The 2018 Carlos Oteo award, Svetlana Melentijevic
AWARDED BY THE SPANISH SOCIETY OF SOIL MECHANICS AND GEOTECHNICAL ENGINEERING
On March 13, the 2018 Carlos Oteo prize was awarded by the Spanish Society of Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering (SEMSIG), to the best Spanish article published in its Bulletin or in the Geotecnia journal. The event was held in the E.T.S. of Civil Engineers of Madrid.
Our colleague Svetlana Melenjitevic, together with Javier Moreno Robles and Pablo Martín Blanco, are the authors of the award-winning article entitled “Modelización numérica de los drenes verticales” (Numerical modeling of vertical drains), published in edition 144 of Geotecnia magazine.
The study of the numerical modeling of vertical drains (stone columns and wick drains) is presented in the paper. This is one of the ground improvement techniques to deal with soft ground, which often constitutes the foundation of embankments in transportation geotechniques. The comparison of the calculations made in three-dimensional and two-dimensional numerical programs is shown. The behavior of these drains is three-dimensional, and for its modeling in two-dimensional programs, the conversion of the geotechnical parameters with respect to the transformation of the radial flow and stiffness is required. In the paper, the conversion methods of the mentioned parameters are provided. Additionally, different failure modes of the stone columns are studied numerically according to their position below the embankment.
