July/August 2021 - 63

EMAD SHARIF, CHAIR
DFI Middle East
The Middle East
area offers many
me g a p r o j e c t s
t h a t i n v o l v e
complex deep foundations and a
diversity of challenging geotechnical
conditions. Thus, we have the benefit of
engaging work in the area, while
struggling to switch to a more normal
life due to the necessary restrictions
related to COVID-19, which vary
between different countries in the area.
Against that backdrop, here are the DFI
Middle East (DFIME) Chapter's main
activities and our plans for 2021.
Regional Geotechnical
Conference
DFIME successfully organized its first
virtual geotechnical conference in
February 2021. Held from February
16-18, the DFI Middle East Conference
included several sessions during the
first two days that addressed the
following main topics: Deep Foundations
- Piling, Effective and Sustainable
Design, Ground Improvement Methods
and Case Histories.
A keynote was delivered the first day
by Rolf Katzenbach, Ph.D., Technical
University at Darmstadt, about the
requirements and recommendations
for technical solutions when building a
sustainable foundation for high-rise
buildings in soft soil. In addition, Ben
Turner, Ph.D., P.E., G.E, of Dan Brown and
Associates, spoke as the invited speaker
that day about incorporating deep
foundations in limit-equilibrium slope
stability analyses and revisiting fundamentals
and seismic applications.
On February 17, Maurice Bottiau of
Franki Foundations spoke about recent
advances in the understanding of
augercast piles and displacement
augercast piles and how that understanding
has impacted their design. The
invited speaker the second day was
David Schoen, P.E., of S&ME, who
covered using thermal integrity
profiling (TIP) to monitor the shaft
cooling system for large diameter
drilled shafts.
The thi rd day of the vi rtual
conference featured the DFIME 2021
Student Program, which was dedicated
to introducing civil engineering
students to the field of geotechnical and
foundation engineering. The program,
moderated by Marwan Alzaylaie, Ph.D.,
of the Dubai Development Authority,
included 30- to 45-minute talks by deep
foundation professionals, as well as a
panel discussion.
In the first talk on February 18,
Karim Khalaf, of Fugro, discussed
aspects of foundation engineering
investigations, with a particular focus on
REGIONAL REPORT
desk studies, remote sensing, collaboration
with geological specialists and
investigation companies. His talk was
followed by one by Hadi Koloot, of
Jacobs, who covered the many aspects of
foundation design processes. In addition,
Khalaf and Yasser Hakam of Menard,
presented on the benefits and limits of
different foundation techniques while
covering piles, barrettes, diaphragm
walls, excavations, tunneling, ground
improvement and dewatering.
Jean-Christophe Monneret, of
SIXENSE, then provided an overview of
different instrumentation for geotechnical
applications, while covering their
historical development and use of each
for monitoring. Alzaylaie, Khalaf and
Koloot also served on an interactive
panel discussion moderated by Mary
Ellen Large, P.E., D.GE, director of technical
activities of DFI, about computational
geotechnics and numerical
modelling in geotechnical engineering.
The panel also included Onur Ozkol of
ByrneLooby.
DFIME is proud of the teamwork of
many of its members to make this first
virtual event of the chapter successful.
Chapter members helped in different
stages of preparation, provided technical
reviews, assisted with communications
and helped run the program.
Essential support also came from DFI
Nick Chittenden, DFI Middle East secretary and conference program chair (bottom),
introducing Prof. Katzenbach and his assistant
Student program discussion led by (top to bottom) Large,
from DFI, and involving Khalaf, Koloot, Ozkol and Alzaylaie
DEEP FOUNDATIONS * JULY/AUG 2021 * 63
July/August 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of July/August 2021
