Research

Scope and Content

The papers in this section of the archive reflect the theoretical and experimental research activities and interests pursued by Peter Rowe throughout his career, from his early investigations into sheet pile walls in the late 1940s and 1950s, through work on dams and reservoirs in the 1960s, to the testing of offshore structures in the 1970s and 1980s. The majority of Rowe's research took place at the University of Manchester, and was greatly facilitated by the construction of the massive centrifuge adjacent to the Simon Engineering Laboratories. This was designed to test dam structures, but was later used extensively to test offshore oil and gas facilities (PWR/5/4). The development of the Rowe Consolidation Cell for testing clays, and the ring shear apparatus used to measure the shearing resistance of drained soils, are also documented in this section of the archive (PWR/5/2).

Although Rowe's academic research contrasted with his commercial consultancy work, inevitably there was significant cross-fertilization between the two aspects of his career. Engineering problems and issues encountered in the course of consultancy projects tended to influence Rowe's research interests, and provided 'real-world' data for testing and experimentation, much of which was very practically based. Simultaneously his work as a consultant benefited from the knowledge he gained in the laboratory. Consequently there is some overlap of subject matter between PWR/4 and PWR/5.

Arrangement

As there was no inherent arrangement to the research papers, this section of the archive has been broken down into the various aspects of Rowe's research work, based on his curriculum vitae. Included in this section are files of correspondence relating to the manufacture of the Rowe Consolidation Cell and the centrifuge, since these were developed in tandem with the research work.

The subfonds PWR/5 contains the following series:

  • PWR/5/1 Sheet Pile Walls, 1948-1957
  • PWR/5/2 The Rowe Consolidation Cell and Ring Shear Apparatus, 1953-1986
  • PWR/5/3 Dams and Reservoirs, 1960-1963
  • PWR/5/4 The Centrifuge, 1968-1983
  • PWR/5/5 Offshore Structures, 1954-1982 (bulk 1973-1979)

Related Material

See also the Consultancy section of the archive, PWR/4, and the Publications and Technical Papers section, PWR/6. Some of Rowe's research proposals and findings are outlined in his letters to fellow academics and civil engineers; these can be found in PWR/10/3 and PWR/10/4.

Bibliography

The following theses were submitted to the University of Manchester by M.Sc. research students under the supervision of Peter Rowe. Copies of all the theses are available in the John Rylands University Library, although they do not form part of the archive.

G.R. Sides, 'Foundation settlements on sand' (1955).

S.Y. Andrea, 'The stability of piling in clay' (1956).

G. Watkinson, 'Anchored sheet-pile walls in clay' (1956).

I.G. Bowrie, 'The long-term strength of clay' (1956).

P.H. Oldham, 'The shear strength of clay at equilibrium' (1956).

B.N. Verry, 'Anchored sheet pile walls in clay' (1957).

B.M. Freedman, 'Triaxial tests on sands' (1959).

F.M. Rahmatallah, 'Study of the factors affecting the coefficient of consolidation of clay' (1959).

J. Barnes, 'Experimental evidence for the stress-dilatancy theory' (1960).

J.E. Gray, 'The relationship between principal stresses, dilantancy and friction angle of a granular material' (1960).

A. Briggs, 'Strutted sheet pile excavation in cohesionless material' (1960).

R.G. Holland, 'The measurement of the coefficient of consolidation of remoulded lacustrine clay' (1960).

J.A. Cheetham, 'An investigation of the factors influencing the value of the coefficient of consolidation of a compacted clay fill material' (1961).

D.B. Oates, 'Experimental evidence of the stress-dilatancy theory' (1962).

N.A. Skermer, 'A study of the stress-dilatancy characteristics of clay' (1962).

K.Z. Andrawes, 'The behaviour of particulate materials in the 'at rest' state' (1964).

A.J. Berry, 'Primary and secondary consolidation of clay' (1965).

A.J. Khayatt, 'The influence of stress path on the stress-dilatancy behaviour of sand' (1965).

R.J.W. McDermott, 'The use of free ends in the triaxial testing of clay' (1965).

M. Mesdary, 'The lateral resistance of sand to displacement' (1966).

S.T. Wharton, 'The consolidation characteristics of artificially layered soils' (1966).

D.Y. Larmour, 'One dimensional consolidation of partially saturated clay' (1966).

E.L. Shipley, 'Laboratory permeability tests on undisturbed samples of an estuarine clay' (1967).

D.C. Procter, 'The stress-dilatancy behaviour of dense sand in the hollow cylinder test' (1967).

A. Wightman, 'The stress-dilatancy of sands during plane strain compression' (1967).

C.B. Hill, 'Consolidation of compacted clay' (1967).

R.D. Parkes, 'Determination of density changes in a sand mass by a gamma ray technique' (1968).

H.A. Elhag Ismail, 'Effect of mean stress and straining conditions on the dilatancy behaviour of sand' (1969).

R.O. Birdsall, 'A theoretical and experimental investigation of mildly non-linear consolidation behaviour in saturated soils' (1970).

N.A.D.R. de Alwis, 'Fabric analysis of two clays in relation to permeability' (1970).

R.W. Sarsby, 'Undrained stress path characteristics of clay elements in plane strain and triaxial compression' (1970).

W.H. Craig, 'The undrained shear strength of a boulder clay in an element and in the mass' (1970).

S. Kay, 'An experimental and theoretical study of hollow cylinder tests on sand' (1970).

G. Pavlakis, 'Permeability characteristics of partially saturated soils' (1970).

M. Richardson, 'The consolidation of peat' (1971).

R.A. Fraser, 'Applications of the finite element method in soil mechanics' (1971).

L.D. Fuglsang, 'Preliminary centrifugal studies of the deformation and failure of uniform earth slopes' (1971).

R.R. Barton, 'Direct measurement of interparticle friction' (1972).

D.P. O'Halloran, 'Analysis of prestressed multi-anchored retaining walls by the finite element method' (1974).

J.S. Al-Zubaidi, 'Behaviour of soil slopes under drawdown condition' (1975).

J.H. Khaffaf, 'The behaviour of saturated undrained clay under cyclic loading conditions' (1975).

G.P. Ellis, 'The behaviour of North Sea sand under cyclic loading conditions' (1975).

M.P. Boon, 'Load tests on model ground anchors' (1975).

J.M. McGrath, 'Model foundation simulation of North Sea gravity platforms' (1976).

N.A. Kalteziotis, 'An experimental study of the elastic behaviour of a granular mass under constant effective stress ratios' (1976).

E.H. Haddad, 'An experimental investigation into the effect of particle size on membrane penetration' (1976).

Amr. E. Salami, 'Numerical solutions for pile driving' (1976).

P.J.D. Neville-Jones, 'Model tests on North Sea oil production platforms' (1976).

A.W. Lloyd, 'An investigation of the mechanisms of liquefaction of sands under cyclic loading' (1977).

P.J. Felton, 'Model sand bed preparation techniques' (1978).

A.J. Dubdub, 'Softening of clay under undrained cyclic shearing' (1979).

Y.K. Chin, 'Elasto-plastic finite element analysis in foundation engineering' (1979).

P.C. Suen, 'Differential and integral methods of pile analysis' (1980).

N.M. Salim, 'Effect of rate of loading on offshore foundations' (1981).

J.A. Kachachi, 'The behaviour of normally and overconsolidated clays under cyclic loading' (1981).

N.Y. Khourshid, 'The effect of viscous pore fluid on the cyclic strength of sand' (1981).

T.C. Kiang, 'The influence of geometric non-linearity in geomechanics' (1981).

W.Q. Brook-Hart, 'Time stepping methods for linear dynamic structures' (1982).

E.E. Heshmati, 'Static and dynamic analysis of offshore structures' (1983).

G.B. Kachachi, 'The behaviour of clays under reversed undrained triaxial cyclic loading' (1983).

A. Mokrani, 'Rate effects in cohesive soils' (1983).

T.Y. Wong, 'The behaviour of laterally loaded piles in clay' (1983).

D.C.E. Oldham, 'Lateral load tests on piles' (1983).

M.D. Higham, 'Models of jack-up rig foundations' (1984).

The following theses were submitted to the University of Manchester by Ph.D. students under the supervision of Peter Rowe. Copies of all the theses are available in the John Rylands University Library, although they do not form part of the archive.

D. Bond, 'The use of model tests for the prediction of settlement under foundations in dry sand' (1956).

J. Purushottam, 'Stability of earth masses by electronic digital computer' (1960).

D.H. Shields, 'The influence of vertical sand drains and natural stratification on consolidation' (1963).

M.A. El-Sohby, 'The behaviour of particulate material under stress' (1964).

K. Peaker, 'Passive earth pressure measurements' (1964).

R.M.F. Isaacs, 'Active earth pressure of sand on a rigid translating wall' (1967).

J.P. James, 'Stress-displacement relationship for sand subjected to passive pressure' (1967).

A.O. Madedor, 'Consolidation characteristics of compacted clay' (1967).

A.J. Khayatt, 'Some incremental stress-strain relations for sand' (1967).

P.V. Parikh, 'The shearing behaviour of sand under axisymmetric loading' (1967).

N.A. Younan, 'Consolidation of layered clays' (1968).

W.B. Wilkinson, 'Permeability and consolidation measurements in clay soils' (1968).

P.L. Berry, 'The consolidation of peat and clay' (1969).

A.P. Tyrrell, 'Consolidation properties of composite soil deposits' (1969).

A. Senthival, 'Passive resistance of sand to lateral displacement' (1969).

G.R. Sides, 'Pore pressure and volume change characteristics of compacted clay' (University of Salford Ph.D. thesis, 1970).

P.Y.L. Tong, 'Plane strain deformation of sands' (1970).

J.A. Cheetham, 'The influence of fabric on the consolidation properties of clay soils' (1971).

G.P. Karunaratne, 'Fabric analysis of some natural soils in relation to permeability' (1971).

U. Birder, 'Constant head permeability measurements on compressible soils' (1972).

R.J.W. McDermott, 'Deformation characteristics of sand under axisymmetric loading' (1972).

J.E. West, 'An investigation into the influence of specimen size on the undrained shear strength of undisturbed clays' (1972).

G. Subrahmanyam, 'Non-linear consolidation behaviour of saturated soils' (1973).

W.H. Craig, 'Model studies of the stability of clay slopes' (1974).

N.M. Al-Mosawy, 'Plane strain of sand in model tests' (1974).

R. Hobbs, 'Finite element analyses of centrifugal soil slopes' (1975).

S. Yildirim, 'Centrifuge tests of cuttings in clay' (1976).

G. Pavlakis, 'An investigation into the performance of a model earth dam' (1976).

F. Molenkamp, 'Static and dynamic analysis of off-shore gravity structures' (1977).

J.H. Khaffaf, 'Weakening of undrained saturated clays under cyclic triaxial stress' (1978).

A.C.S. Wright, 'Silos - model and field studies' (1979).

N.K.S. Al-Saoudi, 'Offshore gravity platform model foundations' (1979).

R.W. Sarsby, 'The deformation behaviour of particulate media subjected to constant stress ratio stress paths' (1979).

R.M. Thomas, 'Numerical solution in differential equations arising in engineering' (1979).

D.V. Griffiths, 'Finite element analyses of walls, footings and slopes' (1980).

Y.K. Chow, 'Dynamic behaviour of piles' (1981).

S.K. Sabagh, 'Model pile tests in sand using the centrifuge' (1983).

W.T.P. To, 'Dynamic response of footings and piles' (1985).

B. Gilvary, 'Element by element methods for heat conduction problems' (1986).

M.O. Odiowei, 'Mathematical analysis of numerical methods for dynamic structural vibration problems' (1986).

M.D. Lambson, 'The behaviour of axially loaded piles in clay' (1987).

S.W. Wong, 'Element-by-element methods in transient analysis' (1987).

J.H. Kan, 'Behaviour of laterally loaded piles' (1987).

C.O. Li, 'Finite element analyses of seepage and stability problems in geomechanics' (1988).

D.A. Shuttle, 'Numerical modelling of localisation in soils' (1988).

A. Mokrani, 'Centrifuge and finite element modelling of buried flexible culverts' (1988).

D.K.H. Ho, 'Analyses of geotechnical construction by the finite element method' (1989).

K. Tani, 'Stability of skirted gravity foundations on very soft clay' (1990).

D.J. Kidger, 'Visualization of finite element eigenmodes and three dimensional plasticity' (1990).

B.K. Huat, 'Simulation of field trial structures' (1991).