Russian and Foreign Experts at International Conference on Geotechnics

On February 6, 2019, an international conference ‘Fundamentals and Applications in Construction: New Materials, Structures, Technologies and Calculations’ (GFAC 2019) was opened in SPbGASU.

Experts from 15 Russian cities and 12 foreign countries take part in the conference. Their aim is to share experiences and discuss current issues in geotechnics.

Opening of the conference

Evgeny I. Rybnov, SPbGASU Rector, spoke at the conference: ‘We have organized 14 conferences from 2003. They attract strong interest of experts in soil mechanics, foundation engineering and geological engineering’.

Nikolay V. Linchenko, Vice Governor of Saint Petersburg for Construction, addressed his welcome letter to the conferees: ‘A secure foundation guarantees safety of a building, especially if to take into consideration climatic, hydrological and geological peculiarities of Saint Petersburg. Academic staff of the Department of Geotechnics traditionally make an important contribution to scientific and technical development of modern foundation engineering in Saint Petersburg’.

Honorary Doctorates Yoshinori Iwasaki, Head of ISSMGE, and Askar Zh. Zhusupbekov, President of Kazakhstan Geotechnical Society, took part in opening of the conference.

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Topics of the first day

Rashid A. Mangushev, Head of the Department of Geotechnics, reported about foundations of unique constructions in Saint Petersburg.



Department of Geotechnics has been actively involved in design of numerous unique buildings and constructions, for example, it participated in foundation calculations for Lakhta Center, the highest building in Saint Petersburg and Europe.

2080 bored piles were used in the foundation, of which:

• 264 piles were two meters in diameter,
• 848 piles were one meter 20 cm in diameter.

Used piles were 55 – 65 meters at length.

Rashid A. Mangushev: ‘Choice of such parameters is caused by geological and engineering conditions: sands overlie surface soil, layer of weak glacial varve occurs below, and bedding rocks are at the depth of 20 meters. By the way, that is why Saint Petersburg metro is one of the deepest in the world’.

The conference is held up to February 8, 2019.