Monitoring to Answer the Requirements of SPERWall

Introduction

Monitoring to Answer the Requirements of SPERWall

by Rory O'Rourke of Datum Group

Wednesday 10th April 2019 at 18:00 hours

Institution of Civil Engineers, One Great George Street, Westminster, London SW1P 3AA

This event is free to attend, advance booking is not required. Tea & coffee will be available from 17:30.

Please join us afterwards in the ICE Café Bar for drinks sponsored by Datum Group.

An event flyer can be downloaded here.

In 2018 the ICE released the 3rd edition of the Specification for Piles and Embedded Retaining Walls (SPERW). Acceptance criteria for static pile testing has now changed to improve quality and safety.

Rory O'Rourke will present his research and development in the area of automated static load testing systems. His presentation will demonstrate, using a live test, how load is applied and maintained and how accessible the data is to all stakeholders. Accessibility to data and having total live control of a test allows the designer and test engineer to 'experiment' with capacity and prove to themselves the efficiency of their design. It also demonstrates to the client transparency and assurance that the pile meets the criteria set by the standards.

Rory will explain the mechanical principles used to design the automated test equipment and present data from tests to show the accuracies that are possible and now demanded by the standard.

Rory O’Rourke

Rory studied Civil and Structural Engineering at Bradford University and graduated in 1991. He worked for Regional Railways for 5 years, before joining British Rail Research. There, he led several projects involved with the assessment and structural evaluation of arch bridges and Victorian brick lined tunnels. This work involved the use of early monitoring systems to help evaluation condition and risk, which is where his career in monitoring began.

He worked in the monitoring industry for 4 years, before setting up his own company Datum in 1999. Since growing his company to over 100 staff, Rory sold Datum to DYWIDAG-Systems International in September 2018, where he currently holds the position as Vice President for Sales and continues to represent Datum in the Monitoring Industry. Rory is a Fellow of the ICE and a Fellow of the Permanent Way Institute.

Please join us in the ICE Café Bar afterwards for drinks sponsored by Datum Group.