“Call for Abstract “Foundation Engineering in the Face of Uncertainty” Honoring Prof. Fred Kulhawy”

Sponsored by the Geo-Institute, the ASCE will be publishing a Geotechnical Special Publication
(GSP) volume titled Foundation Engineering in the Face of Uncertainty (and
subtitled “Site Heterogeneity, Property Variability, Risk, and Reliability-Based Design”) -
Honoring Professor Fred H. Kulhawy, Ph.D., P.E., G.E., D.GE, Dist.M.ASCE. Mohamad H.
Hussein, Kok-Kwang Phoon, and James L. Withiam will serve as Editors of this GSP. Abstracts
for proposed papers dealing with topics related to the main theme, are now being sought for
consideration. The following are possible topics:

- Geologic modeling for ground characterization
- Spatial variability (natural ground, modified ground)
- Test measurement errors (laboratory/field)
- Transformation uncertainties pertaining to design properties
- Soil/rock property statistics (distributions, correlations)
- Model/bias factors in design equations
- Probabilistic/reliability methods
- Random finite element methods
- Limit state design (ultimate, serviceability, economic, etc.)
- Reliability-based design (RBD)
- Simplified RBD (partial factor design, LRFD, MRFD, etc.)
- Bayesian updating (from quality control, load tests, monitoring, etc.)
- Risk assessment and management
- User-friendly design/analysis tools
- Role of field measurements and testing in improving reliability
- Case histories


Deadline for a 300 word (max.) abstract submission is June 30, 2011. Finished manuscripts are
expected in July 2012. The GSP will be released at a specialty symposium during the G-I’s 2013
annual meeting. All papers will be subjected to the standard ASCE technical papers review
process. Please e-mail your abstract to Mohamad H. Hussein at: MHussein@pile.com.