User:Sederqu1/aleksandar vesic

Aleksandar Vesic (1924-1982) was the dean of the Pratt School of Engineering at Duke University from 1974 until his death in 1982. He made many contributions to the civil engineering world, especially in the area of geotechnical engineering. Much of his work centered on stress distribution derived from loads in soils.

Life
Vesic was born in Yugoslavia in 1924 and received his PhD from Belgrade Univeristy. He married shortly after and spent the earliest part of his career teaching at the Belgian Geotechnical Institute in Ghent, Belgium. From there he moved on to Georgia Tech in 1958 and then on to Duke University in 1963. He continued to teach at Duke's Pratt School of Engineering until his death in 1982. His wife Milena Sedmak Vesic was active in local community until her death in 2007.

Career
At the Belgian Technical Institute Vesic developed groundbreaking work in the fields of geotechnical bearing capacity and in beams on fully-elastic subgrades. From their his work revolutionized the analysis of pile capacity. At Duke University his work on excavation by explosive means turned the field into a reliable and predictable science.

Vesic continually strove to further the study of engineering, publishing and contributing to many papers and books aimed toward educating engineering students on standard geotechnical engineering principles and techniques. For his dedication to Duke University and more specifically to the Pratt School of Engineering, the school has titled the civil engineering department head as the Aleksandar S. Vesic Professor, a position currently held by Henry Petroski.

To further honor him, the math, science, and technical library was renamed the Vesic Library in 1982, shortly after his death. This library carried his name until it closed in 2008.

Research and Engineering Contributions
Vesic made many contributions to the field of soil mechanics, writing numerous papers and books on pile foundations and deep foundations, shallow foundation loads, soil cohesion, and ocean floor studies. Many professionals have cited his research and writings in their own studies relating to these fields.

His research found that many of the calculations used to determine the relationship between bearing capacity of a soil and the friction angle of the soil were inaccurate at higher friction angles. Through his research he found that the actual angle of failure is smaller than the existing models predicted. This makes these models overly-conservative and can either limit maximum design envelopes or add unnecessary costs to a project.

Much of his research was also aimed more toward the application of engineering to actual construction materials. Vesic continually researched rigid road material surfaces (concrete) as well as flexible pavements (asphalt). This research was mainly focused on how well these loads transferred from the road surface through the various base layers and into the ground. From there he developed ideas of how these loads might be carried by the existing soils. Much of his work was used in the construction and maintenance techniques employed by the designers of the American Interstate Highway System.

Among his most interesting research was his research into the use of explosives for various excavation purposes. He developed theories and essentially created the science for determining how explosive charges would behave if certain parameters of the soil were already known. He later expanded his work to include devices with as much explosive potential as atomic devices. This work allowed for more controlled blasts, increasing their accuracy and reducing their size. From this research blasting could occur in areas where it was impossible before.

Another large portion of his research focused on the behavior of soils in the ocean floor. These soils tend to have a plastic or liquid consistency, making it difficult to predict their behaviors. Early models underestimated the breakout force of objects embedded in these types of soils. Vesic focused much of his effort into understanding how the suction of dense soils and soil adhesion around embedded objects can be attributed to known qualities of the soil.

He was the first chair of the deep foundations committee of the American Society of Civil Engineers.

Awards and Honors
Highway Research Board Award 1969

Thomas A. Middlebrooks Award, ASCE 1974

Distinguished Service Award, Duke University

Books and Papers
Design of Pile Foundations, Transportation Research Board, 1977.

A Study of Bearing Capacity of Deep Foundations, Georgia Institute of Technology, 1967.

Analysis of Structural Behavior of AASHO Road Test Rigid Pavements, Highway Research Board, 1970.

Theoretical Analysis of Structural Behavior of Road Test Flexible Pavements, Highway Research Board, 1964.

Breakout Resistance of Objects Embedded in Ocean Bottom, 1969.

Quarrying with Nuclear Explosives, 1970.

Analysis of Ultimate Loads of Shallow Foundations, 1973.

Engineering Properties of Nuclear Craters, Report 6, 1967.

Mechanics of Pile-Soil Interaction in Cohesionless Soils, 1975.