Peter Rowe (engineer)

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Peter Walter Rowe (born July 2, 1922 in Lincoln , † April 28, 1997 ) was a British geotechnical engineer who was best known for experimental work.

life and work

Rowe went to school in Bristol and studied civil engineering at Bristol University . He graduated during World War II and immediately afterwards worked as an engineer at the Royal Aircraft test facility in Farnborough . He then worked as a civil engineer at Robert McAlpine and Sons , before going to St. Andrews University, where he received his doctorate under Bill Marshall. The subject of the dissertation, for which he carried out extensive experiments (using methods he had learned at Farnborough), was anchored sheet pile walls and his work received great attention at the time, right up to Karl von Terzaghi , with whom he corresponded. From this work he developed his own dimensioning method for sheet piling.

From 1952 he was at the University of Manchester , where he first taught surveying and only later soil mechanics. He continued his experiments on retaining walls and the earth pressure distribution behind and in front of retaining walls and also investigated the dilatance of soils (a behavior of soils that was already known by Osborne Reynolds , who also taught in Manchester) both theoretically ( stress dilatancy- Equation ) as well as experimentally, whereby he had to modify the test methods used ( triaxial devices ). He also improved the test equipment for the consolidation of clays after he realized that the then common test sample dimensions according to Arthur Casagrande were too small. In 1963 he became professor of soil mechanics in Manchester. At the same time, his practical work as a consulting geotechnical engineer increased. He advised on earth dams, the founding of power stations and docks, and also on settlement problems in Venice on behalf of the Italian government.

From 1969 he developed a centrifuge for geotechnical investigations in Manchester (independently of Andrew Noel Schofield , who also built a geotechnical centrifuge in Manchester). He did a lot of testing for offshore structures for North Sea oil production, which began in the 1970s, but also for the Oosterschelde storm surge barrier . He also examined incidents with forensic accuracy, such as the failure of the Carsington Dam.

In 1982 he retired in Manchester, but was still active in research and as a consulting engineer. For example, he designed a process to move large grain silos built on the underground of the coral floor in Saudi Arabia from a dangerous incline by redistributing the silo load.

He is buried in Troutbeck in the Lake District , where he retired.

In 1972 he was a Rankine Lecturer . The subject of the lecture was The relevance of soil fabric to site investigation practice (Geotechnique, Volume 22, 1972, pp. 195-300), whereby under fabric he meant the microstructure of soils, the importance of which he had recognized for the detailed consolidation behavior of clays.

He was married twice and had three daughters and a son.

literature

  • Obituary by IM Smith, Geotechnique, Vol. 47, 1997, p. 1083

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The work was published as Anchored sheet pile walls , Proc. Institution Civil Engineers 1952. Terzaghi is said to have stated that based on Rowe's experiments, the relevant section in his Theoretical Soil Mechanics would be the only one that he would have liked to change.
  2. ↑ for example Rowe, Peaker Passive Earth Pressure Measurements , Geotechnique, Volume 15, 1965, pp. 57-78
  3. ↑ Rowe The stress-dilatancy relation in static equilibrium for at assembly of particles in contact , Proc. Roy. Society, Vol. 269, 1962, pp. 500-527
  4. ^ The importance of free ends in the triaxial test, J. Soil Mechanics Found. ASCE Division, January 1964
  5. ↑ Rowe, Bard A new consolidation cell , Geotechnique, Vol. 16, 1966, pp. 162-217
  6. ^ Smith's obituary, Geotechnique
  7. ↑ Geotechnique, Volume 41, 1991, p. 395, Discussion Volume 42, 1992, p. 521, Volume 45, 1995, p. 727
  8. ↑ That was also the reason for the above-mentioned modification of the measuring apparatus
personal data
SURNAME Rowe, Peter
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Rowe, Peter Walter (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British geotechnician
DATE OF BIRTH July 2, 1922
PLACE OF BIRTH Lincoln
DATE OF DEATH April 28, 1997