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.     

Starved versus alluvial river bedforms: an experimental investigation

Laboratory experiments were conducted to investigate the formation of river bedforms under sediment supply-limited conditions, i.e. when a motionless substratum is bared by the dynamics of the mobile sediments. Three series of experiments were organized in a laboratory flume by fixing all the hydrodynamic and morphodynamic parameters but varying the thickness of the initial layer of mobile sediments which covers the rigid bottom of the flume. At the end of all the experiments, which lasted for the same amount of time, the formation of transverse sand dunes was observed. For decreasing , the rigid bottom of the flume was bared progressively earlier during the experiment and the measurements showed a clear tendency of the bedforms to lengthen, i.e. to increase their crest-to-crest distance. Moreover, under strong supply limitation, the two-dimensional transverse dunes turned into three-dimensional barchanoid forms and into isolated barchan dunes characterized by an abrupt reduction in bedform heights. A two-dimensional Fourier analysis of the bottom profile was performed, providing the amplitude of the main streamwise and spanwise harmonic components of the bottom morphology as a function of . © 2019 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Seismic fragility of plasterboard partitions via in‐plane quasi‐static tests

The seismic damage of internal partitions may cause significant earthquake loss; this phenomenon is caused by (a) their tendency to exhibit damage for low demand levels and (b) the consequent loss of inventory and breakdown that their collapse can cause. Quasi‐static tests are performed on six 5‐m‐high plasterboard internal partitions, which represent typical partitions in industrial and commercial buildings in the European area. A steel test setup is designed to transfer the load, which is provided by the actuator, to the partition. The testing protocol provided by Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) 461 is adopted for the quasi‐static tests. The typical failure mode of the specimens is the buckling of a steel stud, which involves the boards that are attached to the buckled stud. The buckling failure usually concentrates across the plasterboard horizontal joints. A frictional behavior is exhibited for low demand levels, whereas a pinched behavior is shown for moderate‐to‐high demand levels. The interstory drift ratios required to reach a given damage limit state are evaluated using a predefined damage scheme. Based on the experimental data, the fragility curves for three different damage states (DS1, DS2, and DS3) are estimated. The fragility curve yields median interstory drift ratio values of 0.28%, 0.81%, and 2.05% and logarithmic standard deviations of 0.39, 0.42, and 0.46 for DS1, DS2, and DS3, respectively. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Analytical fragility assessment using unscaled ground motion records

It is desirable that nonlinear dynamic analyses for structural fragility assessment are performed using unscaled ground motions. The widespread use of a simple dynamic analysis procedure known as Cloud Analysis, which uses unscaled records and linear regression, has been impeded by its alleged inaccuracies. This paper investigates fragility assessment based on Cloud Analysis by adopting, as the performance variable, a scalar demand to capacity ratio that is equal to unity at the onset of limit state. It is shown that the Cloud Analysis, performed based on a careful choice of records, leads to reasonable and efficient fragility estimates. There are 2 main rules to keep in mind for record selection: to make sure that a good portion of the records leads to a demand to capacity ratio greater than unity and that the dispersion in records' seismic intensity is considerable. An inevitable consequence of implementing these rules is that one often needs to deal with the so‐called collapse cases. To formally consider the collapse cases, a 5‐parameter fragility model is proposed that mixes the simple regression in the logarithmic scale with logistic regression. The joint distribution of fragility parameters can be obtained by adopting a Markov Chain Monte Carlo simulation scheme leading directly to the fragility and its confidence intervals. The resulting fragility curves compare reasonably with those obtained from the Incremental Dynamic Analysis and Multiple Stripe Analysis with (variable) conditional spectrum–compatible suites of records at different intensity levels for 3 older reinforced concrete frames with shear‐, shear‐flexure‐, and flexure‐dominant behavior.     

Damage‐dependent vulnerability curves for existing buildings

Seismic behavior of damaged buildings may be expressed as a function of their REsidual Capacity (REC), which is a measure of seismic capacity, reduced by damage. REC can be interpreted as the median value of collapse vulnerability curves. Its variation owing to damage is a useful indication of increased building vulnerability. REC reduction, indicating the lowering of seismic safety after an earthquake (performance loss, PL), represents an effective index for assessing the need of seismic repair/strengthening after earthquakes. The study investigates the applicability of a pushover‐based method in the analysis of damaged structures for the case of existing under‐designed RC buildings. The paper presents a systematization of the procedure in an assessment framework that applies the capacity spectrum method based on inelastic demand spectra; furthermore, the vulnerability variation of a real building is investigated with a detailed case study. The behavior of damaged buildings is simulated with pushover analysis through suitable modification of plastic hinges (in terms of stiffness, strength and residual drift) for damaged elements. The modification of plastic hinges has been calibrated in tests on nonconforming columns. The case study analysis evidenced that, for minor or moderate damages, the original structural displacement capacity was only slightly influenced, but the ductility capacity was significantly reduced (up to 40%) because of the increased structure deformability. This implied performance loss in the range 10%–20%. For severe damages the PL ranged between 41% and 56%. Local mechanism types exhibit PL nearly double with respect to global mechanism types. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Model updating and seismic loss assessment for a portfolio of bridges

The majority of bridge infrastructures in Italy were built in the 1960s and ‘70s without any specific seismic provision being made. As a consequence, it is expected that these bridges would be highly vulnerable if subjected to a significant seismic event. Given this background, it is natural that the rapid and accurate assessment of economic losses incurred to the bridge infrastructure as a result of such an event could play a crucial role in emergency management in the immediate aftermath of an earthquake. Focusing on the infrastructure system of highway bridges in the Campania region in Italy, this paper demonstrates how both state-of-the-art methodologies in portfolio loss assessment and the available data can be used to assess the probability distribution of the repair costs incurred due to the 1980 Irpinia earthquake. Formulating a probabilistic loss assessment for a portfolio of bridges as a standard Monte Carlo simulation problem helps to resolve the spatial risk integral efficiently. One of the specific features of this case study is the use of statistical methods for updating models of: (a) ground motion predictions, (b) vulnerability/fragility and (c) exposure/costs, based on the available data. It has been observed that alternative hypotheses concerning the ground motion correlation structure can significantly affect the distribution of direct economic losses. Furthermore, updating the ground motion prediction based on available recordings may significantly reduce the dispersion in the estimate of the direct economic losses.     

Parametric study on seismic ground response by finite element modelling

In this paper the results of 2D FE analyses of the seismic ground response of a clayey deposit, performed adopting linear visco-elastic and visco-elasto-plastic constitutive models, are presented. The viscous and linear elastic parameters are selected according to a novel calibration strategy, leading to FE results comparable to those obtained by 1D equivalent-linear visco-elastic frequency-domain analyses. The influence of plasticity on the numerical results is also investigated, with particular reference to the relation between the hysteretic and viscous damping effects. Finally, different boundary conditions, spatial discretisation and time integration parameters are considered and their role on the FE results discussed.