Modelling the transverse behaviour of circular tunnels in structured clayey soils during earthquakes

Acta Geotechnica - The paper presents novel results from advanced numerical simulations of the transverse behaviour of shallow circular tunnels in natural clays accounting for soil structure...     

A pressuremeter-based evaluation of structure in London Clay using a kinematic hardening constitutive model

Acta Geotechnica - The self-boring pressuremeter (SBP) test was designed to measure in situ engineering properties of the ground with a relatively small amount of disturbance. The properties that...     

Hydro-geomechanical modelling of seal behaviour in overpressured basins using discontinuous deformation analysis

A coupled hydro-geomechanical modelling environment, developed to evaluate the coupled responses of fluid flow in deforming discontinuous media, is described. A staggered computational framework is presented, where the two simulations tools, HYDRO and DDA, communicate via the mapping of an equivalent porosity (and related permeabilities) from the rock system to the fluid phase and an inverse mapping of the pressure field. Several algorithmic and modelling issues are discussed, in particular the computational procedure to map the current geometry of the discontinuous rock blocks assembly into an equivalent porosity (and permeability) field. A generic, geometrically simple, overpressured reservoir/seal system is analysed for illustration. Further examples investigate discontinuous, fractured configurations in flexure causing a degree of spatial variability in the induced stresses. Model predictions show that the combination of hydraulic and mechanical loads causes a dilational opening of some pre-existing fractures and closure of others, with strong localisation of the modified flow pattern along wider fracture openings.     

Implicit numerical integration for a kinematic hardening soil plasticity model

Soil models based on kinematic hardening together with elements of bounding surface plasticity, provide a means of introducing some memory of recent history and stiffness variation in the predicted response of soils. Such models provide an improvement on simple elasto‐plastic models in describing soil behaviour under non‐monotonic loading. Routine use of such models requires robust numerical integration schemes. Explicit integration of highly non‐linear models requires extremely small steps in order to guarantee convergence. Here, a fully implicit scheme is presented for a simple kinematic hardening extension of the Cam clay soil model. The algorithm is based on the operator split methodology and the implicit Euler backward integration scheme is proposed to integrate the rate form of the constitutive relations. This algorithm maintains a quadratic rate of asymptotic convergence when used with a Newton–Raphson iterative procedure. Various strain‐driven axisymmetric triaxial paths are simulated in order to demonstrate the efficiency and good performance of the proposed algorithm. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Deterioration of an infrastructure cutting subjected to climate change

Acta Geotechnica - Observations show that many soils in linear geotechnical infrastructure including embankments and cuttings undergo seasonal volume changes, and different studies confirm that...     

Performance evaluation of a shallow foundation built on structured clays under seismic loading

Due to the increased need of storage, larger and higher structures are being built all over the world, thus requiring a more careful evaluation of the mechanical performance of their foundation deposits both in terms of bearing capacity and compressibility behaviour. The design of such structures and their serviceability and stability is largely governed by the effects of the dynamic loading conditions principally because of their significantly elevated risk in seismic prone zones. In this paper, numerical analyses using an advanced constitutive model, able to account for the initial soil structure and its progressive degradation, have been performed to investigate the seismic response of a silo foundation built on structured clays. The proposed analyses involve the use of a fully-coupled finite element approach. For the dynamic simulations, three different input motions have been selected form earthquake databases according to the seismic hazard study of the specific site. The results of the silo dynamic response are illustrated in terms of signal amplification, permanent excess pore water pressures, accumulated displacements and structure induced degradation during and after the seismic loading. The dynamic behaviour of the footing indicates that extreme earthquake events can induce large destructuration in natural clays, leading to ground settlements up to twice the observed ones under static loads, which need to be properly accounted for in the design. This suggests that there are significant advantages in using advanced models which recognise the existence of initial soil structure and its subsequent damage due to the applied dynamic loads.     

Explicit stress integration of complex soil models

In this paper, two complex critical‐state models are implemented in a displacement finite element code. The two models are used for structured clays and sands, and are characterized by multiple yield surfaces, plastic yielding within the yield surface, and complex kinematic and isotropic hardening laws. The consistent tangent operators—which lead to a quadratic convergence when used in a fully implicit algorithm—are difficult to derive or may even not exist. The stress integration scheme used in this paper is based on the explicit Euler method with automatic substepping and error control. This scheme employs the classical elastoplastic stiffness matrix and requires only the first derivatives of the yield function and plastic potential. This explicit scheme is used to integrate the two complex critical‐state models—the sub/super‐loading surfaces model (SSLSM) and the kinematic hardening structure model (KHSM). Various boundary‐value problems are then analysed. The results for the two models are compared with each other, as well with those from standard Cam‐clay models. Accuracy and efficiency of the scheme used for the complex models are also investigated. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.