James A. Cheney (1927 - 2019)

2 February 1927 – 22 November 2019

The following obituary is distributed through the United States Universities Council on Geotechnical Education and Research (USUCGER) by Prof. Bruce Kutter of UC Davis.

James A Cheney served in the US Navy from 1945 to 1946 as a petty officer in the 12th District Navy Headquarters, stationed in San Francisco. He graduated from UCLA with a B.S. degree in 1949 and then worked for the UCLA Department of Engineering Research in projects relating to the dynamic response of civil engineering structures due to earthquake and blast, the topic of his first publication.

In 1952 he was granted the M.S. from UCLA, majoring in soil mechanics. His thesis was on the soil behavior in a cellular wharf structure in the Long Beach harbor, a project that continued past bestowal of the M.S. degree.

Following graduation, he joined L.T. Evans, Foundation Engineers in Los Angeles, California and worked for two years as a consultant in soil mechanics. He obtained his P.E. (Civil Engineering) License in the State of California.

He then joined the Lockheed Missile Systems Division in Palo Alto and Sunnyvale, California. He became Head of the Strength Analysis Group on the Agena Satellite. His first experience with centrifuge testing was in full-scale testing of the satellite structure in the Sandia 35-foot radius centrifuge in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

In 1959 he won a Lockheed scholarship to pursue graduate studies in Engineering Mechanics at Stanford. His PhD dissertation, completed in 1963, was related to the bending and buckling of ring stiffeners for shell structures.

In 1962, he joined the faculty of the new College of Engineering at the University of California at Davis. He was the first faculty member in the Department of Civil Engineering. Dr. Cheney’s diverse background permitted him to teach in soil mechanics as well as the structural aspects of civil engineering, aerospace

engineering, and mechanical engineering. His range of research interests included the relationship between dynamic hardness of soil surfaces and lameness in thoroughbred racehorses, buckling of shells encased in a cavity, buckling of hinged rings and cofferdams, and buckling of buried pipes.

In 1968 he took sabbatical leave at Cambridge University, England with Professor K. Roscoe where became interested in the constitutive models for soil characterization and centrifuge modeling of soil structures. On returning from Cambridge, Dr. Cheney built a small centrifuge (1000 rpm, 2-foot radius) for initial studies on the buckling of buried pipes; later he converted this centrifuge to a drum centrifuge that was used by several students to study stability of clay slopes and rubble breakwaters. After a second sabbatical to Cambridge in 1975, this time with Professor A.N. Schofield, the 1 m radius Schaevitz Centrifuge was obtained from NASA Ames Research Center and modified to permit swing up buckets to be used.

Professor Cheney was one of the early leaders of the implementation of geotechnical centrifuges. He was the founding director of the Center for Geotechnical Modeling at UC Davis and was the principal investigator of a project to build the 9 m radius National Geotechnical Centrifuge at NASA Ames. Under his direction, the large the centrifuge was later moved and installed at UC Davis. The Center for Geotechnical Modeling has since facilitated the research of more than 100 graduate students and 50 different faculty members.

Above his impressive professional contributions, Jim will be remembered for his wit, his sense of humor, his smile, playfulness, and his generosity.

He had three marriages. He is survived by his wife, Elaine Barrett, and two sons, Michael Cheney and David Cheney, with his second wife Barbara Chadwick. He is also survived by four daughters and two sons, Linanne Spangler, Sarah Worley-Cheney, Sharla Cheney, Jennifer Douglas, John Cheney and Matthew Cheney from his first marriage with Frankyee Jackson (deceased 1966). His brother, Phil Cheney, preceded him in death.

Jim’s legacy continues with 10 grandchildren: Renee and Brett (Sarah), Lucas and Bryson (John), Mara and Evan (Sharla), Maggie and Jackson (Linanne), Trevor (Jennifer), Ali (Matt); and two great-grandchildren, Caleb (Trevor) and Summer (Maggie).

Jim was married to Elaine Barratt for the last 31 years of his life. They were fond of traveling and enjoyed being active members of the Davis community including the Davis Odd Fellows and St. Martins Episcopal Church. Jim was a deacon in the Episcopal Church in Davis and the Arch Diocese in Northern California. He also was a Boy Scout leader having been awarded the highest adult honor, the Silver Beaver Award, for leadership.

Cremation services were held privately in December.

The “Celebration of James Cheney’s Life” will be held from noon to 2 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 2, at the Odd Fellows Hall 415 Second St. in Davis; it is open to all friends and family. He will be missed.

Graduate Students and a Subsequent Position

• Percival, M., PhD, Sandia Corp., Albuquerque, NM
• Porter, C., MS, Pursued Ph.D. at Oregon State
• Wiley, C., MS, Pursued Ph.D. at University of California, Berkeley
• Liou, S., ME
• Zaslawsky, M., MS, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
• White, J., PhD, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Richard Fragaszy, PhD, Program Director, US National Science Foundation
• Ali Oskoorouchi, PhD, Chair, Dept. of Civil Engineering, University of Tehran
• Yuan-Zern Hor, ME, Caltrans, Sacramento
• Fadi Ghorayeb, ME, Golder Engineers, British Columbia
• Keith Brown, MS, Dames & Moore, Los Angeles, CA
• Neelkanth Dhat, MS, Central Water & Power, Pune, India
• Sadanand Mone, MS, Central Water & Power, Pune, India
• Abbas Abghari, PhD, Geotechnical Design Office Chief, Caltrans, Sacramento
• Daniel Campbell, MS, COO, GeoEngineers, Inc., Bellevue, WA

Publications

1. J.A. Cheney, "Structural Analysis of Dynamic Load Parameters", Journal of the American Concrete Institute, Vol. 28, No. i. pp. 99-111, July 1956.
2. D.F. Moran and J.A. Cheney, "Earthquake Response of Elevated Tanks and Vessels". Transactions of American Society of Civil Engineers, Vol. 125, Part I, No. 3031, pp. 503-516, 1960
3. A. White, J. A. Cheney and C.M. Duke, "Field Study of a Cellular Bulkhead" Transactions of American Society of Civil Engineers, Vol. 128, Part I, No. 3426, pp. 463-508, 1963.
4. James A. Cheney, "Bending and Buckling of Thin-Walled Open-Section Rings", Journal of the Engineering Mechanics Division, Proceedings of American Society of Civil Engineers, Vol. 89, No. EMS, pp. 17-44, October 1963.
5. James A. Cheney "Deflection of Hinged Rings Under Uniform Pressure" Journal of the Engineering Mechanics Division, Proceedings of American Society of Civil Engineers, Vol. 89, No. EM6, pp. 161-176, December 1963.
6. James A. Cheney "Buckling of Shell-Supported Rings" Journal of Aircraft, Vol. 1, No. 4, pp. 220-222, July-August 1964.
7. James A. Cheney "Bending and Buckling of Thin-Walled Open-Channel Rings - Discussion" Journal of the Engineering Mechanics Division, Proceedings of American Society of Civil Engineers, Vol. 90, No. EM6, pp. 245-247, December 1964.
8. James A. Cheney "Buckling of a Prestressed Circular Ring- Discussion" Journal of Structural Division, Proceedings of American Society of Civil Engineers, Vol. 91, No. STl, pp. 328-331, February 1965.
9. James A. Cheney "Deflection of Hinged Rings Under Uniform Pressure - Discussion" Journal of the Engineering Mechanics Division, Proceedings of American Society of Civil Engineers, Vol. 91, No. EMl, pp. 153-156, February 1965.
10. James A. Cheney "Deflection of a Curved Shaft Due to Torque" Journal of Applied Mechanics, Vol. 32E, No. 1, pp. 215-217, March 1965.
11. J.A. Cheney, J.M. Henderson and F.H. Frederick, Jr., "An Engineering Evaluation of Race Track Soil", Published in The Thoroughbred of California, pp. 802-803, 906-907, May 1968.
12. J.A. Cheney and W.K. Talley, "Nuclear Explosives Engineering: Puerto Rico Summer Workshop", Journal of Nuclear Energy, Vol. 22, Pergamon Press, pp. 411-415, 1968.
13. J.A. Cheney and C.S. Porter, "Design of Large-Diameter Casing for Emplacement Borings with Advantage Taken of Placement Grouting" Transactions of the American Nuclear Society, 1968 Winter Meeting, The International Conference on the Constructive Uses of Atomic Energy, Vol. 11, No. 2, pp. 543-544, November 1968.
14. C.M. Percival and J.A. Cheney, "Thermally Generated Stress Waves In a Dispersive Elastic Rod", Experimental Mechanics, Vol. 9, No. 2, pp. 49-57, February 1969.
15. J.A. Cheney, "Design of a Barre-Vault Cofferdam", Journal of the Structural Division, Proceedings of American Society of Civil Engineers, Vol. 95, No. ST4, pp. 677-693, April 1969.
16. E.Y.W. Tsui and J.A. Cheney, "Flexibility of Axisymmetric Shells", Journal of Spacecraft and Rockets, Vol. 5, No. 8, pp. 969-973, August 1968.
17. F. Chilton and J.A. Cheney, "Possible Hazard Reduction by Using Distributed Phased Nuclear Explosions", Atomic Energy Commission-TID4500, Vol. Il, pp. 1474-1484, January 1970.
18. J.A. Cheney, K. Henwood and C.K. Shen, "Thoroughbred Lameness", The Thoroughbred of California, pp. 906-924, June 1970.
19. James A. Cheney, "Pressure Buckling of Ring Encased in Cavity", Journal of the Engineering Mechanics Division, American Society of Civil Engineers, Vol. 97, No. EM2, pp. 333-343, April 1971.
20. James A. Cheney, "Buckling of Soil Surrounded Tubes", Journal of the Engineering Mechanics Division, American Society of Civil Engineers, Vol. 98, No. EM3, pp. 1121-1132, August 1971.
21. J.A. Cheney, S.Y. Liou, C.K. Shen and J.D. Wheat, "Foreleg Fatigue Fracture", The Thoroughbred of California, Vol. LIII, No. 5, pp. 542-550, November 1971.
22. J.A. Cheney, "Low Velocity Projectile Penetration - Discussion", Journal of the Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering Division, Proceedings of the American Society of Civil Engineers, Vol. 98, No. SM9, pp. 974-976, September 1972.
23.  James A. Cheney, "Buckling of Shells: An Old Idea with a New Twist - Discussion", Journal of the Engineering Mechanics division, American Society of Civil Engineers, Vol. 99, EM 2, p. 413, April 1973.
24. J.A. Cheney, S.Y. Liou and J.D. Wheat, "Cannon Bone Fracture in the Thoroughbred Racehorse", Medical and Biological Engineering, Vol. 11, No. 5, pp. 613-620, September 1973.
25. J.A. Cheney, C.K. Shen and J.D. Wheat, "Relationship of Racetrack Surface to Lameness in the Thoroughbred Racehorse", American Journal of Veterinary Research, Vol. 34, No. 10, pp. 1285-1289, October 1973.
26. J.A. Cheney, "Thoroughbred Lameness and Hollywood Park Racetrack", The Thoroughbred of California, Vol. LVIII, No. 6, pp. 58-62, June 1974. (Editorial p. 64)
27. J.A. Cheney, "Yielding of Sand in Plane Strain - Discussion", Journal of the Geotechnical Engineering Division, American Society of Civil Engineers, Vol. 100, No. GT12, pp. 1304-1306, December 1974.
28. J.A. Cheney and K. Arulanandan, "Fundamentals of Liquefaction Under Cyclic Loading - Discussion", Journal of the Geotechnical Engineering Division, Proceedings of the American Society of Civil Engineers, Vol. 101, No. GT12, pp. 1301-1303, December 1975.
29. J.A. Cheney and K. Arulanandan, "Stress Relaxation in Sand and Clay" Proceedings of Specialty Session 9, Ninth International Conference on the International Society for Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering, Tokyo, Japan, pp. 279-285, July 1977.
30. R.J. Fragaszy and J.A. Cheney, "Influence of Borehole Imperfections on a Pressuremeter", Journal of the Geotechnical Engineering Division, Proceedings of the American Society of Civil Engineers, Vol. 103, No. GT9, pp. 1007-1019, September 1977. (Technical Note)
31. J.A. Cheney, C.M. Duke and A. White, "Performance of a Cellular Wharf - Discussion", Journal of the Geotechnical Engineering Division, Proceedings of the American Society of Civil Engineers, Vol. 104, No. GT 1, pp. 154-156, January 1978.
32. J.A. Cheney and R.J. Fragaszy, "A Theory of Creep Failure in Overconsolidated Clay- Discussion", Journal of the Geotechnical Engineering Division, Proceedings of the American Society of Civil Engineers, Vol. 104, No. GT 9, pp. 1219-1220, January 1978.
33. J.F. Schatz, P.W. Kasameyer and J.A. Cheney, "Method of Using In Situ Porosity Measurements to Place an Upper Bound of Geothermal Reservoir Compaction", Proceedings of the Second Invitational Well-Testing Symposium, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, Berkeley, California, October 1978.
34. J.A. Cheney, J.F. Schatz and C. Snell, "Computer Modelling of Inelastic Wave Propagation in Porous Rock", Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Numerical Methods in Geomechanics, Aachen, West Germany, April 1979.
35. J.A. Cheney, "Deformation and Strength Characteristics of Soft Bangkok Clay - Discussion", Proceedings of the American Society of Civil Engineers, Journal of the Geotechnical Engineering Division, Vol. 105, No. GT 9, pp. 1129-1131, September 1979.
36. R.J. Fragaszy and J.A. Cheney, "Drum Centrifuge Studies of Overconsolidated Slopes", Proceedings of the American Society of Civil Engineers, Journal of the Geotechnical Engineering Division, Vol. 107, No. GT 7, pp. 843·-858, July 1981.
37. J.A. Cheney and R.J. Fragaszy, "Short Term Stability of Overconsolidated Clay Slopes", Proceedings of the International Symposium on Landslides (ISL 1980), New Delhi, pp. 149-155, 1980.
38. James A. Cheney, "On Physical Modeling of Rock", Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 8, No. 7, pp. 719-720, July 1981.
39. J.A. Cheney, "Moderators Report - Dynamic Excitation for Geotechnical Centrifuge Modeling", Proceedings of the International Conference on Recent Advances in Geotechnical Earthquake Engineering and Soil Dynamics, Vol. III, pp. 1101-1104, St. Louis, MO, April 26 - May 3, 1981.
40. J.A. Cheney and A.M. Oskoorouchi, "Physical Modeling of Clay Slopes in the Drum Centrifuge", Transportation Research Record 872, Transportation Research Board, Centrifuge-Soil Testing, Soil Mechanics, and Soil Properties, Washington, D.C., pp. 1-7, 1982.
41. E.S. Gaffney and J.A. Cheney, "Containment Science on a Centrifuge", Second Symposium on Containment of Underground Nuclear Explosions, pp. 366-378, August 2-4, 1983.
42. J.A. Cheney, "The Centrifuge as a Research Tool", Appendix E, Dam Safety Research Coordination Conference, Denver, CO, 23 pages, October 25-27, 1982.
43. J.A. Cheney and R.K. Brown, "Modelling Foundation Elements for Structural Response to Earthquakes", Proceedings, Soil Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering Conference, Southampton, pp. 409-418, July 1982.
44. J.A. Cheney and R.V. Whitman, "Workshop for Development of Specifications for a Ground Motion Simulator for Centrifuge, Modelling in Geotechnical Engineering" NSF, Division of Civil and Environmental Engineering, M.I.T. Endicott House, Dedham, MA, 108 pps, June 6-7, 1983.
45. James A. Cheney, "Centrifuge Modeling at U.C. Davis", Proceedings of International Symposium on Geotechnical Centrifuge Model Testing, Tokyo, Japan, 6 pages, April, 1984.
46. James A. Cheney, "American Literature on Geotechnical Centrifuge Modeling 1931-1984", Proceedings of the Symposium on Recent Advances in Geotechnical Centrifuge Modeling, Davis, CA, pp. 1-257, July 18-20, 1984.
47. James A. Cheney, Editor, Proceedings of the Symposium on Recent Advances in Geotechnical Centrifuge Modeling, Davis, CA, pp. 1-257, July 18-20, 1984.
48. J.A. Cheney, C.K. Shen and F. Ghorayeb, "Fault Movement: Its Potential Damage to Embankment Dams", Proceedings, 8th World Conference on Earthquake Engineering, Vol. III, San Francisco, CA, pp. 341-348, July, 1984.
49. J.A. Cheney and R.J. Fragaszy "The Centrifuge as a Research Tool” Geotechnical Testing Journal, Vol. 7, No. 4, pp. 182-187, December 1984.
50. J.A. Cheney, R.J. Fragaszy and A.N. Schofield, "Drum Centrifuge for Geotechnical Research", Geotechnical Testing Journal, Vol. 7, No. 4, pp. 188-194, December 1984.
51. James A. Cheney, "Soil Strata Compressibility from In Situ Porosity Data", Proceedings of the Engineering Foundation International Conference on Compressibility Phenomena in Subsidence, New Hampshire, pp. 319-330, July 29 - August 3, 1984.
52. C.K. Shen, J.A. Cheney and J. Sohn, "Rupture of Embankment Dam Due to Fault Movement", Proceedings of the Trilateral Seminar - Workshop on Lifeline Earthquake Engineering, Taipei, Taiwan, pp. 355-369, November 1985.
53. A. Abghari, B.L. Kutter and J.A. Cheney, "Centrifuge Modeling of Bearing Capacity of Sand Under Concentric and Eccentric Loading", Proceedings of the International Symposium on Prediction and Performance in Geotechnical Engineering, Calgary, Canada, pp. 397-405, June 17-19, 1987.
54. B.L. Kutter, A. Abghari and J.A. Cheney, "Strength Parameters for Bearing Capacity of Sand", Technical Note, Journal of Geotechnical Engineering, ASCE, Vol. 114, No. 4, pp. 491-498, April 1988.
55. James A. Cheney, "American Literature on Geotechnical Centrifuge Modeling 1931-1984", Centrifuges in Soil Mechanics, Craig, James & Schofield (eds.), Balkema, Rotterdam, pp. 77-80, 1988.
56. J.A. Cheney, R.K. Brown, N.R. Dhat, and O.Y.Z. Hor, "Foundation Vibration in Centrifuge Models", Proceedings of the International Conference on Geotechnical Centrifuge Modelling, Paris, pp. 481-486, April 25-27, 1988.
57. A. Abghari, J.A. Cheney and B.L. Kutter, "Leaning Instability of Tall Structures", Proceedings of the International Conference on Geotechnical Centrifuge Modelling, Paris, 8 pgs., April 25-27, 1988.
58. J.A. Cheney and B.L. Kutter, "Update on the U.S. National Geotechnical Centrifuge", Proceeding of the International Conference on Geotechnical Centrifuge Modelling, Paris, pp. 61-66, April 25-27, 1988.
59. J.A. Cheney, R.K. Brown, N.R. Dhat, and O.Y.Z. Hor, "Modelling Free-Field Conditions in Centrifuge Models", Journal of Geotechnical Engineering, ASCE, Vol. 116, No. 9, pp. 1347-1367, September, 1990.
60. James A. Cheney, "Level Ground Soil-Liquefaction Analysis Using In-Situ Properties: II", Discussion, ASCE, Journal of Geotechnical Engineering, Vol. 116, No. 10, pp. 1588-1591, October, 1990.
61. J.A. Cheney, "Elastic Buckling of Buried Flexible Tubes - A Review of Theory and Experiment", Journal of Geotechnical Engineering, 1991.
62. J.A. Cheney, A. Abghari, and B.L. Kutter, "Stability of Leaning Towers", ASCE, Journal of Geotechnical Engineering, February 1991.
63. J.A. Cheney, "Local Buckling of Tubes in an Elastic Continuum", ASCE, Journal of Engineering Mechanics, January 1991.
64. D.J. Campbell, J.A. Cheney, and B.L. Kutter, "Boundary Effects in Dynamic Centrifuge Model Tests", Proceedings of Conference, Boulder, CO, February 1991.