DFI Names 2016 Student Paper Competition Winner

The Deep Foundations Institute (DFI) has named Youssef Bougataya, who recently earned his master’s in civil engineering from Oregon State University, as the winner of the DFI Educational Trust 2016 Student Paper Competition. The winning paper is titled “Region Specific Calibration of Resistance Factors for Use with Static and Wave Equation Analyses of Driven Piles.”

In the paper, resistance factors for use with load and resistance factor design (LRFD) and the wave equation analysis of piles (WEAP) and a static analysis method are calibrated for use with piles driven in the Puget Sound Lowlands. A database of driven piles was used as the basis for the interpreted reference capacity. When compared to the AASHTO (2014) recommended resistance factors that are based on a national database, the region-specific resistance factors based on WEAP at end-of-drive increased by 50 percent, and are associated with a bias of 0.99 and a coefficient of variation (COV) of 26 percent, indicating relatively good accuracy.