Designing Foundations in Cold Regions: Estimating Tangential Heave Stress on Solar Piles
Designing Foundations in Cold Regions: Estimating Tangential Heave Stress on Solar Piles
Frost jacking is a serious geotechnical challenge in cold regions, where seasonal freezing of soils can exert upward forces on piles, leading to costly damage in renewable energy infrastructure like solar farms. Traditional design approaches rely on adfreeze shear strength values from building codes, which are often overly conservative and not representative of site-specific conditions.
Date: September 24, 2025
Time: 1:00 PM CST
About the Webinar:
In this webinar, RRC Geotechnical Engineer Hossein Emami Ahari, PhD, presents findings from recent laboratory research focused on tangential heave stress (THS)—the residual force that acts after the adfreeze bond between soil and pile breaks. Learn how innovative lab testing can improve design efficiency and reliability, reduce overdesign, and prevent pile uplift in solar installations.
What You'll Learn:
Who Should Attend:
This webinar is ideal for engineers, project developers, and renewable energy professionals seeking to improve their approach to solar foundation design in cold climates.
Register now to help take your solar foundation designs to the next level with cutting-edge geotechnical strategies.
Hossein Emami Ahari Ph.D. is a Geotechnical Engineer at RRC Power & Energy. He holds a Ph.D. in Geotechnical Engineering from Iowa State University and has authored multiple publications on frozen soil mechanics, frost heave, and geotechnical testing methods. His work bridges practical design needs with rigorous laboratory investigation.
Date: September 24, 2025
Time: 1:00 PM CST
About the Webinar:
In this webinar, RRC Geotechnical Engineer Hossein Emami Ahari, PhD, presents findings from recent laboratory research focused on tangential heave stress (THS)—the residual force that acts after the adfreeze bond between soil and pile breaks. Learn how innovative lab testing can improve design efficiency and reliability, reduce overdesign, and prevent pile uplift in solar installations.
What You'll Learn:
- The difference between adfreeze shear strength and tangential heave stress—and why it matters
- How temperature-controlled direct shear testing can better simulate field conditions
- Why THS is often significantly lower than code-based values, and how this impacts pile design
- Practical implications for designing more economical and reliable solar foundations
- How using lab-scale methods to close the gap between codes and real-world conditions
Who Should Attend:
This webinar is ideal for engineers, project developers, and renewable energy professionals seeking to improve their approach to solar foundation design in cold climates.
Register now to help take your solar foundation designs to the next level with cutting-edge geotechnical strategies.
Hossein Emami Ahari Ph.D. is a Geotechnical Engineer at RRC Power & Energy. He holds a Ph.D. in Geotechnical Engineering from Iowa State University and has authored multiple publications on frozen soil mechanics, frost heave, and geotechnical testing methods. His work bridges practical design needs with rigorous laboratory investigation.
