Influence of a permeable sand layer on the mechanism of backward erosion piping using 3D pipe depth measurements

Backward erosion piping (BEP) poses a threat to the stability of water-retaining structures. This can lead to severe erosion and collapse of embankments. A novel economically appealing measure against BEP is the coarse sand barrier (CSB). The CSB is a trench filled with coarse sand that is placed below the blanket layer on the landward side of the embankment, which prevents the pipe from developing upstream when it encounters the CSB. Inclusion of a CSB creates a vertically layered sand, which is the situation that can also exist in practice but is different from traditional BEP tests with one homogeneous sand. This paper presents new observations and measurements in medium-scale laboratory tests. 3D measurements of the pipe depth and dimensions are presented and analysed. This analysis indicates how the pipe dimensions evolve during the piping process and shows the erosion mechanism for BEP in vertically layered sands. The findings demonstrate the significance of three-dimensional study of the pipe rather than two dimensions. The pipe depth, width and depth-to-width ratios at the pipe tip in critical erosion stages are measured and presented. In the presented tests, two different erosion behaviours (stepwise pipe progression until failure and straight failure) are found and analysed with respect to possible influential parameters. Higher head drops and flow rates are found in tests with straight failure at the stage before progression. A linear relationship between the hydraulic conductivity contrast (k_c) and the critical head drops (h_c) is found and observations are used to investigate deviations from the line.

     

A probabilistic framework to make a decision on the post-earthquake functionality of bridges considering the damage,residual displacement,and aftershock

Bulletin of Earthquake Engineering - Making a decision on the post-earthquake functionality of structures has always been one of the most challenging issues in earthquake engineering. There is an...     

Structural softening,mesh dependence,and regularisation in non-associated plastic flow

A severe dependence of numerical simulations on the mesh density is usually attributed to the presence of strain softening in the constitutive relation. However, other material instabilities, like non-associated plastic flow, can also cause mesh sensitivity. Indeed, loss of ellipticity in quasi-static analyses is the fundamental cause of the observed mesh dependence. It has been known since long that non-associated plastic flow can cause loss of ellipticity, but the consequence for mesh sensitivity, and subsequently, for the difficulty of the equilibrium-finding iterative procedure to converge have remained largely unnoticed. We first demonstrate at the hand of a biaxial test structural softening and a marked mesh dependence for an ideally plastic material equipped with a non-associated flow rule. The phenomena are then analysed in depth using an infinitely long shear layer. Finally, it is shown that the mesh effect disappears when the standard continuum model is replaced by a Cosserat continuum, a well-known regularisation method for strain-softening constitutive relations.     

Evaluating the generalizability of GEP models for estimating reference evapotranspiration in distant humid and arid locations

Evapotranspiration estimation is of crucial importance in arid and hyper-arid regions, which suffer from water shortage, increasing dryness and heat. A modeling study is reported here to cross-station assessment between hyper-arid and humid conditions. The derived equations estimate ET₀ values based on temperature-, radiation-, and mass transfer-based configurations. Using data from two meteorological stations in a hyper-arid region of Iran and two meteorological stations in a humid region of Spain, different local and cross-station approaches are applied for developing and validating the derived equations. The comparison of the gene expression programming (GEP)-based-derived equations with corresponding empirical-semi empirical ET₀ estimation equations reveals the superiority of new formulas in comparison with the corresponding empirical equations. Therefore, the derived models can be successfully applied in these hyper-arid and humid regions as well as similar climatic contexts especially in data-lack situations. The results also show that when relying on proper input configurations, cross-station might be a promising alternative for locally trained models for the stations with data scarcity.

     

Analysis of development and depth of backward erosion pipes in the presence of a coarse sand barrier

Backward erosion piping (BEP) is a failure mechanism that can affect the safety of water-retaining structures. It can occur when a local anomaly on the downstream side of an embankment causes a concentration of seepage flow at that location. Shallow pipes may then form, progressing in the upstream direction and leading to a collapse of the water-retaining structure. A novel and economically appealing measure against BEP is the coarse sand barrier (CSB), which is now being developed in a multiscale experimental programme in the Netherlands. The method involves placing a trench filled with coarse sand below the blanket layer on the downstream side of the embankment. The CSB prevents the upstream progression of the pipe and significantly enhances resistance to BEP. This paper presents medium-scale laboratory tests involving a range of sands, barrier depths and relative densities. The piping process and the observations of pipe progression in the presence of a CSB are presented, followed by a conceptual model. The presence of a CSB changed the erosion pattern. It resulted in pipe formation perpendicular to the flow direction over the entire width of the barrier before the barrier was damaged. The findings also demonstrate the effect of material properties on pipe initiation, progression and pipe depth. Measurements of the pipe depth are presented and analysed, revealing the significance of pipe depth for understanding the piping process. This analysis shows considerable erosion in the downstream background sand and demonstrates that erosion profiles and measured pipe depths are significantly larger than in BEP tests without a CSB.

     

Spatial distribution of soil shear-wave velocity and the fundamental period of vibration – a case study of the Saguenay region,Canada

The spatial distribution of soil shear-wave velocity and the fundamental period of vibration were selected as input parameters for the determination of potential seismic site effects in the Saguenay region, Canada. The methodology used in this study involved three clear steps. First, a 3D geological model of the surficial deposits was built taking into consideration the type, spatial distribution and thickness of the deposits. Second, representative average V_s values were determined for each of the major soil units. Finally, the average shear-wave velocity from the ground surface to bedrock (V_sav), the shear-wave velocity of the upper 30 m (V_s30) and the fundamental site resonance period (T₀) were calculated over a regular grid for the study area. The results include the spatial distribution of the fundamental site resonance period, the average shear-wave velocity in the first 30 m of the ground and the spatial distribution of National Building Code of Canada seismic soil classes for the Saguenay region.     

Assessment of hydrochemistry and heavy metals pollution in the groundwater of Ardestan mineral exploration area,Iran

The aim of this research is to determine the effective factors on the hydrogeochemistry and assessment of heavy metals pollution indices in the groundwater of Ardestan copper exploration area, Iran. In this study, in total, 111 groundwater samples from one well and several qanats and springs were collected. Piper and Stiff diagrams and statistical methods and quality indices were applied to hydrochemical data. Afterward, the water samples were classified into four groups, namely CaHCO3, CaCl, NaCl, and NaHCO3. According to evaluation indices, considering the fact that only a few points are in the high risk level, the groundwater of the study area has a low level of pollution. On the other hand, the pH of the groundwater of the region was mostly neutral and acid mine drainage was not found. Since the condition of the area is in pre-mining process, two factors are possibly influential: (1) rocks or minerals having sulfides are not exposed to an atmosphere (normally below groundwater) and H⁺ release does not occur and (2) the existence of minerals containing silicate and carbonate that can rapidly reduce acidification of water. Finally, it seems that during mining and in post-mining conditions, acid rock drainage which results from the oxidation of sulfides will probably influence the quality of water resources in Ardestan city. This is because the groundwater flow direction is from the mine toward Ardestan plain.     

A modi?ed failure criterion for transversely isotropic rocks

A modified failure criterion is proposed to determine the strength of transversely isotropic rocks. Me-chanical properties of some metamorphic and sedimentary rocks including gneiss, slate, marble, schist, shale, sandstone and limestone, which show transversely isotropic behavior, were taken into consider-ation. Afterward, introduced triaxial rock strength criterion was modified for transversely isotropic rocks. Through modification process an index was obtained that can be considered as a strength reduction parameter due to rock strength anisotropy. Comparison of the parameter with previous anisotropy in-dexes in literature showed reasonable results for the studied rock samples. The modified criterion was compared to modified Hoek-Brown and Ramamurthy criteria for different transversely isotropic rocks. It can be concluded that the modified failure criterion proposed in this study can be used for predicting the strength of transversely isotropic rocks.     

Development of a New Index to Assess the Rock Mass Drillability

Knowledge of drillability of rock masses in engineering projects is very important in determining drilling costs. In drilling operations, so many parameters such as the properties of rock and the drilling equipment affect the drilling performance. In this study, after discussing the rock mass drillability process and identifying all the effective parameters, interaction matrixes based on the rock engineering systems, that analyze the interrelationship between the parameters affecting rock engineering activities, is introduced to study the rock mass drillability tribosystem. Given that interaction matrix codes are not unique numbers, and then possible interactive intensities are calculated for each matrix and a group decision-making method, Fuzzy–Delphi–AHP technique has been used to obtain appropriate weights. As a result, rock mass drillability index (RMDI) is presented to classify the rock mass drillability. The results indicate the ability of this method to analyze rock mass drillability procedure. Drilling data along with laboratory rock properties from Sungun copper mine were collected and were ranked according to the new classification system. Fifteen zones at the mine site were ranked based upon the new index RMDI and a reasonable correlation was obtained between measured drilling rate at the zones and RMDI data.     

Assessing the visual impacts of new urban features: coupling visibility analysis with 3D city modelling

Abstract

Land use changes associated with urbanization often have negative impacts on scenic beauty. In this paper, we explore and compare the visual impact of two different scenarios of urban growth including historical urban growth (HUG) and aesthetically sound urban growth (AUG) with two different categories of height for buildings in the city of Gorgan, Iran. This was done by viewshed and landscape metric analysis of different viewpoints and 3D representation of each scenario. The results show that with the AUG scenario, viewsheds are less impacted by new developments than the HUG scenario in all the viewpoints. It can be concluded that building locations can considerably affect the landscape visibility while building height does not impact to the same degree as location. The results of this research, as a Spatial Decision Support System, would help the managers for better understanding of different patterns of urbanization and its effect on landscape view.