
By S.Kimoto, F.Oka and E.Garcia

Seismic Response of Gravity-Cantilever Retaining Wall Backfilled with Shredded Tire
By N. Ravichandran and E. L. Huggins

Numerical modeling of lateral response of long flexible piles in sand
By Md. Iftekharuzzaman and Bipul C Hawlader

A New Sampling Algorithm in Particle Fileter for Geotechnical Analysis
By T. Shuku, S. Nishimura, K. Fujisawa and A. Murakami

Comparison of deep foundation systems using 3D finite element analysis employing different modeling techniques
By F. Tschuchnigg & H.F. Schweiger

Application of a constitutive model for swelling rock to tunnelling
By B. Schadlich, T. Marcher and H.F. Schweiger

Finite element modelling of seismic liquefaction in soils
By V. Galavi, A. Petalas and R.B.J. Brinkgreve

Random Wave-Induced Seabed Responses around Breakwater Heads
By Y Zhang, D-S Jeng, Z-W Fu and J Ou

Influence of brittle property of cement treated soil on undrained bearing capacity characteristics of the ground
By S. Yamada, T. Noda, A. Asaoka and T. Shina

Geotechnical Engineering Journal of the SEAGS & AGSSEA

Vol. 44 No.2 June 2013 ISSN 0046-5828

Editors: Akira Murakami and Dariusz Wanatowski

Sponsored by: Asian Institute of Technology

Content and Abstracts

Soil-water-air coupled finite element analysis of model test on slope failure in unsaturated soil
By Y.L. Xiong, X.H. Bao and F. Zhang

Relation between seepage force and velocity of sand particles during sand boiling
By K. Fujisawa, A. Murakami, S. Nishimura and T. Shuku

A density-and stress-dependent elasto-plastic model for sands subjected to monotonic undrained torsional shear loading
By G. Chiaro, J. Koseki and L.I. Nalin De Silva

1-G model test with digital image analysis for seismic behavior of earth dam
By Y. Miyanaga, A. Kobayashi and A. Murakami

X-ray CT imaging of 3-D bearing capacity mechanism for vertically loaded shallow foundations
By D. Takano, J. Otani, M. Nakamura, and R. Mokwa

Modeling and bending test simulations of cement treated soil
By K. Kaneda, T. Tanikawa and S. Onimaru

Modelling viscous effects during and after construction in London Clay
By S. D. Clarke and C. C. Hird

Vol. 44 No.1 March 2013 ISSN 0046-5828

Editors: Der-Wen Chang & Dariusz Wanatowski

Sponsored by: Asian Institute of Technology

Content and Abstracts

Some factors affecting deep excavation in clay over gassy bedrock
By Ahmed B Mabrouk and R Kerry Rowe

Effects of Consolidation and Specimen Disturbance on Strengths of Taipei Clays
By Richard N Hwang, Za-Chieh Moh and I-Chou Hu

Lime Stabilisation of Organic Clay and the Effects of Humic Acid Content
By NZ Mohd Yunus, D Wanatowski and LR Stace

Estimating Wetting-induced Settlement of Compacted Soils using Oedometer Test
By EC Leong, S Widiastuti and H Rahardjo

Compaction Curve with Consideration of Time and Temperature Effects for Mudstones
By A Puttiwongrak, H Honda, T Matsuoka and Y Yamada

Small strain behavior of sand under various stress paths considering anisotropic initial stress state
By Lai Yong, Shi Jian-yong, Yu Xiao-jun and Cao Qiu-rong

Study of Joint Effect on Pipe in Pipe Jacking Method
By L G Le, M Takise, M Sugimoto and K Nakamura

Finite Element Analysis of Ground Behaviour due to Box-jacking Tunnel Work
By K Komiya and T Nakayama

Tunneling Induced Deformation of a Historic Building in Shanghai
By Shi-ping Gea, Dong-wu Xied, Wen-qi Dinga, Ya-fei Qiao and Jin-chun Chai

In-situ monitoring of internal displacements by FBG sensors and slope stability analysis under rainfall infiltration
By Dongsheng Xu, Fei Tong, Huahu Pei, and Jianhua Yin

Mechanistic-Empirical Pavement Design: A Brief Overview
By A T Papagiannakis