and manuals, often jointly with other commit- tees or foundation-related organizations such as the International Association of Foundation Drilling (ADSC-IAFD) or the Pile Driving Contractors Association (PDCA). One of the earliest committees formed was the Inspection and Testing Committee, which later became the Testing and Evaluation Committee. DFI records show that the committee was active by 1979. The members of the Inspection and Testing Committee understood the need for improved quality management in deep foundation construction, and sought new methods to aid in that task. Realizing the Value of DFI and NDT Apparently many people in the deep foundations industry understood the value of both the DFI and NDT technologies. By 1986, DFI had grown large enough to venture offshore, and the First Inter- national Conference on Piling and Deep Foundations was held in Beijing, China. At about the same time as the Beijing conference was being planned, the first digital version of the CSL test was being developed in France. Digital storage of such large volumes of high-speed data was still not practical, but the digital technology available at that time did allow for more user- and eco-friendly printed output of the test data, instead of piles of Polaroid film waste. However, the computer was a dedicated machine, programmed for a single function, and the equipment was therefore very expensive. Although the personal comp- foundations languished until university or institutional researchers such as those at the Building Research Establishment (BRE) in the U.K., the CEBTP in France, or the Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research (TNO) in Holland scrounged up enough support and funds to acquire and exploit the new computing technology. From then on, progress was rapid in Europe. The researchers at TNO focused primarily on tests for driven piles, which were the prevalent foundation technology in the relatively soft alluvial soils of the Netherlands, whereas the British and French had to contend with a wider variety of soils, including boulder clays and sand or gravel beds in which drilled shafts, aka bored piles, were more successful than driven piles. piles. They developed two significant analysis procedures — the real-time analysis termed the Case-Goble Method, named after the university and the research director, and the more extensive modeling technique CAPWAP (CAse Pile Wave Analysis Program) that uses high-strain measurement data to determine the dynamic response of the soil. The Case team realized that the data gathered by the high-strain test provided information on the quality and integrity of the pile as well, and by 1974 they too had started to explore the possibility of using the method on drilled shafts. This also led to the idea of low-strain integrity testing, and the first version was a scaled-down dynamic test known as the Impulse-Echo Method. Almost concurrently, researchers at Case, CEBTP and TNO started work on this method, but as noted earlier, the technology of the time made the Impulse-Echo Method difficult to apply in the field, and it was not commercially available until 1974 in Europe, and 1979 in the U.S. Impulse response (sonic mobility) equipment circa 1982 uter (PC) was introduced in the early 1980s, PCs did not really become affordable until later in the decade, and only a few researchers could afford to take advantage of the new, easily reprogrammable com- puting power. Those few tended to focus on mass markets, such as business and finance software, where the potential for a return-on-investment (ROI) was large. Specialist or niche markets with low potential for ROI like NDT for deep 106 • DEEP FOUNDATIONS • MAY/JUNE 2016 The Evolution An important result of DFI’s international outreach was rec- ognition of DFI’s potential by leading deep foundation industry researchers in Europe and Asia, and by 1990 all of the key players in Europe were either aware of, or were members of DFI. At the same time, contractors began to under- stand the potential benefits of using the information gained from NDT data to improve equipment, tooling and/or procedures, and to enhance the quality and reliability of their respective products. One key aspect of DFI’s purpose, and a major reason for its success, has always been education for and by its members, and this is In North America, the key researchers of NDT for deep foundations in the 1970s were at Case Institute of Technology (now Case Western Reserve University). Initially the Case team, originally assembled in 1964 under the direction of Dr. George Goble, focused on high-strain dynamic testing to determine the capacity of driven evident not only in the forming of the DFI Educational Trust, which is largely funded by member donations, but also in the work of the technical committees in producing manuals, guidelines and sample specifica- tions, and in presenting conference lectures and seminars, often jointly with universities or other industry groups.
