Professor B.L. Tennekoon

BSc Eng(Cey),PhD(Cantab),CEng,FIE(Sri Lanka)

Senior Professor, Department of Civil Engineering,
University of Moratuwa

Contact Information:

Address:
Department of Civil Engineering,
University of Moratuwa,
Moratuwa, Sri Lanka.

e mail: blt@civil.mrt.ac.lk

Telephone: +94-11-2650567-8(Ext.2107)
Fax: +94-11-2651216

Profile Qualifications Awards	Professional Experience Books and Monographs Research Publications

Profile
Basil Laliputra Tennekoon is a Senior Professor of Civil Engineering. He graduated from the University of Ceylon in 1965 with a 1st Class Honours degree. He proceeded to the University of Cambridge, UK in September 1966; from which university he was awarded the Ph.D. in April 1970 for research work carried out in the field of Geotechnical Engineering. After the completion of his Ph.D., he joined the University again as a Lecturer. At this time there was only a single university, and the Faculty of Engineering was located at Peradeniya. He remained at Peradeniya until 1975; and he was one of four staff members who launched the first post-graduate course in the Faculty of Engineering in 1972. In 1975, he transferred to Moratuwa, which had then become another university. He obtained successive promotions within the university culminating as Professor in 1984. The post of Senior Professor was established in the university system in 1995; whereupon he was promoted to this grade. He was a former Head of the Department of Civil Engineering for 6 years from 1979 to 1985; and was also the elected Dean of the Faculty of Engineering for a period of 10 months in 1994/1995. Prof. Tennekoon was a founder member of the Sri Lankan Geotechnical Society in 1986. He held the post of Secretary from 1986 to 1994; and then became the President of the society in 1994, which post he held until 2000. Prof. Tennekoon has maintained close links with the engineering profession during his career. He is a Fellow of the Institution of Engineers, Sri Lanka; and he was a member of the Institution’s Education and Training Committee for over 20 years. He spent the first six months of his first sabbatical in 1977 working on a Highway Project in Libya; and then completed his sabbatical year while working with the Consultancy Division of the State Engineering Corporation of Sri Lanka. He is a leading consultant in the field of geotechnical engineering; and he has advised numerous State Sector and Private Sector Organizations on foundations for buildings, water supply schemes, oil tanks, etc. in difficult ground conditions. Prof. Tennekoon’s second sabbatical was in 1987 when he worked at the University of Edinburgh as a Commonwealth Research Fellow studying the behaviour of soft clays. In April 2003, he was invited by the Government of Sri Lanka to be part of a team for implementing a World Bank funded project for the Improvement of Relevance and Quality of Undergraduate Education (IRQUE). This was a 6-year project where the major component was the establishment of a Quality Enhancement Fund (QEF) whose objectives were to develop concepts of accountability and sustainability within the university system. He was in charge of implementing the QEF component, where for the first time a competitive funding scheme was designed and implemented to enhance the quality and relevance of undergraduate study programs. Competing Study Programs had to prepare proposals which also addressed issues of efficiency; quality enhancement of learning/teaching process, including relevance of current academic offerings, and thereby increase the employability of graduates. Grants amounting to a total of around US $ 20 Million were awarded to 27 Study Programs, which were selected from over 150 Study Programs which participated in the competition. Prof. Tennekoon is married to Preethie, and they have two children Layanthi and Banuka. Back to top

Qualifications

BSc Eng(Cey)
PhD(Cantab)
CEng
FIE(Sri Lanka)

Awards
1966	Government Scholarship for outstanding achievement at undergraduate degree, tenable at the University of Cambridge, UK
1976	Award for the best paper in the Annual Sessions of the Institution of Engineers, Sri Lanka
1987	Commonwealth Fellowship tenable at the University of Edinburgh, UK
1988	Award for the best paper in the Journal of the Institution of Engineers, Sri Lanka in preceding year
1989	Award for the best paper in the Journal of the Institution of Engineers, Sri Lanka in preceding year
1990	Award for the best paper in the Journal of the Institution of Engineers, Sri Lanka in preceding year
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Professional Experience
Oct 1987 - Dec 1988	Consultant to National Building Research Organization on ‘Development of suitable foundations for low lying areas’.
Nov 1990 - Mar 1991	Geotechnical Consultant to Resources Development Consultants for ‘Geotechnical Investigations for final designs of Environmental Improvement Project of the City of Colombo’.
Dec 1991 - Mar 1992	Geotechnical Consultant to Resources Development Consultants for ‘Geotechnical Investigations for pre-feasibility study for Southern Highway, Colombo to Matara’.
Apr 1996 - Oct 1996	Geotechnical Consultant to W.S. Atkins International for ‘Geotechnical Investigations for Beira Lake Restoration Project, Colombo’.
May 1999 - July 1999	Geotechnical Consultant on behalf of Oriental Consultants Co. Ltd. for ‘Geotechnical Investigations for the study of the Outer Circular Highway to the City of Colombo’.
Sept 2002 - Feb 2003	National Consultant to Resources Development Consultants for preparation of ‘Project Implementation Plan for Quality Assurance’ in the World Bank funded IRQUE Project.
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Books and Monographs
1.	Principal Author in drafting “Guidelines for Site Investigations for foundations of buildings". ICTAD Publication No. ICTAD/ID/11 of the Institute of Construction Training and Development, January 1994.
2.	Principal Author in drafting “Guidelines for interpretation of Site Investigation data for estimating the carrying capacity of single piles for design of bored and cast in-situ Reinforced Concrete piles". ICTAD Publication No. ICTAD/DEV/15, April 1997.
3.	Principal Author in drafting “Specifications for Site Investigation for building works and sample Bill of Quantities". ICTAD Publication No. ICTAD/DEV/17, April 1997.
4.	“A re-evaluation of the consolidation test for lateritic soils". Contribution to the Prof. E.O.E. Pereira Commemoration Volume published by the Institution of Engineers, Sri Lanka in September 1992.
5.	“Stability of slopes". Chapter in ‘Advanced Technical Course on deterministic and probabilistic analyses of slopes and landslides, including instrumentation, monitoring and forecasting’. Published by the National Building Research Organization in December 1992.
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Research Publications
(a)	Invited Papers
	1.	“Predictions in Soil Engineering in relation to Foundation Design". The Professor E.O.E. Pereira Memorial Lecture, Institution of Engineers, Sri Lanka, September 1990.
	2.	“From Theory to Practice in Foundation Engineering". The Professor A. Thurairajah Commemoration Inaugural Lecture under the Auspices of the Institution of Engineers, Sri Lanka; and the Sri Lankan Geotechnical Society, June 1995.
	3.	“From Theory to Practice in Soil Engineering - the Sri Lankan situation". Proc. Of the Engineering Jubilee Congress titled ‘Engineering beyond 2000’ of the Faculty of Engineering, University of Peradeniya, July 2000.
	4.	“The way forward for Soil Engineering in Sri Lanka". Proc. of the National Engineering Conference on ‘Engineering for the Millennium’ of the Institution of Engineers, Sri Lanka, October 2000.

(b)	Journal Papers
	1.	Tennekoon, B.L. and Sivapatham, T.: “Embankments on peat for Gin Ganga Project. Transactions of the Annual Sessions of the Institution of Engineers, Sri Lanka, 1976.
	2.	Tennekoon, B.L., Kumarage, K.A.S., Ranasinghe, K.A.M.K. and Wimalaratne, D.S.: “Geotechnical mapping for structural building purposes with an example from the city of Colombo". Journal of the Institution of Engineers, Sri Lanka, March 1988.
	3.	Tennekoon, B.L., Sivakugan, N. and Lakshman, K.T.R.: “Structural stiffness and limiting deformation criteria as determined from buildings in the low lying areas of Colombo". Journal of the Institution of Engineers, Sri Lanka, September 1989.
	4.	Tennekoon, B.L. and Raviskanthan, A.: “Design of foundations based on limiting deformation criteria". Journal of the Institution of Engineers, Sri Lanka, December 1989.
	5.	Tennekoon, B.L., Senanayake, K.S. and Amaratunge, J.J.P.: “Some suggestions for the design of buildings in compressible ground with special reference to housing in low lying areas". Transactions of the Annual Sessions of the Institution of Engineers, Sri Lanka, 1989.
	6.	Tennekoon, B.L.: “Some special features in the geotechnical assessment of a site for construction of buildings in marshy areas". Journal of the Institution of Engineers, Sri Lanka, March 1990.
	7.	Tennekoon, B.L.: “The selection of the most appropriate model for 1-D consolidation". Geotechnical Journal, Vol. 1, No.1, 1990.
	8.	Tennekoon, B.L.: “Estimation of carrying capacity of large diameter bored piles in hard gneissic rocks". Journal of the Institution of Engineers, Sri Lanka, December 1996.
	9.	Tennekoon, B.L.: “Evaluation of the consolidation characteristics of residual soils". Geotechnical Journal, Vol. 2, No.1, 1998.
	10.	Thilakasiri, H.S., Abeyasinghe, R.K., and Tennekoon, B.L.: “A study of ultimate carrying capacity estimation of driven piles using pile driving equations, and the wave equation method". Transactions of the Annual Sessions of the Institution of Engineers, Sri Lanka, 2003.
	11.	Thilakasiri, H.S., Abeyasinghe, R.K., and Tennekoon, B.L.: “Dynamic Testing of end bearing bored piles in Sri Lanka". Transactions of the Annual Sessions of the Institution of Engineers, Sri Lanka, 2006.

(c)	Conference Papers
	1.	James, R.G. and Tennekoon, B.L.: “Experimental and theoretical determination of the bearing capacity of a model footing on sand". Proc. of 4th S.E. Asian Conference in Soil Engineering held in Malaysia, 1975.
	2.	Balasubramaniam, A.S., Munasinghe, N.T.K., Tennekoon, B.L., and Karunaratne, G.P.: “Stability of cut slopes in the installation of penstocks". Proc. of Symposium on ‘The geotechnics of structurally complex formations’ held in Italy, 1977.
	3.	Tennekoon, B.L., Kanagaratnam, S.P. and Kurupparan, K.: “Consolidation characteristics of residual clays in Sri Lanka". Proc. of the Asian Regional Symposium on ‘Geotechnical Practices and Foundation Engineering’ held in Colombo, 1986.
	4.	Thilakasiri, H.S., Peiris, T.A. and Tennekoon, B.L.: “Predictions of settlement of foundations in soft soils - A case study". Proc. of ERU Symposium, 1999.
	5.	Tennekoon, B.L.: “A simple approach to the determination of the bearing capacity of a layered soil". Transactions of the Sri Lanka Association for the Advancement of Science, 1976.
	6.	Tennekoon, B.L.: “The development of the strain field beneath a foundation in sand". Transactions of the Sri Lanka Association for the Advancement of Science, 1983.
	7.	Tennekoon, B.L., Sivakugan, N. and Lakshman, K.T.R.: “The importance of structural stiffness for designing buildings in compressive ground". Transactions of the Sri Lanka Association for the Advancement of Science, 1983.
	8.	Tennekoon, B.L.: “A method for the prediction of the rate of settlement in lateritic soils". Transactions of the Sri Lanka Association for the Advancement of Science, 1989.
	9.	Tennekoon, B.L.: “Computer applications in Geotechnical Engineering". Sri Lankan Geotechnical Society Conference on ‘Computer applications in Geotechnical Engineering’, 1993.
	10.	Tennekoon, B.L., Chamindani, H.A.Y. and Madunishanthi, K.A.: “A critical assessment of Site Investigation practices for buildings in low lying areas". Sri Lankan Geotechnical Society Conference on ‘Site investigations’, 1996.
	11.	Tennekoon, B.L., Chamindani, H.A.Y. and Madunishanthi, K.A.: “A review of Site Investigation practices in lateritic soils for buildings". Sri Lankan Geotechnical Society Conference on ‘Site investigations’, 1996.
	12.	Tennekoon, B.L.: “Residual soils and colluvium deposits of Sri Lanka". Proc. of National Symposium on ‘Landslides in Sri Lanka’ held in Colombo, March 1994.
	13.	Thilakasiri, H.S., Abeyasinghe, R.K., and Tennekoon, B.L.: “Study of capacity gain of driven piles". Proc. of the Symposium on ‘Research for Industry, 2003’ at University of Moratuwa.
	14.	Thilakasiri, H.S., Abeyasinghe, R.K., and Tennekoon, B.L.: “Investigation of the accuracy of static capacity estimation methods for piles in residual soils". Transactions of the Sri Lanka Association for the Advancement of Science, 2003.

(d)	Seminar/Workshop Papers
	1.	Tennekoon, B.L.: “Design of pile foundations". Sri Lankan Geotechnical Society Seminar on ‘Design and Construction of Deep Foundations’, July 1988.
	2.	Tennekoon, B.L.: “Design of flexible walls". Sri Lankan Geotechnical Society Seminar on ‘Earth Retaining Structures’, May 1989.
	3.	Tennekoon, B.L.and Mallawarachchi, D.P.: “Geotechnical practices in peaty soils". Sri Lankan Geotechnical Society Seminar on ‘Geotechnical practices in difficult ground conditions’, April 1993.
	4.	Tennekoon, B.L.: “Skin friction in piles". Sri Lankan Geotechnical Society Seminar on ‘Experiences in Deep Foundations’, 1994.
	5.	Tennekoon, B.L.: “Identification of type of pile failure from results of load-settlement curves". Sri Lankan Geotechnical Society Seminar on ‘Experiences in Deep Foundations’, 1994.
	6.	Tennekoon, B.L.: “Evaluation of load carrying capacity of driven pre-cast concrete piles". Sri Lankan Geotechnical Society Seminar on ‘Experiences in Deep Foundations’, 1994.
	7.	Tennekoon, B.L., Senanayake, K.S. and Amaratunge, J.J.P.: “Some results of recent research on Foundation Design". Proc. of Seminar on ‘Appropriate foundations for construction in low lying marshy areas’ held in Colombo in November 1989.
	8.	Tennekoon, B.L. and Raviskanthan, A.: “Design methods incorporating soil structure interaction and structural considerations". Proc. of Seminar on ‘Appropriate foundations for construction in low lying marshy areas’ held in Colombo in November 1989.
	9.	Tennekoon, B.L.: “Some results of soil structure interaction studies". Proc. of Seminar on ‘Appropriate foundations for construction in low lying marshy areas’ held in Colombo in November 1989.
	10.	Tennekoon, B.L.: “Theoretical aspects of landslides". Proc. of Workshop on ‘Landslides’ organized by the Institution of Engineers, Sri Lanka at Kandy in July 1994.
	11.	Tennekoon, B.L.: “Problems of piling practices in Sri Lanka with respect to multi-storied structures". Proc. of Seminar on ‘Foundation Techniques & Equipment’ at Colombo in August 2005.
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