Seismic passive earth resistance in submerged soils using modified pseudo-dynamic method with curved rupture surface

The sparsity of examination of seismic passive earth pressure acting on retaining wall holding soil backfill with full submergence, which is more common in waterfront areas, can be noticed from the literature. In the current study, a closed-form solution to compute the seismic passive earth pressure on nonvertical rigid retaining wall retaining a backfill with full submergence is proposed using the modified pseudo-dynamic approach. A nonlinear rupture surface (logarithmic spiral?+?straight line) in a submerged backfill of viscoelastic nature has been assumed. The presented modified pseudo-dynamic method overcomes the limitations of the existing pseudo-dynamic method for submerged soils. The proposed methodology has been thoroughly validated with the available literature. The influences of seismic acceleration coefficients, excess pore water pressure ratio, wall inclination, and soil and wall friction angles have been studied. It has been noticed that the consideration of excess pore pressure ratio leads to significant decrease in seismic passive resistance of the soil which in turn lead to extra hydraulic pressure acting on the wall in submerged backfill. There is a 57% decrease in seismic passive earth pressure coefficient as the wall inclination changes from ?15° to 15°.     

Design of waterfront retaining wall for the passive case under earthquake and tsunami

The paper pertains to a study of analysing a waterfront retaining wall under the combined action of tsunami and earthquake forces. The stability of the waterfront retaining wall is assessed in terms of its sliding and overturning modes of failure. Pseudo-static approach has been used for the calculation of the passive seismic earth pressure. Hydrodynamic pressure generated behind the backfill due to shaking of the wet backfill soil is considered in the analysis. Tsunami force is considered to be an additional force acting on the upstream face of the wall and is calculated using a simple formula. It is observed that the factor of safety in sliding mode of failure decreases by about 70% when the ratio of tsunami water height to initial water height is changed from 0.375 to 1.125. Variations of different parameters involved in the analysis suggest sensitiveness of the factor of safety against both the sliding and overturning modes of failure of the wall and provides a better guideline for design.     

Seismic Stability of Gravity Retaining Structures by Pseudo-Dynamic Method

An analytical expression of a gravity retaining wall's seismic stability against sliding and overturning is proposed in this article. The derivation, aiming at the cohesionless soil with inclined backfill surface and nonvertical wall back, is based on limit equilibrium analysis and the pseudo-dynamic method. The variations of the sliding and overturning stability safe factors with the horizontal seismic acceleration are investigated for different seismic amplification factors, soil friction angles, wall friction angles, vertical seismic acceleration coefficients, wall back inclination angles, and backfill surface inclination angles. The results indicate that the soil friction and horizontal seismic action significantly impact the seismic stability. The increase of vertical earthquake action changes the curvature of stability factor curves. The wall friction and back inclination strengthen the gravity retaining wall's resistance to sliding and overturning failure while the backfill surface inclination plays a negative role in the seismic stability. We also found that the seismic stability safe factors calculated by the proposed method are larger but more reasonable than those by the Mononobe-Okabe method.     

Stability of waterfront retaining wall subjected to pseudo-static earthquake forces

Waterfront retaining walls supporting dry backfill are subjected to hydrostatic pressure on upstream face and earth pressure on the downstream face. Under seismic conditions, if such a wall retains a submerged backfill, additional hydrodynamic pressures are generated. This paper pertains to a study in which the effect of earthquakes along with the hydrodynamic pressure including inertial forces on such a retaining wall is observed. The hydrodynamic pressure is calculated using Westergaard's approach, while the earth pressure is calculated using Mononobe-Okabe's pseudo-static analysis. It is observed that when the horizontal seismic acceleration coefficient is increased from 0 to 0.2, there is a 57% decrease in the factor of safety of the retaining wall in sliding mode. For investigating the effect of different parameters, a parametric study is also done. It is observed that if φ is increased from 30° to 35°, there is an increase in the factor of safety in the sliding mode by 20.4%. Similar observations were made for other parameters as well. Comparison of results obtained from the present approach with [Ebeling, R.M., Morrison Jr, E.E., 1992. The seismic design of waterfront retaining structures. US Army Technical Report ITL-92-11. Washington DC] reveal that the factor of safety for static condition (k_h=0), calculated by both the approaches, is 1.60 while for an earthquake with k_h=0.2, they differ by 22.5% due to the consideration of wall inertia in the present study.     

Extreme Case Study of Quay Wall Stability under Earthquake and Tsunami

This study was conducted to determine the stability of a quay wall under the combined action of an earthquake and tsunami. Adopting the limit equilibrium method, the stability of the quay wall was assessed for both the sliding and overturning modes under passive and active conditions. The variation in the stability of the quay wall was determined by parametric studies, including those for the tsunami wave height, seismic acceleration coefficient, internal friction angle of soil, wall friction angle, and pore water pressure ratio. The stability of the wall was also compared with the case of no earthquake and tsunami forces. When the earthquake and tsunami were considered simultaneously, the stability of the wall under the passive condition decreased significantly. The critical mode of the quay wall under the earthquake and tsunami forces was found to be that of the overturning mode. In the active condition, the safety factors for sliding and overturning increased, because the tsunami acted as a resisting force. However, it should be noted that, if a tsunami wave spills over the quay wall and then flows backward to the wall active condition, the tsunami no longer acts as a resisting force.     

Seismic Passive Earth Pressure with Seepage for Cohesionless Soil

The authors deal with the computing seismic passive earth pressure acting on a vertical rigid wall. The wall is provided with a drainage system along soil-structure interface and retains the cohesionless backfill subjected to water seepage. A general solution for the seismic passive earth pressure is presented. The solution is based on Coulomb's theory wherein seismic forces are assumed to be pseudostatic. The solution considers the pore water pressures induced by water seepage and earthquake shaking. Some important parameters are included in the solution. The parameters are the soil effective internal friction angle, wall friction, soil unit weight, and horizontal and vertical seismic acceleration coefficients. The comparison of the total seismic passive earth pressure in horizontal direction from the present method with published works indicates that the present method may be reasonable. The variations of the passive earth pressure coefficient with the soil effective internal friction angle are investigated for different wall friction angles and seismic forces. The effect of the water seepage on the seismic passive earth pressure is also investigated.     

Numerical study on static and seismic stability of breakwaters on soft granular marine deposits against deep failure

Marine structures which cover a wide range of offshore and onshore structures are often subjected to different external and internal forces against which a proper design should be performed. Among many, breakwaters constructed over a relatively loose agglomerate of granular soils are much prone to deep seated failure extended beneath the foundation. This type of failure has been given less attention in conventional design approaches. Stability analysis of such failures is the main subject of this research which includes both the static and the seismic stability of breakwaters over granular marine soils. As the subsoil strata in sea beds often comprise loose sand deposits, it is more convenient to assume a rather small angle of dilation, at least at failure, which certainly reduces the potential to resist geotechnical instabilities. The method of stress characteristics along with slight modifications to handle this issue has been used to assess the overall stability of breakwaters against deep seated failures. Investigations revealed that while even under static condition, there is certain potential of failure, under seismic condition, the risk is quite very high. A series of design charts are also developed presenting the factor of stability as a measure of safety against such failure.     

Analysis of sediment stability on the Peru‐Chile continental slope

Abstract

Potential sediment mass movement was analyzed at ten locations on the continental slope off Peru and northern Chile, using samples obtained from up to 3 m below the seafloor. Shear strength parameters were obtained from consolidated‐undrained triaxial compression tests. Sediment behavior in these tests reflects the influence of organic matter, which is concentrated in the slope deposits by coastal upwelling. High water content of the organic‐rich sediments and the high de‐formability of organic matter contribute to the prevalent ductile behavior. Aggregation of clays by organic matter is apparently responsible for the high friction angles, up to 44°, displayed by the slope deposits. Sediment stability was assessed using infinite slope analyses. These analyses indicate that gravitational forces alone are not sufficient to cause sediment failure at any of the slope locations. Sediment accumulation on the slope is not rapid enough to generate excess pore pressure and reduce the resistance to gravitational sliding. Effects of earthquakes on slope stability were evaluated by modeling earthquake‐induced inertia forces as static forces and estimating pore pressures developed during cyclic loading. This analysis shows that sediments of the lower slope off Peru possess the highest susceptibility to failure during earthquakes. Earthquake accelerations on the order of 0.2 gravity are sufficient to trigger slumping at all ten slope locations. Indirect evidence suggests that creep and mass flows initiated at shallower water depths are factors that might contribute to sediment failure on the slope.     

沉箱式防波堤静力与动力稳定性设计体型分析

将沉箱式防波堤滑移和倾覆稳定性设计方法分为三类：静力设计方法、不允许沉箱出现滑移和摇摆角的动力设计方法、控制沉箱滑移量和摇摆角的动力设计方法。建立了满足给定抗滑和抗倾安全系数条件下，按静力设计方法确定沉箱尺度的控制方程，研究了波浪条件和安全系数取值对沉箱长宽比的影响。通过动力数值计算分析了沉箱长宽比对沉箱滑移量和摇摆角的影响，并与传统静力设计理论进行了比较，讨论了控制沉箱滑移量和摇摆角的动力设计方法的可行性。     

Effect of Groundwater Fluctuations on Pore Pressures and Earth Pressures on Coastal Excavation Retaining Walls

Pore water and earth pressures acting on retaining structures are investigated using an efficient coastal double-layered excavation model to determine offshore excavation responses to groundwater fluctuations outside foundation pits. Total pore water pressure includes excess pore water pressure (due to groundwater fluctuations) and steady pore water pressure (due to steady seepage) determined using one-dimensional consolidation theory of double-layered soil and one-dimensional steady-state flow theory, respectively. Rankine's active and passive earth pressures are obtained from pore water pressure. This method is applicable to arbitrary groundwater fluctuation conditions. How physical parameters affect pore water pressure is numerically investigated using examples, demonstrating the method's practicality for calculating pore water and earth pressures.     

黄河水下三角洲海底斜坡波致稳定性分析

以 Iversion的海底稳定渗流理论为基础 ,运用静力极限平衡方法和库仑破坏准则 ,提出了以海底水下斜坡坡度、沉积物有效内摩擦角和内聚力为自变量 ,波浪在海底产生的孔压梯度为参变量的海底稳定性分析方法。并给出了黄河水下三角洲不同土质所需的临界孔压梯度判断曲线 ,预测了黄河水下三角洲的海底稳定性 ,其分析结果与实测资料吻合良好     

Submarine slope stability analysis during natural gas hydrate dissociation

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the stability of submarine slope during the natural gas hydrate dissociation. A model is deduced to calculate the excess pore fluid pressure. In addition, a new method is proposed to define and calculate the factor of safety (FoS) of the submarine slope. Case study is also performed, results of which show that dissociation of hydrates would decrease the stability of submarine slope. If the cohesion of the hydrate-bearing sediments is small, the submarine slope would become unstable because of the shear failure. If the cohesion of the hydrate-bearing sediments is large enough, the tensile failure would happen in the hydrate-bearing sediments and the excess pore pressure may explode the submarine slope. Under the drained condition, the submarine slope may remain stable because the buildup of excess pore fluid pressure could not take place. Moreover, FoS would be underestimated by the assumption that natural gas hydrates dissociate in the horizontally confined space, but would be overestimated by only taking into account of the base of the natural gas hydrate-bearing sediments. The compressibility factor of natural gas should also be considered because treating natural gas as ideal gas would underestimate the stability of submarine slope.     

Effect of angle between initial and cyclic shear stress on behaviors of marine clay

An angle exists between the initial static shear stress and cyclic shear stress when embankment and retaining walls are subjected to cyclic loadings. To investigate the influence of this angle on the dynamic properties of marine soft clay, tests were performed on Wenzhou soft clay. When the angle was varied from 0° to 90°, the shear strain and excess pore pressure decreased as θ increased while increased as θ increased from 120° to 180°. Shear strain developed more rapidly when θ was 120°, 150°, or 180° than that when θ was 0°, 30°, or 60°. These results indicate that the number of cycles to failure at the larger angles was greater than at the smaller angles. When θ was 90°, the strain in the x-axis direction increased as the number of cycles increased. The development of the excess pore pressure associated with specimen failure was different for different cyclic shear stress ratios and shearing angles. The effect of θ on the strain and excess pore pressure increased as the cyclic shear stress ratio increased.     

Simulation of the nonlinear dynamic interactions between waves, a submerged breakwater and the seabed

This study employed direct numerical simulation to simulate the fully nonlinear interaction between the water waves, the submerged breakwater, and the seabed under differing wave conditions. In the numerical simulation, the laminar flow condition in the seabed was applied to evaluate the more exact fluid resistance acting on the porous media. Varying incident wave conditions were applied to the flow field resulting from the wave–structure–seabed interaction, and the variation in the pore water pressure beneath the submerged breakwater was investigated along the cross-section of the submerged breakwater. Structural safety and scouring were also considered on the basis of the numerical results for the flow field around the structure and the variation of the pore water pressure.     

Experimental investigation of three-dimensional earth pressure according to aspect ratio of retaining wall

The purpose of this study is to investigate the scale and load distribution of three-dimensional active earth pressure and the load transferred to the adjacent soil by changing the aspect ratio of a retaining wall through a series of model tests. In this research, 42 earth pressure plates of different heights and widths were installed to evaluate the earth pressures by considering the wall aspect ratio and the change of earth pressure. The test results showed that the active earth pressures were uniformly converged when the percentage of limit displacement against wall height was 0.12%. The distribution of active earth pressure on the wall showed a parabola shape for most aspect ratios while the wedge shape identified by the model test was similar to the shell-shaped model. In this paper, two diagrams were proposed regarding the active earth pressure according to the aspect ratio of a retaining wall; (1) a diagram of earth pressure conversion against the aspect ratio based on evaluated three-dimensional active earth pressures with traditional two-dimensional earth pressures, (2) a load transfer diagram based on the horizontal distance by analyzing the horizontal and vertical load transfer ranges with the relevant increasing rates.     

Experiment and analysis of the formation,expansion and dissipation of gasbag in fine sediments based on pore water pressure survey

Deep-seated gas in seabed sediments migrates upwards from effect of external factors, which easily accumulates to form gasbags at interface of shallow coarse-fine sediments. Real-time monitoring of this process is important to predict disaster. However, there is still a lack of effective monitoring methods, so we attempt to apply multi-points pore water pressure monitoring technology when simulating forming and dissipation of gasbags in sediments through laboratory experiment. This study focuses...     

门架式水力插板桩的整体抗倾覆稳定性计算

研究门架式水力插板桩的抗倾覆稳定性,以确定其入土深度和工程安全以及工程造价。通过对目前较常用双排桩的稳定性计算分析,提出了1种新的桩土整体抗倾覆稳定计算模型,即将双排桩和桩间土视为1个整体,考虑双排桩桩间土的剪切破坏面随双排桩入土深度的变化,给出了门架式水力插板桩抗倾覆稳定性计算方法。并通过1个实例计算,验证了本文计算方法的可行性和一些有意义的结论。     

Peak Dynamic Pressure on Semi- and Quarter-Circular Breakwaters Under Wave Troughs

A series of physical tests are conducted to examine the characteristics of the wave loading exerted on circular-front breakwaters by regular waves. It is found that the wave trough instead of wave crest plays a major role in the failure of submerged circular caissons due to seaward sliding. The difference in the behavior of seaward and shoreward horizontal wave forces is explained based on the variations of dynamic pressure with wave parameters. A wave load model is proposed based on a modified first-order solution for the dynamic pressure on submerged circular-front caissons under a wave trough. This wave loading model is very useful for engineering design. Further studies are needed to include model uncertainties in the reliability assessment of the breakwater.     

Peak Dynamic Pressure on Semi-and Quarter-Circular Breakwaters Under Wave Troughs

A series of physical tests are conducted to examine the characteristics of the wave loading exerted on circular-front breakwaters by regular waves.It is found that the wave trough instead of wave crest plays a major role in the failure of submerged circular caissons due to seaward sliding.The difference in the behavior of seaward and shoreward horizontal wave forces is explained based on the variations of dynamic pressure with wave parameters.A wave load model is proposed based on a modified first-order solution for the dynamic pressure on submerged circular-front caissons under a wave trough.This wave loading model is very useful for engineering design.Further studies are needed to include model uncertainties in the reliability assessment of the breakwater.     

水位波动对临海重力式挡墙基坑稳定性的影响

近年来临海(江)建设的地下工程逐渐增多,与常规静水补给条件下的基坑工程相比,受波浪、潮汐等动水作用影响的基坑可能展现出不同的性状,对该类水力条件下基坑响应问题的研究具有重要的工程意义。依托港珠澳大桥珠海连接线拱北隧道海域段基坑工程,采用PLAXIS软件对波浪、潮汐作用下重力式挡墙两侧的水土压力、基坑的稳定性进行了探讨分析。结果表明,对于均质砂质地基上的重力式挡墙,当基坑距防波堤一定距离时,波浪对其稳定性的影响可以忽略不计;潮汐在海床和基坑中的传播有滞后效应,当潮汐为最高潮位时,基坑并非处于最危险状态;潮汐作用下临海重力式挡墙基坑的稳定性可以通过拟静水位法近似分析。