Value of Instrumentation for Detecting a Potential Excavation Support Failure

Presented by: M. Melih Demirkan, Ph.D., P.E.

CEO of Rite Geosystems

ABSTRACT: Support of Excavation (SOE) failure during shaft or station construction due to improper design, unforeseen ground behavior or non-compliance to the design and specifications could be catastrophic. The risk of losing human lives and incurring heavy costs against loss of equipment, project delay, litigation is extremely.  This risk can be minimized using instrumentation and monitoring.   A case study on monitoring of a Metro rail tunnel construction project will be discussed during the presentation.   The instrumentation program showed unexpected levels of SOE deformations as the construction progressed.  As a first reaction, the integrity of instrumentation was questioned.  Once data from multiple instruments are examined at the same project zone, the supplemental data sets corroborated the deformation. The data was then rightfully treated as a forewarning of a looming failure by the project stakeholders. Corrective actions were implemented in its wake and a catastrophic failure was averted. The monitoring frequency was increased, and additional instruments were installed and monitored to keep a closer watch on the effectiveness of the corrective measures undertaken. The instrumentation data also aided in a deeper root cause analysis of the alarming deformations of the support system deformation, at later stages.

BIO: Melih Demirkan has over 20 years of professional experience working on the range of geotechnical, seismic, hydrogeological and geo­environmental engineering projects. Dr. Demirkan has been the CEO of Rite Geosystems Inc since 2018.  He established the company that supplies instrumentation and monitoring (I&M) products and services to North American market.  Dr. Demirkan has been the technical and business development lead and consulted many I&M projects for tunneling, transportation, dam and construction industries as I&M specialist.  He has in depth experience in the installation of geotechnical sensors and data evaluation, and web-based data management systems. Dr. Demirkan has co­authored more than twenty peer-reviewed publications. Dr. Demirkan is a registered Professional Engineer. 

5:30PM - Networking

6:15PM - Dinner

7:00PM - Presentation