Miscellaneous

The People Behind the Equations – Karl von Terzaghi: The RockFather (well, actually more soil)

Note: This article is hosted here for archival purposes only. It does not necessarily represent the values of the Iron Warrior or Waterloo Engineering Society in the present day.

Readers of The Iron Warrior know that in this recently developed column,we write about people in math, science and engineering who developed theories and formulas that we as engineering students use frequently in class and at work. We have seen physics and math giants such as Hooke and Euler. We rarely hear of the giants of the more specialized fields of engineering, so in this issue I am going to discuss the life and work of the father of soil mechanics, Karl von Terzaghi.

Karl von Terzaghi was an Austrian civil engineer and geologist. He was born October 2, 1883 to Lieutenant-Colonel Anton Terzaghi and Amalia Eberle in Prague, in what is the modern day Czech Republic. Coming from a military family, Terzaghi was sent to military boarding school at a young age. That is where he developed his love of science through astronomy and geography. He was an excellent student, especially in geometry and mathematics. Upon entering the Technical University in Graz to study mechanical engineering, he also developed an interest in theoretical mechanics. He was nearly expelled at one point but ended up graduating with distinction. Terzaghi spent some time during his mandatory one-year military service translating English geology field manuals into German, before returning to university to continue his studies in highway and railway engineering and geology.

Through out his illustrious career, Terghazhi developed modern soil mechanics and his theories on soil consolidation, lateral earth pressures, bearing capacity, and stability are used in today’s geotechnical projects. It was in 1943 that Terzaghi published his monumental work, Theoretical Soil Mechanics, presenting such as theories of consolidation, settlement calculations, and cases pertaining to retaining walls and slope stability. In this defining publication, Terghazhi developed charts, diagrams, and graphs, his work made it easier for engineers to apply his theories for real life problems.

The Karl von Terzaghi Award was established in 1960 to “an author of outstanding contributions to knowledge in the fields of soil mechanics, subsurface and earthwork engineering, and subsurface and earthwork construction.” There is a Terzaghi Peck Library in Oslo, Norway and in 1965, the Mission Dam in British Columbia was renamed to the Terzaghi Dam in his honour.

Terzaghi is not a name you often hear in engineering but he has had such a big impact on foundation design of all civil infrastructure today. His theories and legacy lives on today in the work of geotechnical engineers across the world.

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