The second BGA MSc Prize has recently been awarded to Marina Sideri of Imperial College. The prize, for MSc dissertations carried out in 2012, is open to students of any ground engineering courses, but entrants must be nominated through their course co-ordinator.
Marina’s dissertation, “A study of ground loading on shafts”, was carried out as part of her study towards an MSc in Soil Mechanics and Business Management at Imperial College, London. Her project involved a numerical study aimed at investigating the mobilisation of lateral earth pressures on circular shafts during their construction.
The motivation for the project stemmed from the fact that current design practice involves the calculation of the ground loading on shafts with little reference to their construction method. Through a parametric study which considered two construction methods in detail, Marina was able to demonstrate considerable lateral soil stress relief during construction. For diaphragm wall shafts, this can be expressed by a linear equation which correlates the normalised average earth pressure coefficient with the aspect ratio of the shaft.
Marina will receive £500 from the BGA and a certificate which will be presented at the Annual Conference in June.