Robert Lytton, Ph.D., PE

Professor
Research Engineer

Education

• Ph.D., Civil Engineering, University of Texas at Austin, 1967
• M.S., Civil Engineering, University of Texas at Austin, 1961
• B.S., Civil Engineering, University of Texas at Austin, 1960

Short Biography

Robert L. Lytton recently completed a project for the Federal Highway Administration to develop an integrated model to predict environmental effects beneath pavements. The analytical method developed uses coupled heat and moisture flow and predicts suction and temperature, freezing and thawing, and frost heave beneath pavements. The calculated results were compared favorably with field measurements made in College station, Texas; Amarillo, Texas; and Deland, Illinois. The model was used extensively in several of the SHRP Asphalt and Long-Term Pavement Performance programs.

He is the author of Chapter 13 of the textbook, "Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering," (McGraw-Hill). The chapter is titled, Foundations in Expansive Soils. He teaches a graduate course in Civil Engineering at Texas A&M University on the same subject.

His doctoral dissertation was on water movement in expansive soils. His two-year period of study in 1969-70 as a Post-Doctoral Fellow of the National Science Foundation was with Dr. Gordon Aitchison of the Australian Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) Division of Applied Geomechanics on the subject of expansive soils.

In 1976-78, he conceived and supervised the research project at Texas A&M for the Post-Tensioning Institute which resulted in the publication of the manual on the Design and Construction of Post-Tensioned Slab-on-Ground which he co-authored. The design procedure contained in that manual has been incorporated verbatim into the Southern Building Code, the Uniform Building Code, and American Concrete Institute Report ACI 360R-92 on Design of Slabs on Grade.

In 1984, his pioneering work in expansive soils and foundation design was recognized by the South African Council for Scientific and Industrial Research which honored him with the Everite Bursary Award which is given to one person each year by that country and is an award of the highest distinction.

His lectures in Central and South America on the same subject are credited with having begun the highly creative and energetic research and engineering design presently being accomplished in Columbia and Mexico.

He has been a member of ACI Committee 360 on Slabs-on-Ground, and is currently a member of the Post-Tensioning Institute Technical Advisory Board, and the Southern Building Code Congress General Design Subcommittee.

Together with Dr. Chris Mathewson, of the Texas A&M University, Department of Engineering Geology, he conducted a three-year long project for the National Science Foundation to survey the damage done by expansive soils to houses in five cities in Texas: Beaumont, College Station, Amarillo, San Antonio and Waco. He developed regression analysis models of the causes of damage in each city. Each survey had at least 100 residences and a total of 700 residences were surveyed. He developed a method of modifying the Post-Tensioning Institute design of stiffened slabs to account for the variability of site conditions using a risk analysis approach.

His experience in field, laboratory, and analytical studies and his proven record of organizing and successfully completing projects which are both complex and highly significant in their impact all contribute to his well earned international reputation for creative advances in the analysis and design of foundations and pavements on expansive soils.

He was the keynote speaker at the 7th International Conference on Expansive Soils which was held in Dallas, Texas in August, 1992. He has been the United States representative on the International Society of Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering Technical Committee TC-6 since 1989. He has been invited to present the keynote address in the area of foundations and pavements to the 1st International Conference on Unsaturated Soils which will be held in Paris, France in September, 1995.