A C 'Clive' Houlsby 1929-2011

摘要

Renowned rock grouting expert Clive Houlsby passed away peacefully on 17 September in Sydney. The Australian engineer has revolutionised international grouting practice and he is to be honoured as a Grouting Great at the International Conference on Grouting and Deep Mixing in New Orleans in February next year. A keen interest in engineering and construction came naturally to Houlsby. As a child he revelled in constructing sand castles and dams on beaches, where he became keenly aware of the importance of the ratio of water to sand - too much and the shape slumped, too little, it wouldn't stand. But his greatest delight (and future career) was established at the age of nine, when he received a bag of cement as a gift from his parents and discovered "this stuff which could be mixed with sand to form all sorts of interesting shapes". Houlsby graduated from Sydney Technical College in 1952, with a diploma of civil engineering. In 1953, he joined the Sydney Water Board as a construction engineer assigned to the new Warragamba Dam. Grouting wasn't well established in Australia and experienced people were lacking. The dam was cast in massive blocks which, due to drying shrinkage, required grouting of the joints.