Winner of the JD Roberts Award for

research on road structure performance {writer: Staff reporter}

Dr James Maina, a transport infrastructure engineer at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), has been selected as the 2010 recipient of the prestigious JD Roberts Award. He is recognised nationally and internationally for outstanding research toward finding solutions for large and detailed problems in his field of expertise.

Through their research, Dr Maina and his CSIR team predict how road structures will perform over a period of time. This information enables road owners to perform proper design, rehabilitation and maintenance planning, taking all variables into account.

Dr Maina last year became the CSIR’s first black chief researcher, which is the highest ranking within the CSIR’s research career ladder progression. His outstanding leadership in the advancement of science, engineering and technology is clear within the Council, as well as in his participation in numerous national and international professional bodies, says a statement by the CSIR.

Now in its 30th year, the annual JD Roberts Award is sponsored by Murray & Roberts and held in partnership with the CSIR.

Instituted by Murray & Roberts in 1980 in remembrance of one of the group’s founding fathers, Dr JD “Douglas” Roberts, the award recognises and promotes competitive and environmentally sustainable solutions to human dilemmas and encourages scientific research into technology, which will enhance the quality of life of all South Africans.

Roberts was a doyen of the construction industry in South Africa, well known for is innovation, entrepreneurial flair and passion for seeking and trying new techniques and ways of doing things. It is in this spirit that the JD Roberts Award is presented annually, recognising talent and research within the CSIR.

Dr Maina’s work

Dr Maina is the project leader of a multi-year, multimillion-rand project on the improvement of the South African Pavement Design Method (SAPDM). The project is in support of external research and development contracts funded by the South African National Roads Agency Limited.

Putting his expertise to practical use, Dr Maina has developed a number of computer software packages, one of which is called GAMES (General Analysis for Multilayered Elastic Systems).

It was originally developed to assist the Japanese industry in the evaluation of road structures. Japan now uses GAMES as a standard tool for determining displacements, stresses and strains on roads, and even airports.

It was used in expansion projects at the second largest airport in Japan – the Tokyo International Airport.

GAMES has further been used in projects at two airports in Namibia and one in the Eastern Cape, for determining the load-bearing capacity of airport structures.

Locally, GAMES will be used as the analysis engine for the new SAPDM.

Dr Maina’s work, based on wave propagation techniques, allows the use of information from laboratory and field tests for road evaluation, leading to a better understanding of the effect of moving vehicular loading. This is very important for road and airport road rehabilitation work where more accurate and realistic properties of road layers will be obtained by using optimisation algorithms with wave propagation techniques.

Over the past decade, Dr Maina has published more than 60 research publications, in both Japanese and English, in scientific journals and in the proceedings of local and international conferences. He has produced a reference book and several commissioned publications.

Research projects that he

currently leads at the CSIR include:

• Improved ability to model the circular-shaped complex, non-uniform distribution of the contact stress between tyres and pavement surfaces;

• Improved modelling of contact stress ability to model the rectangular-shaped complex, non-uniform distribution of the contact stress;

• Improvement of modelling of geometric non-linearity in pavement systems;

• Documentation of material testing, interpreting results, deriving design inputs and calibrating material models;

• Identification of the relationship between stiffness of pavement materials as determined from different field and laboratory testing methods;

• Development of a finite element package for pavement engineering applications; and

• Structural evaluation of layered structures based on wave propagation considering materials’ damping effect.