{"id":8902,"date":"2021-12-08T07:59:13","date_gmt":"2021-12-08T07:59:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ait.ac.th\/?post_type=people&p=8902"},"modified":"2024-04-18T06:29:11","modified_gmt":"2024-04-18T06:29:11","slug":"dr-kuo-chieh-chao","status":"publish","type":"people","link":"https:\/\/ait.ac.th\/people\/dr-kuo-chieh-chao\/","title":{"rendered":"Kuo-Chieh Chao"},"content":{"rendered":"
Geoff Chao, Ph.D., P.E. has over 28 years of geotechnical and construction engineering experience.\u00a0 He received his Master’s and Ph.D. degrees from Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado, USA in 1995 and 2007, respectively.\u00a0 He is currently an Associate Professor at Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) in Bangkok, Thailand.\u00a0 Before joining AIT, he was the Vice President of Engineering Analytics, Inc., a geotechnical and environmental engineering consulting company in Fort Collins, Colorado, USA.\u00a0 Dr. Chao has extensive experience in the areas of geotechnical engineering design and mitigation, ground improvement, construction and design defect investigations, and construction oversight experience on a diversity of infrastructure projects. His technical specialties include rainfall-induced landslide\/debris flow investigation and mitigation, unsaturated soil numerical modeling, soil\/ground improvement methods, problematic soil evaluation, foundation design, soil-foundation interaction, soil behavior under dynamic loadings, and mining reclamation.\u00a0 Dr. Chao was an Adjunct Professor at Colorado State University. He is the co-author of a textbook titled \u201cFoundation Engineering for Expansive Soils.\u201d\u00a0 Dr. Chao has authored over 50 technical papers, many of them dealing with structures on problematic soils.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \n
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\nProject Manager for a distress investigation to the roadways under Package R2 of the Road Network Development Sector Project (RNDSP) in Timor-Leste. Rainfall-induced slope failures due to excessive rainfall were observed at the site.\u00a0 The causes of the slope failures were evaluated using seepage and slope stability modeling.\u00a0 Climate change analysis was conducted to predict the climate conditions in the next 100 years. The predicted climate data obtained from the climate change analysis were used as an input parameter for our seepage analysis to calculate the changes of pore water pressure in the soils due to climate change.\u00a0 Slope stability analysis was conducted using the pore water pressure results obtained from the seepage analysis to determine the remedial measures for the embankment slopes.<\/span><\/li>\n
\nA debris flow happened in July 2028 at a village located in Nan province, Thailand, and caused eight people to die at the event.\u00a0 After the disaster, the village was relocated to the Ban Na Lum area.\u00a0 The primary objective of the study is to evaluate the debris flow potential at the new village location to ensure the safety of the village.\u00a0 The TRIGRS and DEBRIS-2D software were used in the debris flow analysis.\u00a0 It was concluded that the village would be safe under the current climate conditions.\u00a0 However, there is a debris flow potential if severe weather condition occurs in the area.\u00a0 It was recommended that a slope stability monitoring program be set up at the project site.<\/span><\/li>\n
\nAdvisor for a study to map potential landslide areas in Mae Yao, Thailand, by combining the geotechnical engineering approach and the Artificial Intelligence (AI) approach. Factors affecting the landslide potential for the areas will be evaluated.\u00a0 A technique using the AI approach will be proposed to map large-scale landslide potential areas (ongoing research project).<\/span><\/li>\n
\n<\/b>Geotechnical Engineer for a distress investigation to the roadways of a large private housing development in Colorado Springs, Colorado.\u00a0 A majority of the distress was determined to be from settlement of soils due to inadequate construction, and inadequate compaction of fill soils.\u00a0 Additionally, the development had 23 active landslides on the site, and two of the landslides were causing major distress to the roadways. The investigation included geologic mapping, review of aerial photographs, excavation of borings, and laboratory testing.\u00a0 The borings were instrumented with piezometers and slope inclinometers, and movement has been recorded over the last several years.\u00a0 Plans and specifications were prepared for repair of nine areas.\u00a0 Construction oversight was provided during the construction of the repairs.<\/span><\/li>\n
\nProject Manager for an investigation focused on determining the causes of the retaining wall movement and provided recommendations for remedial measures of the retaining wall. Subsoil investigation including drilling and sampling of four boreholes to the maximum boring depth of 41 m was conducted at the site. Laboratory testing was conducted to determine soil properties for our geotechnical analyses. Numerical modeling was conducted to determine the cause of the retaining wall distress. It was concluded that the soft clay had an excessive amount of movement induced by the heavy truckloads and the fill placement, which resulted in the distress of the retaining wall at the site. Options for the remedial measures were proposed in the study.<\/span><\/li>\n
\nSenior Geotechnical Engineer for evaluation of distress and responsible parties for an employee parking facility at Denver International Airport, Denver, Colorado.\u00a0 The parking facility included two parking lots and two buildings.\u00a0 The parking lots had an area of 57 acres and were graded and paved with hot bituminous pavement.\u00a0 Portions of the subgrade materials for the parking lots were lime treated.\u00a0 The observed pavement and building distress was caused by design and construction deficiencies, such as improper lime-treated subgrade materials, expansive soils, insufficient foundation design, etc.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
\nGeotechnical Engineer of Record for the design of drilled pier foundation and pavements at the U.S. Army Reserve Center in Windsor, Colorado for the Omaha District of the US Army Corps of Engineer.<\/span><\/li>\n
\nGeotechnical Engineer of Record for remediation of the grandstand at the school.\u00a0 The grandstand had undergone distress due to heaving of expansive soils at the site.\u00a0 The foundation of the grandstand was underpinned with deep straight shaft piers to stabilize the grandstand.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
\nProject Manager for the design of the foundation at a chiller facility constructed on highly expansive soils for the FAA at the Denver International Airport, Denver, Colorado.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
\nGeotechnical Engineer for evaluation of the heave potential and proposed foundation systems for the Florence Regional Water Treatment System.\u00a0 Analyses of the site indicated that the original locations of some of the structures were on highly expansive soils that would result in unacceptable levels of heave.\u00a0 These buildings were relocated and analyses were performed of various foundations treatment options that would allow for acceptable levels of post-construction heave.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
\nSenior Geotechnical Engineer for review of the foundation design of a control tower facility for the FAA at the Rocky Mountain Regional Airport.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/div>\n \n
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