Antonio José da Costa Nunes, Brazilian geotechnical engineer (Rio de Janeiro 29 April 1916 - Rio de Janeiro 03 August 1990)
ACHIEVEMENTS
First to use tieback walls to stabilise a soil slope (1957) and developed the technique of excavating a wall from the top down as tie backs were installed
Information extracted from J.A.R. Ortigão & H. Brito. Tieback walls. In: Handbook of slope stabilization. Ortigão, J.A.R. & Sayão, Alberto S.F. (editors). 2004
Developed a new method for stabilizing rock slopes employing anchor bolts. Conceived reinforced concrete wall with anchored buttresses. This method was known as Brazilian method.
With Dirceu de Alencar Velloso & Fernando Sarto. A consolidação de taludes rochosos por meio de chumbadores. Rev. Clube de Engenharia de Juiz de Fora 1:, 1960.
Applied Anchorage in Soil to Highways with Velloso and Sarto in late 1950s. Published in 1960 independently of Karl Bauer in Germany that published at the same year.
Created Press-anchorage, a new type of foundation
Presso-ancoragens, um novo tipo de fundação. Estrutura 18(78):40-45, 1977.
Created micro-anchorage, a new system for restraint embankments using reinforced concrete’s iron bars and horizontal plates
With W.Craizer. Micro-ancoragens. Primeiro Seminário Regional de Mecânica de Solos e Engenharia de Fundações, Salvador, Bahia, May 1978.
Published a method for analysis of global stability
Nunes, A.J.C. & Velloso, D.A., Estabilização de taludes em capas residuais de origem granito-gnaissica. 2nd PanAmerican Conference on SMFE, Brazil 2:383-394, 1963.
Published a method to estimate load capacity in micropiles (1974)
Published a method to estimate anchoring load capacity in soils
Ground Pre-Stressing, First Casagrande Lecture. 8th Pan American Conference on SMFE, Cartagena, Colombia, 1987.
Developed a technique for mensuration of refraction indices using least shift method