A Study on the Mechanical Behavior of a Fiber-Clay Composite with Natural Fiber

This paper presents the results of an experimental investigation into the effects of discrete palm fibers on the consolidation and shear behavior of a randomly reinforced clay soil. Three groups of reinforced soil samples were prepared at three different fiber contents (10, 20 and 30 %). Consolidation and triaxial tests were carried out on the samples. The results indicate that the inclusion of the fiber reinforcement within the soil causes decrease in preconsolidation pressure and increase in compressibility and swelling indices. In addition, the strength and friction angle increase considerably in terms of total and effective stresses. The results also show that the increase in the slope of the critical state line in $ q :p^{\prime } $ space is a function of fiber content.     

Potential Field,Geoelectrical and Reflection Seismic Investigations for Massive Sulphide Exploration in the Skellefte Mining District,Northern Sweden

Multi-scale geophysical studies were conducted in the central Skellefte district (CSD) in order to delineate the geometry of the upper crust (down to maximum ～ 4.5 km depth) for prospecting volcanic massive sulphide (VMS) mineralization. These geophysical investigations include potential field, resistivity/induced polarization (IP), reflection seismic and magnetotelluric (MT) data which were collected between 2009 and 2010. The interpretations were divided in two scales: (i) shallow (～ 1.5 km) and (ii) deep (～4.5 km). Physical properties of the rocks, including density, magnetic susceptibility, resistivity and chargeability, were also used to improve interpretations. The study result delineates the geometry of the upper crust in the CSD and new models were suggested based on new and joint geophysical interpretation which can benefit VMS prospecting in the area. The result also indicates that a strongly conductive zone detected by resistivity/IP data may have been missed using other geophysical data.     

Quantification of source-to-site distance uncertainty in ground motion models

Natural Hazards - Among different input data, source-to-site distance plays a major role in the results of ground motion models (GMMs). In order to determine the source-to-site distance, geometric...     

Development of duration‐dependent damage‐based inelastic response spectra

A simple relationship is proposed in this paper to construct damage‐based inelastic response spectra including the effect of ground motion duration that it can be used for damage control in seismic design of structures. This relation is established for three groups of ground motions with short‐duration, moderate‐duration, and long‐duration ranges. To develop the model, the duration effect is included in the cyclic ductility of structures by an energy‐based method, and then strength reduction factors are computed based on this modified ductility (named ). The strength reduction factors were calculated for 44 stiffness‐degrading oscillators having vibration periods between 0.05 and 4.0 s, four ultimate ductility capacities, and five damage levels subjected to 296 earthquake records. The results showed that ductility capacity, damage level, and ground motion duration are effective parameters in the energy dissipation of structures, which affect the spectra. The values of short‐period oscillators (e.g., low‐rise structures) under short‐duration records are generally greater than those under moderate‐duration and long‐duration records. Residual analysis has been made in terms of magnitude and distance to examine the validity of the proposed simple expression. Finally, the introduced spectra were compared with three previously published proposals. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Stochastic finite element modelling of water flow in variably saturated heterogeneous soils

Water flow is greatly influenced by the characteristics of the domain through which the process occurs. It is generally accepted that earth materials have extreme variations from point to point in space. Consequently, this heterogeneity results in high variation in hydraulic properties of soil. In order to develop an accurate predictive model for transport processes in soil, the effects of this variability should be considered. In this study a two‐dimensional stochastic finite element flow model was developed for simulation of water flow through unsaturated soils. In this model, the stochastic partial differential governing equation of water flow, obtained from implementation of the perturbation‐spectral stochastic method on classical Richard's equation, was solved using a finite element method in the space domain and a finite difference scheme in the time domain. The effective hydrological parameters embedded in the mathematical model depend on time derivatives of capillary tension head; this makes possible to consider the hysteresis due to large‐scale variability of soil hydrological properties. The model is also capable of simulating infiltration and evaporation events and rapid change in the land surface boundary condition from one type event to another, based on a scheme used in the model for implementation of land surface boundary condition. The model was validated with the data obtained from a layered lysimeter test. The model was also used to simulate water flow under a long irrigation furrow. The results obtained with this model show better agreement with experimental measurements in comparison with a deterministic model. The possible reason for this agreement is that in the developed model, the influence of the variability of the properties of soil and effects of parameter hysteresis on water flow and water content redistribution are considered. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Coalescence of Fractures Under Uni-axial Compression and Fatigue Loading

In this paper, white Portland cement was used as an experimental material. Prismatic specimens with pre-existing flaws at different angles of inclination (α) varying through 0°, 30°, 45°, 60°, 75° to 90° and cylindrical specimens with different numbers of pre-existing flaws (n) varying through 0, 1, 2 to 3 were tested under uni-axial compression tests. Crack initiation, propagation, coalescence, and failure were observed. The corresponding analytical expression for the stress intensity factor under uni-axial compression was derived, the coefficient of friction and the stress intensity factor of the specimens on the surfaces of the crack were analysed, and the corrective coefficient for the stress intensity factor was introduced. Fatigue tests with a loading frequency of f = 100 Hz were carried out on cylindrical specimens with constant amplitude of the cyclic load which is a proportion of the compressive load at failure (F _f) obtained from the uni-axial compression tests. The fatigue property of the specimens was analysed and the relationship (S _max − lg N _f) between the maximum stress and the number of loading cycles at failure for specimens with pre-existing flaws was proposed. The effect of pre-existing flaws on the fatigue life (N _f) and dynamic load (S _D) which can be applied was investigated.     

An effective procedure for seismic hazard analysis including nonlinear soil response

This paper presents probabilistic seismic hazard analysis (PSHA) of Tehran, Iran, accounting the effect of nonlinear soil response. It is well-known that soil nonlinearity and its accurate prediction could play important role in seismic hazard study. For this purpose, two different approaches have been carried out for predicting the hazard curves by (1) applying site modifications to the ground motion prediction equation based on generic site classes and use of constant coefficients (2) using a close-form solution that modifies the hazard results at the rock level. Also, efficiency of the Monte Carlo method in modeling of amplification function for the six selected sites in the study area was examined. Results showed important effect of nonlinear soil response mainly for frequencies lower than 8?Hz, which should be considered properly in hazard estimation. As an interesting subject, influence of soil plasticity index (PI) on hazard estimation of clayey sites including the nonlinear soil response was evaluated.     

A checking method for probabilistic seismic-hazard assessment: case studies on three cities

The conventional Cornell’s source-based approach of probabilistic seismic-hazard assessment (PSHA) has been employed all around the world, whilst many studies often rely on the use of computer packages such as FRISK (McGuire FRISK—a computer program for seismic risk analysis. Open-File Report 78-1007, United States Geological Survey, Department of Interior, Washington 1978) and SEISRISK III (Bender and Perkins SEISRISK III—a computer program for seismic hazard estimation, Bulletin 1772. United States Geological Survey, Department of Interior, Washington 1987). A “black-box” syndrome may be resulted if the user of the software does not have another simple and robust PSHA method that can be used to make comparisons. An alternative method for PSHA, namely direct amplitude-based (DAB) approach, has been developed as a heuristic and efficient method enabling users to undertake their own sanity checks on outputs from computer packages. This paper experiments the application of the DAB approach for three cities in China, Iran, and India, respectively, and compares with documented results computed by the source-based approach. Several insights regarding the procedure of conducting PSHA have also been obtained, which could be useful for future seismic-hazard studies.     

Analysis of Applicability of Seismic Intensity Estimation Using Fourier Spectrum of Ground Motions for Iranian Earthquakes

The intensity scales in different forms provide valuable information on regional earthquake effects. In this paper, a theoretical model which has been developed recently for seismic intensity estimation is re-examined by employing strong motion records from ten Iranian earthquakes. The analysis results confirmed the capability of the implemented method to estimate the seismic intensity in terms of the MMI scale based on a Fourier spectrum in the study area. The predicted intensity values were compared with another technique utilizing peak ground velocity (PGV) as a predictor. To reveal the high potential of the adopted approach, the theoretical isoseismal map was developed for the 1978 Tabas, Iran earthquake (Mw = 7.4) based on a stochastic finite-fault modelling of ground motions. Results showed good compatibility of predicted intensity values while the historical earthquake records are not enough for a given site.     

Detection of pulse-like ground motions based on continues wavelet transform

This paper implements a quantitative approach to detect pulse-like ground motions based on continues wavelet transform, which is able to clearly identify sudden jumps in time history of earthquake records by considering contribution of different levels of frequency. These analyses were performed on a set of time series records obtained in near-fault regions of Iran. Pulse-like ground motions frequently resulted from directivity effects in near-fault area and are of interest in the field of seismology and also earthquake engineering for seismic performance evaluation of structures. The results of this study basically help us to establish a suitable platform for selecting pulse-like records, while performance evaluation of structure in near-fault area will need to account. The period of velocity pulses as a key parameter that significantly affects structural response is simply determined by using a pseudo-period of the mother wavelets. In addition, the efficiency of different types of mother wavelets on classification performance and the features of detected pulse are investigated by applying seven different kinds of mother wavelets. The analyses indicate that the selection of most appropriate mother wavelet plays a significant role in effective extraction of ground motion features and consequently in estimation of velocity pulse period. As a result, the user should be aware of what is selected as a mother wavelet in the analysis. The comparisons given here among different mother wavelets also show the better performance of BiorSpline (bior1.3) basis from biorthognal wavelet families for the preferred purpose in this paper.