John Burland facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
John Burland
|
|
|---|---|
John Burland in Cambridge, 2016
|
|
| Born | 4 March 1936 Buckinghamshire, England
|
| Alma mater | Witwatersrand University University of Cambridge |
| Known for | Development of Critical state theory of soil mechanics Stabilisation of the Leaning Tower of Pisa |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Civil Engineering Soil Mechanics Geotechnical Engineering |
| Institutions | Ove Arup & Partners |
| Thesis | Deformation of soft clay (1967) |
| Doctoral advisor | Kenneth H. Roscoe |
John Boscawen Burland, born on March 4, 1936, is a very famous geotechnical engineer. This means he is an expert in understanding how soil behaves. He used his knowledge to help build and protect important structures. He is a professor at Imperial College London and is known worldwide for his work with soil. In 2016, he became a member of the National Academy of Engineering. This was for his amazing work in designing and keeping safe many buildings and structures.
Contents
Early Life and Education
John Burland was born in Buckinghamshire, England, in 1936. As a child, he moved to South Africa. He went to Parktown Boys' High School. Later, he studied civil engineering at the University of the Witwatersrand. He earned his first degree in 1959 and then a master's degree.
His master's research led to an important paper. He worked with his professor, Jeremiah Jennings. They found that the usual way of predicting how soil acts needed changes. This was especially true for soil that was only partly wet. Their findings helped experts rethink some basic ideas in soil mechanics.
In 1961, Burland moved back to England. He started working for Ove Arup & Partners in London. There, he used his soil knowledge to help design Britannic House. This was London's tallest building at the time.
In 1963, Burland began his PhD at the University of Cambridge. He studied under Professor Kenneth H. Roscoe. In 1967, he finished his important paper called Deformation of soft clay.
Career and Major Projects
Burland joined the Building Research Station in 1966. He became the head of the Geotechnics Division in 1972. Then, he became an Assistant Director in 1979.
In 1980, he became a professor of Soil mechanics at Imperial College London. He worked there for over 20 years. He also led the Geotechnics Section. He admired Alec Skempton, another famous engineer. Burland even named Skempton's old office "Skem's Room." Burland also gave talks at many universities, including his old school, Witwatersrand.
He became well-known in the 1990s and early 2000s. This was because he helped save the Leaning Tower of Pisa. For his work, he received special awards from Italy. These included the Knight Commander of the Royal Order of Francis I and the Commendatore of the Order of the Star of Italian Solidarity.
Burland also helped make sure the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben were safe. This was during the building of the London Underground Jubilee line extension. He also worked on a large underground car park at the Palace of Westminster. Another big project was helping to stabilize the Mexico City Metropolitan Cathedral.
Saving the Leaning Tower of Pisa (1990-2001)
In 1989, a tower in Pavia, Italy, fell down. This made people worry about the Leaning Tower of Pisa. In March 1990, the Government of Italy asked Burland to join a team. This team had 14 members and their job was to save the tower.
Burland worked on this project for 11 years. He helped a lot with a new way to fix the tower's lean. The goal was to make the old tower stable for a long time. They wanted to do this without changing how it looked.
Burland and his team faced many problems. They had to understand the soil and how the tower was built. The tower sits on soft, squishy soil. Over hundreds of years, it leaned more and more. By the late 1900s, it was very close to falling. Burland realized that trying to dig or strengthen the ground on the south side would be too risky. It could make the tower fall.
The team wanted to keep the tower's history and look. So, they needed solutions that would not be very noticeable. Burland's plan included both temporary and lasting fixes. First, they put 900 tons of lead weights on the north side of the tower's base. This helped to temporarily stop the lean. They also used computer models to guess how the tower would act. This was key while they worked on a permanent solution.
The lasting solution aimed to reduce the tower's lean by about 10 percent. This would make the tower last much longer. They did not want to use props or supports that would be seen.
The main method was called soil extraction. This meant carefully taking out soil from under the north side of the tower's foundations. Taking out soil from one side made the tower slowly lean back the other way. This reduced the stress on the tower's stone. Burland's use of this method was very important. It helped reduce the lean without big changes to the tower itself.
Underground Car Park at the Houses of Parliament (1972-1974)
For many years, people wanted to build an underground car park for politicians at Westminster. New Palace Yard was chosen, even though it was near important buildings. The project involved building a car park 18.5 meters deep. It was very close to the historic Palace of Westminster, Westminster Hall, the House of Commons, and the Big Ben Clock Tower.
The design depended a lot on understanding the soil. Burland himself checked many soil samples from the site. The soil there, called London Clay, is good for deep digging. It is strong and does not let much water through. However, it can change size depending on how much water it has.
Burland's study showed that thin layers of silt and sand in the London Clay could cause problems. Water could flow through them. He found that water pressure in the clay was balanced with the water in the gravel above. He insisted on special steps to stop the ground from lifting up during construction. This was to prevent a disaster.
Engineers used computer models to understand how the car park and the ground would act. They used soil information from other projects in London. Burland and his team watched everything very closely. They checked the movement of nearby buildings, walls, and Big Ben. They saw big ground movements, reaching more than three times the depth of the dig. They compared what they expected to happen with what actually happened. They also looked at how this affected nearby buildings.
They chose to build a strong concrete wall, supported by concrete floors. This was to keep ground movement as small as possible. Building started in July 1972 and finished in September 1974. The main digging happened successfully under Burland's watch, from April to November 1973.
Research, Teaching, and Publications
Burland has done a lot of work in teaching, research, and writing about geotechnical engineering. He has studied many topics, including:
- How effective stress works in different soil types.
- How soil and buildings affect each other.
- How building foundations move near deep holes.
- Deep holes and tunnels.
- Piled foundations (foundations that go deep into the ground).
- Foundations on difficult ground, like shrinking and swelling clays.
- How dry soils behave.
- The strength and stiffness of clays.
Besides teaching at universities, Burland has appeared in the media. He explains soil mechanics to people who are not engineers. In 2023, he was a guest speaker at Terzaghi Day. This event honors Karl von Terzaghi, a very important person in soil mechanics.
Critical State Soil Mechanics
Burland's PhD research looked at critical state soil mechanics. This is a way to understand how clay soils behave under stress. He improved an existing model called the Cam Clay model. His work led to his own model, called the Modified Cam-Clay Model.
Awards and Recognition
Burland's work in soil mechanics is known all over the world. He was asked to give the 30th Rankine Lecture. This is a very important talk given by top geotechnical engineers. In 1997, he received the Gold Medal from the Institution of Structural Engineers. He also gave the Higginson Lecture and the Victor de Mello Lecture in 2002.
He became a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering. In 2005, he was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE). This was for his great work in geotechnical engineering. He also received honorary doctorates from several universities. In 2006, he won the Royal Academy of Engineering’s Rooke Award. This was for helping the public and media understand engineering.
His awards include:
- Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE), 2005
- Honorary Fellow of Cardiff University, 2005
- Fellow (FIC), Imperial College, 2004
- Honorary Fellow, Emmanuel College Cambridge, 2004
- "Commendatore" of the "Ordine della Stella di Solidariete' Italiana" (OSSI), President of Italy, 2003
- DSc Honoris Causa, University of Warwick, 2003
- DEng Honoris Causa, University of the Witwatersrand
- "Commendatore" of the Royal Order of Francis I of Sicily (KCFO), 2001
- DEng Honoris Causa, University of Glasgow, 2001
- DSc Honoris Causa, University of Nottingham, 1998
- Fellow (FCGI), City and Guilds of London Institute, 1998
- Fellow (FRS), The Royal Society, 1997
- DEng Honoris Causa, Heriot-Watt University, 1994
- Fellow (FREng), Royal Academy of Engineering, 1981.
See also
- Imperial College Civil & Environmental Engineering
