Seismic and Lateral Load Committee The committee has decided to On behalf of the Seismic and Lateral Load Committee, I am pleased to report that the committee has finalized the Seismic and Lateral Loads Design and Testing Guidelines. It is scheduled for publication in spring 2012. This guidance document is intended to assist geotechnical engineers, pile designers and contractors in analysis, design and testing of piles and drilled shafts for lateral loads. Congratulations to Bob Kruger of CB&I, guideline subcommittee chair, for leading the development of this important document. The Institute has approved the committee holding a software seminar on Tuesday, October 16, 2012 prior to the annual conference in Houston. Tim Siegel is the leader of the subcommittee planning this seminar, with Diane Fiorelli and Wei Zheng as members of the subcommittee. This is something that the committee is very excited about as Tim has developed a similar seminar before for ASCE. start preparing smaller technical documents that address specific technical issues with possible topics such as pile head fixity, lateral group efficiency, p-y curves, downdrag, micropile buckling, battered piles, LRFD factors, and others. If there is anything that you would like our committee to address, pl e a s e cont a c t La r r y Goldf a rb ([email protected]) who is organizing this effort. The committee developed a proposed revision to the model IBC building code regarding the peak ground acceleration to use for liquefaction analysis. The new model IBC building code has been revised to use the Maximum Considered Earthquake (MCE) peak ground acceleration for liquefaction analysis instead of using the design peak ground acceleration. The committee’s consensus on this issue was to propose that liquefaction should be evaluated for both the MCE level motion and the design level motion. The Mark Petersen, P.E., G.E. Committee Chair [email protected] structure should be checked for collapse with the MCE level motion, which is consistent with the model code philosophy; but the structure should be designed for the design level motion. Thank you to the com- mittee members who participated in devel- oping this proposal—Enrique Farfan, Larry Goldfarb, Ramin Golesorkhi, Jim Knutelski, Anne Lemnitzer, Jorge Meneses, Ken Sorenson, Zia Zafir, and Wei Zheng. If anyone is interested in joining the Seismic and Lateral Load Committee, please contact DFI headquarters. Finally, I hope that 2012 has been, and continues to be, a healthy and prosperous year for you. DEEP FOUNDATIONS • MAR/APR 2012 • 55
