ONENGINEER
Geotechnical
- Oct 13, 2011
- 284
Albert Atterberg invented the test apparatus for liquid limit with a porcelain bowl in 1900 that was then upgraded to a metal bowl in 1932. These two great engineers still remain pioneers. The attached picture may indicate the state of the art of industry during Atterberg-Casagrande marvelous invention. But despite so many university PhDs, postdocs and work in research centers with advancements in data acquisition systems, transducers, as well as advanced testing techniques we are still using the same apparatus made in the early 1900s in harmony with the industry standards at the time. This has been in my thought since sometimes ago that I worked in a great small geotechnical engineering firm in Texas conducting 40-50 Casagrande tests daily in their lab while listening to the sounds of the bowls hitting the bases by very hard-working technicians who had to meet their quota at the end of the day. I was thinking why instead of some repeat PhDs (in concept) sometimes insipid academic research that has minimal tangible value for the industry, one does not attempt to spend time on developing an apparatus in line with the current state of the art of industry. If I were an engineering professor, I would ask my research students to study the rheology of various soil-water mixes inside a tube, identify solid -liquid status interface and try to develop an index at the transient moment using transducers and many available sensors and equipment used in experimental research.
I wish this post is read by engineering researchers in MIT, in particular, other universities e.g. Cambridge or research centers that do fundamental research work, while we remember Atterberg and Casagrande's original work.
I wish this post is read by engineering researchers in MIT, in particular, other universities e.g. Cambridge or research centers that do fundamental research work, while we remember Atterberg and Casagrande's original work.
