Dean Fox of the Russ College of Engineering and Technology receives ASCE Middlebrooks Award

Dean Patrick Fox has received the 2024 Thomas A. Middlebrooks Award from the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) for the paper entitled “Analytical Solutions for Internal Stability of a Geosynthetic-Reinforced Soil Retaining Wall at the Limit State,” published in the Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering. The Middlebrooks Award is given annually for the leading geotechnical (soil) engineering paper published by ASCE. Fox also received the award twice previously, in 2008 and 2009.

The paper presents closed-form analytical solutions for the critical failure plane angle and the sum of maximum reinforcement loads for a geosynthetic-reinforced soil (GRS) retaining wall, a common type of wall construction method.  The new solutions represent a next advancement of classical earth pressure theory and account for numerous design parameters, such as pore water pressure, reinforcement inclination, surcharge stress, seismic loading, and toe (of wall) resistance forces.

“With this paper, Fox has made a singular, seminal, and transformative contribution to our profession on the analysis of internal stability for geosynthetic-reinforced soil (GRS) retaining walls,” said Craig H. Benson, PhD, PE, NAE, in the nomination letter. “In summary, the paper presents the most significant new analytical solutions for stability of retaining walls since the Mononobe-Okabe theory for pseudo-static seismic loading in 1929.”

The Thomas A. Middlebrooks Award, established by the ASCE in 1955, is a memorial in recognition of the outstanding professional accomplishments of Thomas A. Middlebrooks, A.M.ASCE. The award will be presented in March 2025 at the 2025 ASCE Geo-Congress in Louisville, Ky.