Arthur Casagrande

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Arthur Casagrande (born August 28, 1902 in Haidenschaft , Austria ; † September 6, 1981 in Boston , USA ) was an Austrian-American soil mechanic , geotechnician and civil engineer .

Life

In Austria he obtained a degree in civil engineering from the Technical University in Vienna and did his doctorate under Friedrich Schaffernak (1881–1951). In 1926 he emigrated to the USA and worked in the Bureau of Public Roads and as an assistant to Karl von Terzaghi at MIT . There he was his "right hand" and contributed to some fundamental developments in soil mechanics. In 1932 he went to Harvard , where he became professor of soil mechanics in 1946. In 1933/34 he was also at Degebo in Berlin, where his brother Leo also worked. In 1936 he organized the first conference for soil mechanics and foundation engineering at Harvard, which is still held today as the world's leading conference. He stayed at Harvard for about four decades until his retirement in 1973 and had numerous students.

He had two daughters with his wife Erna.

His brother Leo Casagrande also taught civil engineering and soil mechanics at Harvard and founded an engineering office with Arthur Casagrande.

Merits

Some fundamental insights into soil mechanics go back to Casagrande, such as soil classification , insights into the seepage of earth and stone embankments and shear forces . The "A-line" in the plasticity diagram for the classification of cohesive soils, which is contained in DIN 18196, is said to have been named after his first name (Arthur). The flow point device for determining the consistency of a soil is also named after him, whereby Albert Atterberg developed a method further. The sludge analysis with hydrometers in geotechnical engineering also comes from Casagrande .

During the Second World War he began his extensive work for the US Army Corps of Engineers . He trained 400 officers in the ground mechanics aspects of creating airfields. He later advised the Corps on many dam projects , including the Panama Canal and Upper Missouri . In his extensive consultancy work, he was also involved in the investigation of the failure of the Teton Dam and the construction of the Itaipu Dam in Brazil and the Tarbela Dam over the Indus . He advised on the establishment of Liberty Mutual and John Hancock high-rise buildings in Boston , the construction of the Logan International Airport on soft clay building ground in Boston Harbor, the railway embankment over the Great Salt Lake and the establishment of the particle accelerator for the Brookhaven National Laboratory .

Honors

In 1949 Casagrande was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences . 1961 to 1965 he was President of the ISSMFE ( International Society of Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering ). He was Rankine Lecturer , second Terzaghi Lecturer (1964, Role of the calculated risk in earth work and foundation engineering ) and first recipient of the Terzaghi Award of the ASCE ( American Society of Civil Engineers ). In 1965 he received an honorary doctorate from the Vienna University of Technology , he was also an honorary doctor in Liège and Mexico City and recipient of the Distinguished Civilian Service Award of the US Army. In 1966 he was accepted into the National Academy of Engineering .

literature

  • Harry Bolton Seed , Stanley D. Wilson , Ralph Peck Arthur Casagrande , Memorial Tributes, National Academy of Engineering 1984
  • Casagrande Classification and Identification of Soils , Transactions ASCE, Volume 113, 1948, p. 901
  • Casagrande The hydrometer method for determining the particle size distribution of soils and other materials , Springer 1934
  • Ronald C. Hirschfeld, Steve J. Poulos (editors) Embankment Dam Engineering- Casagrande Volume , New York, Wiley 1973, Krieger 1987

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Klaus Weiß 50 years Degebo , 1978, afterwards he was a research assistant at Degebo in 1934, his brother Leo 1933/34
  2. ^ TU Wien: Honorary doctorates ( Memento from February 21, 2016 in the Internet Archive ). Retrieved March 26, 2015.
personal data
SURNAME Casagrande, Arthur
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian-American soil mechanic, geotechnician and civil engineer
DATE OF BIRTH August 28, 1902
PLACE OF BIRTH Haidenschaft , Austria
DATE OF DEATH September 6, 1981
Place of death Boston , USA