Volume 4, Issue 1 March 2019

ReportLecture Tour in Brazil
Osamu Kusakabe
Jiro Takemura
Takefumi Takuma
South America is one of the blank areas where Press-in Technology has not been implemented in construction projects
yet, as is shown in gray color, in Fig. 1. IPA organized a team of lecture tour in Brazil in November, 2018. The team consistedof IPA President, O. Kusakabe, an IPA Director, Prof. J. Takemura and the in-coming Deputy Secretary General, Mr. T.
Takuma to disseminate the Press-in Technology and to gather pieces of information on piling practice in the country.

Fig. 1. Expansion of Press-in Method
The IPA team visited Sao Paulo, and Rio de Janeiro during the period of from Nov.23
to Nov.30, 2018. The two internationally well-known geotechnical engineers, Dr. S.
Niyama (second from right in Photo 1), the Past President of Brazilian GeotechnicalSociety, and Prof. M. Almeida (second from left in Photo 2), a Professor of theFederal University of Rio de Janeiro had given the team great supports to arrange
the lecture tour and a series of meeting with academia, contractors, consultants,construction machinery agents and steel makers, including Prof. N. Aoki, a Professor
Emeritus of the Sao Paulo University, Prof. W. Hachich, a Professor of the Sao Paulo
University as well as the former Vice President for South America of International
Society for Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering, Mr. A. Negro, the Past
President of Brazilian Geotechnical Society, Prof. E. Watanabe, Director of COPPE(Alberto Luiz Coimbra Institute for Graduate Studies and Research in Engineering)at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Prof. E. Lopes and Prof. F. Danziger alsoof COPPE and many other eminent academia.
The lectures were given at four occasions, including those for the members ofthe Sao Paulo Branch of the Brazilian Geotechnical Society, and for professors
and students of COPPE at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. Thepresentations were also given at GERDAU, the large steel maker in the SouthAmerica region and for the Board members of SindusCon, Constructors
Association in Sao Paulo. At these occasions, the IPA team got a strong
impression that the audience showed a great interest in the Press-in Technology
by asking many questions and even discussing a possibility of adopting the Pressin Technology in a real construction project that they were currently dealingwith. The team was also given an opportunity to visit the site of a sheet piling
operation in the suburb of Rio de Janeiro.
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Photo 1. Group photo at
Alianca Cultural Brasil-Japao

Photo 2. Group photo at COPPE

Volume 4, Issue 1 March 2019
The IPA team has learned a lot about the piling practice in the country by the series of the meetings as well as the sitevisit. The team feels that the lecture tour in Brazil was very meaningful and successful, greatly thanks to the careful andthoughtful arrangements prepared by Dr. S. Niyama and Prof. M. Almeida. IPA very much appreciates their effort.
The following is the summary of contents of each lecture given during the lecture tour and a few snapshots.

➢Summary of Kusakabe’s Presentation

Although the contents of the four lectures given varied according to theaudience, the purpose of the lectures remained the same, consisting of twoparts: the introduciton of Press-in Technology and of the International Pressin Association (IPA). In the first part, Kusakabe explained the hisotricaldevelopment of Silent Piler and unique machinery features of the Piler, suchas how this unique piler operates and how versatile the Silent Piler is. The
presentation was followed by application examples in piling projects in North
America as well as in Japan. In the second part, Kusakabe presented theconcept of IPA which has dual functions as a learned society and as anindustrial association. He introduced current main activities, including
resaerch activities, publications, Newsletter and Seminars & International
conference as efforts of dessiminating the Press-in Technology across theworld.

➢Photo 3. Presentation by Dr. Kusakabe

Summary of Takemura’s Presentation

A research activity of IPA TC1 “Application of cantilever type steel tubular pile wall embedded to stiff ground ” wasintroduced in this presentation. Thanks to the innovative pile installation method by Press-in technology, Gyropress
method in particular, the applicability of self retaining
tubular pile walls has increased significantly, such as large
diameter pile wall in very hard ground. However, thedesign method of the new application has not been wellestablished due to limited data on the critical
performances, which should be rationally examined forthe safe and economical design. Takemura presented
results of centrifuge model tests, in which theperformance of wall embedded in soft rock can bemodeled from the serviceability to extreme load
Tubular steel pile wall
Failure of model wallconditions, namely failure of the wall. He suggested theadvantages and concerns of the wall confirmed from theFig. 2. Photos from Takemura’s presentation
model tests, which will be taken into account for the newdesign method.
➢Summary of Takuma’s Presentation

Takefumi presented the following case studies, highlighting the advantages of the Press-in Piling Method utilized indensely populated urban areas or in physically tight project conditions in North America as well as in Japan.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.

Sandalwood Canal Improvement (Jacksonville, Florida, U.S.A.)
West Toronto Diamond Grade Separation (Toronto, Ontario, Canada)
Myoshoji River Restoration (Tokyo, Japan)
Route 134 Seawall Restoration (Kamakura, Kanagawa, Japan)
Foundation Reinforcement of San Juan de Ulua Fortress (Veracruz, Mexico)
Trabuco Creek Channel Protection Phase 7 (Orange County, California, U.S.A.)
Kumakami River Railway Bridge Foundation Repair (Ukiha, Fukuoka, Japan)

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