Finite Element Analysis of Laterally Loaded Suction Caisson in Anisotropic Clay

1 .IntroductionSuctioncaissons have been widely usedfor offshore oil exploration duetothe advantages of econo-my and simple installation over traditional piles (Huanget al .,2003) .For tensionleg platforms andspar platforms in deep ocean,suction caissons …     

海洋粉质粘土在波浪荷载作用后的不排水抗剪强度衰化特性

通过对南海重塑粉质粘土土样的大量动三轴试验结果分析,得到此种土在波浪荷载作用后不捧水抗剪强度衰化同动载作用引起的动应变幅及平均累积孔压之间的相互关系和预估公式;并通过与超固结土样的静三轴剪切试验结果的比较,发现动、静三轴两种试验结果具有很好的吻合关系。建议可用超固结土样的静三轴剪切试验同时结合部分动三轴试验来预估土样在波浪荷载作用后不排水抗剪强度衰化与平均累积孔压之间的关系。     

Simple shear testing for the study of the earthquake response of clay from the Israeli continental slope

Abstract

A study was carried out to investigate the simple shear behaviour of a clay from the Israeli continental slope, and to consider the relevance of this behaviour to the stability of the slopes during earthquake conditions. Norweigian simple shear apparatus was modified in order to enable both static and cyclic shearing of undisturbed samples taken from the slope.

Static tests performed on virgin samples and on samples which had undergone extensive cycling indicated similar static strengths, despite development of large cyclic shear strains during cycling. This suggests that the stability of the slopes following completion of an earthquake would not be significantly less than it was before the onset of the earthquake; the critical period for instability would be during the earthquake.

The results of the cyclic tests indicated that shear strain development accelerated once the cyclic strain reached the order of 3%. A failure criterion for the clay, relevant to cyclic loading conditions, was developed, based on this strain value, and was incorporated into a cumulative damage type of analysis for earthquake loading, using Miner's rule. This analysis was used to develop a computer program for the stability analysis of the continental slope during any given earthquake.     

Stability of jetties for channel protection in soft soils at Huanghua Port

This paper presents safety evaluations of jetties found on soft clays at Huanghua Port to protect the channel from deposition due to long shore transport. It is likely to be the most critical for the jetties during construction, as far as excess pore water pressure and its effects on the embankment stability are concerned. A rubble mound jetty and a caisson jetty are considered as design alternatives for comparison. Finite element analysis and limit equilibrium analysis are carried out to evaluate the stability of the jetties during construction. For the rubble mound jetty, effective stresses in the soft clays are calculated associated with consolidation, so as to estimate the shear strength increased thereby. With the effective stresses and shear strength, the critical situation of the rubble mound jetty is revealed by the limit equilibrium analysis. For the caisson jetty, wave action is concerned, which is transformed into distributed forces on the caisson. Both the finite element analysis and the limit equilibrium analysis indicate a potential general shear failure of the caisson jetty and the foundation.     

Strain-Rate Dependent Stress--Strain Behavior of Undisturbed Hong Kong Marine Deposits under Oedometric and Triaxial Stress States

This article presents a testing study on the strain-rate effects on the stress--strain behavior of natural, undisturbed Hong Kong marine deposits (HKMD) from three Hong Kong locations, including a one-dimensional (1-D) compressibility in a confined condition, and undrained shear strengths in triaxial compression and extension modes. The influences of the strain rates on the one-dimensional compressibility are studied by means of constant rate of strain (CRS) tests and multistage loading oedometer (MSL) tests, and those on the undrained shear strengths are studied by K_o-consolidated undrained compression and extension tests with step-changed axial strain rates (CK_oUC and CK_oUE tests), and with both step-changed axial strain rates and relaxation processes (CK_oUCR and CK_oUER tests). The strain-rate effects on the stress--strain behavior are generally examined by “apparent” preconsolidation pressures in the 1-D compressions and undrained shear strengths in the triaxial compression and extension stress states. The stress--strain behavior of the natural, undisturbed HKMD exhibits considerable viscous characteristics. In the CRS and MSL tests at a given strain, the higher the strain rate, the higher the effective stress, the higher the porewater pressure. In the undrained shearing tests, the higher the strain rate, the higher the undrained shear strength, but the lower the porewater pressure. For the CK_oUC and CK_oUE tests on the Tsing Yi site samples, the undrained shear strength increases by 8.5% and 12.1% for one order increment of axial strain rate of 0.2%/hr (i.e., ρ_0.2) for the compression and extension modes respectively. For the CK_oUCR and CK_o tests on the Tung Chung site samples of different compositions, average ρ_0.2 is increased by 6.2% for the compression and 9.5% for the extension, but by 18.8% for the extension on a higher plastic sample. The present study shows that the strain-rate effects on the stress--strain behavior of the undisturbed HKMD are larger for specimens in extension than those in compression.     

Estimation of undrained shear strength for saturated clay using shear wave velocity

Undrained shear strength is a fundamental parameter for estimating the stability of soft soils. This study explores the relationship between undrained shear strength, void ratio, and shear wave velocity for saturated and normally consolidated clay specimens. The undrained shear strength void ratio-shear wave velocity relationship was correlated to empirically determined parameters of selected marine clay specimens. To verify the proposed relationship between undrained shear strength and shear wave velocity, in situ flat dilatometer tests were used for determining the undrained shear strength, and downhole tests were used to assess the shear wave velocity on a natural soil deposit at various depths. The undrained shear strength estimated from the in situ shear wave velocities was compared to the undrained shear strength obtained in the field. The results show that the inferred undrained shear strength yield similar values and follow the same trends as the in situ undrained shear strength data. This method using shear wave velocity can help to nondestructively estimate the undrained shear strength of soft soils in the field and be used in both on-shore and off-shore geotechnical engineering projects.     

Undrained behavior of natural marine clay under cyclic loading

To study the undrained behavior of natural marine clay under cyclic loading, two kinds of stress-controlled cyclic triaxial tests were conducted on natural K₀-consolidated Wenzhou clay. In the Series I tests, samples were cyclically sheared until failure, and the accumulative behavior was studied; based on the results, a suitable cyclic failure criterion is suggested for natural clays. The effect of loading frequency was also investigated, and it was observed that the loading duration t is a key factor in controlling the undrained cyclic behavior. In the Series II tests, cyclic undrained tests followed by strain-controlled monotonic compression tests were carried out, and special attention was given to changes in the undrained strength after cyclic loading. The degradation of the post-cyclic peak strength was affected by the accumulative behavior during cyclic shearing, but the deviatoric stresses at the critical state were nearly constant. Finally, the accumulative behavior of natural clays was simulated using a proposed anisotropic elastic viscoplastic model with a pseudo-static method of equivalent undrained creep, and the results indicate that this equivalent creep simplification is suitable in practice. By taking the apparent overconsolidation after cyclic loading into account, the post-cyclic strength degradation can also be explained by this model.     

Parameter studies of sediments in the Storegga Slide region

Based on classification tests, oedometer tests, fall-cone tests and triaxial tests, physical and mechanical properties of sediments in the Storegga Slide region were analysed to assess parameter interrelationships. The data show good relationships between a number of physical and mechanical parameters. Goodness of fit between compression index and various physical parameters can be improved by multiple regression analysis. The interclay void ratio and liquidity index correlate well with the undrained shear strength of clay. Sediments with higher water content, liquid limit, activity, interclay void ratio, plasticity index and liquidity index showed higher compression index and/or lower undrained shear strength. Some relationships between parameters were tested by using data from two other sites south of the Storegga Slide. A better understanding of properties of sediments in regions such as that of the Storegga Slide can be obtained through this approach.     

Primary yielding locus of cement-stabilized marine clay and its applications

ABSTRACT

Strength and stiffness properties of materials are widely studied and used in civil engineering practice. However, most studies are based on unconfined conditions, which are different from real status of soil. This study investigated the primary yielding and yield locus for cement-stabilized marine clay. In this study, two types of cement-stabilized soils were studied through isotropic compression, triaxial drained shearing, unconfined compression, and bender element testing. Specimens with 20–50% of cement content and 7–90 days of curing period were used for the tests. Stress–strain behavior and primary yielding were evaluated, followed by construction of the primary yield locus. The characteristics of the primary yield locus and its development with curing time then were studied. The results showed that the properties of the primary yield locus were dependent on the type of stabilized soil, but were independent of the cement content and curing period. Thus, the approach provides a way to estimate the primary yield stress and drained stress path before primary yielding for cement-stabilized soil under confined condition. An empirical function was used to fit the primary yield locus. The primary isotropic yield stress was correlated to unconfined compressive strength or maximum shear modulus. Three indirect methods were proposed to predict the primary yield stress for cement-stabilized marine clay. The results showed that the primary yield stress can be estimated with reasonable accuracy.     

Structural Types of Sea Embankment and Their Stability Analysis

In this paper based on investigation on the structural types of sea embankments in thesoutheast coastal area of China,as well as the related tidal stages,waves and strength of marine soils,thefinite element method(FEM)calculations for seepage flow stability,including the overall stability againstsliding and local stability of sloping surface under the action of tidal stage and waves are carried out.Acomparison of the computational results of FEM for single circular slip,composite circular slip andgeogrid reinforcement against sliding shows that for calculation of stability against sliding of marine softsoil foundation it is even more reasonable to use the composite circular slip.The stability of sloping typesea embankment against sliding is slightly better than that of the vertical face type;for the combination ofthree defences(wave,scour and seepage defences)the sea embankment structural type of a compositecross section with a platform should be a good one,but it still should be suitable to local condit     

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.     

Anisotropic Drained Deformation Behavior and Shear Strength of Natural Soft Marine Clay

The deformation behavior and shear strength of soft marine clays subjected to wave or traffic loads are different from that in triaxial loading due to the changes of major principal stress direction β and intermediate principal stress coefficient b. To investigate the anisotropy affected by β and b in natural soft marine clay, a series of drained tests were conducted by hollow cylinder apparatus. The principal stress direction relative to vertical direction were maintained constant under an increasing shear stress, with fixed intermediate principal stress coefficient b. The influence of the b and β on anisotropy of typically Wenzhou intact clay is discussed. It was found that octahedral stress–strain relationships expressed anisotropy with different b and β. The friction angle and deviator stress ratio with different b and β were presented to provide guidance for engineering projects in the coastal zone.     

Geotechnical Properties of Surface Sediments in the INDEX Area

As a part of the environmental impact assessment studies, geotechnical properties of sediments were determined in the Central Indian Basin. The undrained shear strength and index properties of the siliceous sediments were determined on 20 box cores of uniform dimension collected from various locations in five preselected sites. The maximum core length encountered was 41 cm and most of the sediments were siliceous oozes consisting of radiolarian or diatomaceous tests. The shear strength measurements revealed that surface sediments deposited in recent times (0-10 cm) have a shear strength of 0-1 kPa; this value increases with depth, reaching 10 kPa at 40 cm deep. Older sediments have greater strength because of compaction. Water content varies in the wide range of 312-577% and decreases with depth. The clay minerals such as smectite and illite are dominant and show some control over water content. Wet density, specific gravity, and porosity do not indicate any notable variation with depth, thereby indicating a uniform, slow rate of sedimentation. The average porosity of sediments is 90.2%, specific gravity 2.18, and wet bulk density 1.12 g/cm 3 . Sediments exhibit medium to high plasticity characteristics, with the average plasticity index varying between 105% and 136%. Preliminary studies on postdisturbance samples showed an increase in natural water content and a decrease in undrained shear strength of sediments in the top 10- to 15-cm layer.     

南中国海神狐海域天然气水合物上覆地层不排水抗剪强度预测

浅层沉积物不排水抗剪强度（Su）是深水作业的关键参数之一。为了获取南海神狐海域首次海域天然气水合物试采区W18-19框体的基本工程地质特征,试采工程准备阶段开展了原位孔压静力触探测试（CPTU）及大量的室内实验。本文将主要基于CPTU计算不排水抗剪强度的基本模型,采用微型十字板、电动十字板、袖珍贯入仪及不固结不排水三轴实验,确定该区域不排水抗剪强度的基本模式,并提出适用于南海神狐钙质黏土层的不排水抗剪强度纵向分布规律计算模型,对该区域水合物上覆层的不排水抗剪强度进行预测。 结果表明,基于总锥端阻力、有效锥端阻力、超孔隙压力的模型系数分为13.8、4.2、14.4。综合考虑地层压实效应和含气情况,本文提出的分段函数预测模型与室内结果的一致性较好,可用于工程设计阶段进行工区不排水抗剪强度纵向分布规律的预测。另外,基于有效锥端阻力的不排水抗剪强度经验模型适应于浅层极软-较硬压实的钙质粘土层,基于超孔隙压力的不排水抗剪强度模型适用于较硬-坚硬的不含气层,而基于总锥端阻力的不排水抗剪强度计算模型则适用于坚硬含气的钙质黏土层。本文提出的分段函数模型有效的提高了经验模型在南海神狐水合物赋存区的适用性,计算结果可为工程安全评价提供支撑。     

Secondary Compression Features of Jiangsu Soft Marine Clay

The results of one-dimensional compression tests conducted on undisturbed specimens of Jiangsu soft marine clay is presented. Because of its high in situ void ratios and natural water content, Jiangsu soft marine clay displays high values of both the virgin compression index, C_c, and the secondary compression coefficient, C_α. The laboratory data indicates that the value of the ratio C_α/C_c for Jiangsu soft marine clay is constant. However, neither C_α nor C_c are constant: they both depend upon the natural water content (or void ratio) and thus are also dependent on the deformation (or compression) of Jiangsu soft marine clay. Settlement analyses show that the secondary settlement of Jiangsu soft marine clay is a significant component of the field settlement. The concept of a constant value for C_α/C_c is used to predict the secondary settlement of a surcharged embankment founded upon Jiangsu soft marine clay. The predictions are in agreement with the limited post-construction field measurements of the embankment settlement.     

Investigation of the stability of submarine sensitive clay slopes underwave-induced pressure

The exploration and exploitation of marine georesources ordinarily disturbs the submarine soft clay surrounding construction areas and leads to a significant decrease in the shear strength of structured and sensitive clayey soils in submarine slopes. Under wave action, local slides can even trigger large-scale submarine landslides, which pose a serious threat to offshore infrastructure such as pipelines and footings. Therefore, accurately evaluating the stability of submarine sensitive clay slopes under wave-induced pressure is one of the core issues of marine geotechnical engineering. In this paper, a kinematic approach of limit analysis combined with strength reduction technique is presented to accurately evaluate the real-time stability of submarine sensitive clay slopes based on the log-spiral failure mechanism, where external work rates produced by wave-induced pressure on slopes are obtained by the numerical integration technique and then are applied to the work-energy balance equations. The mathematical optimization method is employed to achieve the safety factors and the critical sliding surfaces of submarine slopes at different time in a wave cycle. On this basis, the stability of submarine sensitive clay slopes under various wave parameters is systematically investigated. In particular, extreme wave conditions and special cases of slope lengths no more than one wavelength are also discussed. The results indicate that waves have some negative effects on the stability of submarine sensitive clay slopes.     

Properties of geogrid-reinforced marine slope due to the groundwater level changes

Evaluation of slope stability, especially in the absence of a proper bed such as marine soils, is one of the most important issues in geotechnical engineering. Using geogrid layers to enhance the strength and stability of embankments is regarded as a commendable stabilization method. On the other hand, groundwater level erratically fluctuates in coastal areas. Therefore, the aim of this research is to study the effects of groundwater level changes on stability of a geogrid-reinforced slope on loose marine soils in Qeshm Island, Iran. At first, geotechnical properties of the site were obtained by comprehensive series of geotechnical laboratory and in situ tests. Then, by simultaneous changes of groundwater level and several parameters such as embankment slope, loading, geogrid length, geogrid number, and tensile strength of geogrid, different characteristics such as embankment safety factor (SF), vertical and horizontal displacements at embankment top and embankment base were studied. It was observed that groundwater level had significant effects on behavior of the embankment. For most of the observations, by decreasing the groundwater level, the displacements decreased and consequently safety factor increased. Increasing the length, number, and tensile strength of geogrid led to the reduction of displacements and an increase in the safety factor.     

Geotechnical Properties of Surface Sediments in the INDEX Area

Abstract

As a part of the environmental impact assessment studies, geotechnical properties of sediments were determined in the Central Indian Basin. The undrained shear strength and index properties of the siliceous sediments were determined on 20 box cores of uniform dimension collected from various locations in five preselected sites. The maximum core length encountered was 41 cm and most of the sediments were siliceous oozes consisting of radiolarian or diatomaceous tests. The shear strength measurements revealed that surface sediments deposited in recent times (0–10 cm) have a shear strength of 0–1 kPa; this value increases with depth, reaching 10 kPa at 40 cm deep. Older sediments have greater strength because of compaction. Water content varies in the wide range of 312–577% and decreases with depth. The clay minerals such as smectite and illite are dominant and show some control over water content. Wet density, specific gravity, and porosity do not indicate any notable variation with depth, thereby indicating a uniform, slow rate of sedimentation. The average porosity of sediments is 90.2%, specific gravity 2.18, and wet bulk density 1.12 g/cm³. Sediments exhibit medium to high plasticity characteristics, with the average plasticity index varying between 105% and 136%. Preliminary studies on postdisturbance samples showed an increase in natural water content and a decrease in undrained shear strength of sediments in the top 10- to 15-cm layer.     

Laboratory and Field Observations for Golden Horn Marine Clay

Istanbul, the largest city in Turkey and one of the major metropolitan areas in the world, cleaned one of its environmentally polluted areas—Golden Horn—by dredging 5 million m³ of the bottom sediments and pumping the resulting sludge to a storage area behind a dam built at an abandoned rock quarry site in Alibey district. The reclamation of the land that formed over the storage area of Golden Horn dredged material is socially and economically very desirable. In this paper, results from experimental studies that are focused on determining the shear strength behavior of the dredge material and undisturbed soil are presented. Slurry consolidometer test, large model tests and small model tests are used to consolidate the dredged soil samples from Halic to simulate the natural consolidation behavior of these soils. Shear strength parameters are determined by laboratory vane tests; unconfined compression tests; undrained-unconsolidated (UU) and consolidated-undrained (CU) triaxial tests on samples that are obtained through in situ undisturbed samples and laboratory model tank and slurry consolidation. Moreover, the effects of fly ash and lime additives on the undrained shear strength were determined by mixing the materials with the dredged clay from Golden Horn during the model experiments conducted in the laboratory. Based on these findings, equations are proposed that govern the relationships between undrained shear strength and water content value.     

A statistical damage constitutive model based on unified strength theory for embankment rocks

Abstract

Fluctuant marine and reservoir water levels are the main failure-inducing factors for embankment slopes. The soft embankment rocks, e.g., red-bed mudstone, eroded by the reservoir water level in the Three Gorges Reservoir area greatly influence the stability of the embankment slopes. In this study, unified strength theory was innovatively applied for damage evaluation and combined with the Weibull distribution to obtain the strength statistics of micro units. Additionally, one damage constitutive model and one damage evolution model considering the initial damage, strain softening and damage weakening were proposed. Then, a series of tests, e.g., modified cyclic wetting and drying test, triaxial compression test and modified numerical simulation test for reservoir embankment red-bed mudstone, were conducted to verify the feasibility of the proposed models. In addition, grey system theory was originally used to evaluate the effects of the Weibull distribution parameters (m and w) and the confining stress on the peak stress. Finally, the proposed model was tentatively applied to the modification of the limit failure height model of the bedded rock slopes. The verification implies that the proposed model results are consistent with the testing results, especially in the simulation of compaction, elastic deformation and strain softening and in the prediction of peak strength. The results from grey system theory analysis indicate that the micro unit strength parameter (w) has the most obvious effect on the strength. Moreover, the modified method based on the damage evolution model for calculating the limit failure height of the bedded rock slopes is conservative.