Calculation and analysis of negative skin of monopile applied for offshore wind turbine

Monopiles are considered to be as a kind of viable foundation types for offshore wind turbines. The effect of negative skin friction on pile foundation is always an important problem. There are very important theoretical and practical significance to study the distribution law of negative skin friction and the calculation method. Based on the special stratum, the stress and strain of the monopile and soil are simplified, and the improved Kezdi’s double-broken-line model is adopted. The analytical solution of negative skin friction of monopile is deduced according to the degree of skin friction. An engineering case was analyzed by the method, and the calculated results agree well with the measured data. The calculation method proposed can accurately describe the range of the monopile skin frictional distribution and the position of the neutral point, and it is simple and convenient to calculate, that is also a feasible method for calculating the negative skin friction of monopile of offshore wind turbines in practical engineering.     

北京郊区居民日常生活方式的行为测度与空间—行为互动

郊区化及其对居民日常生活的影响成为近年来城市研究的重要议题。时空行为研究认为推动日常生活方式的郊区化是解决郊区化过程中出现的社会与空间问题的根本措施。从日常生活方式的角度出发,需要利用多维度时空行为指标刻画群体的生活方式类型以分析郊区居民的空间—行为互动机制。本文采用活动空间和出行频率指标构建个体日常生活方式的行为测度方法,并基于2012年在北京上地—清河地区进行的GPS调查数据将郊区居民划分为“空间排斥”、“本地化”、“郊区性”、“两极化”、“城市依赖”五种日常生活方式类型。研究发现不同日常生活方式群体在活动分布、活动频率和交通方式上存在差异;并通过多项logistic模型分析郊区化对于个体日常生活方式的影响,发现工作日居民的日常生活方式受到性别、收入、年龄和工作时长等社会经济属性的影响。同时郊区设施配置直接影响着居民对郊区空间的利用程度,土地混合利用、商业设施密度提高更有可能实现日常生活的郊区化。日常生活方式的行为测度方法有助于分析郊区居民日常行为的复杂性,为理解郊区化提供了独特的视角,为构建城市研究的空间—行为互动理论提供了有力的支持。     

轴向荷载作用下管与软土相互作用模型试验

开展室内模型试验研究了PE涂层足尺管道在软弱黏土中发生纵向位移时静置时间、加载速率以及土层不排水抗剪强度3个因素对轴向摩擦特性的影响。研究表明,管与软黏土纵向相互作用的抗力-位移曲线存在硬化型和软化型两种形式,前者的峰值摩擦阻力一般出现在加载过程的最后阶段,而后者的峰值摩擦阻力则出现在相对位移为（0.005～0.02）D（D为 管直径）范围内;试验测得的峰值摩擦系数取值介于0.12～0.23之间,且该值比美国API规范推荐值偏小;管土纵向峰值摩擦系数与加载速率成正相关关系,且加载速率对抗力-位移曲线类型无显著影响;常见的不排水抗剪强度范围内,土层的不排水抗剪强度值越低,纵向摩擦系数越大。上述结论可为海底埋设管线与软黏土纵向相互作用摩擦系数的确定提供参考依据。     

Kinematic interaction factors of deep foundations with inclined piles

The beneficial or detrimental role of battered piles on the dynamic response of piled foundations has not been yet fully elucidated. In order to shed more light on this aspect, kinematic interaction factors of deep foundations with inclined piles, are provided for single‐battered piles, as well as for 2 × 2 and 3 × 3 groups of piles subjected to vertically incident plane shear S waves. Piles are modelled as linear‐elastic Bernoulli beams, whereas soil is assumed to be a linear, isotropic, homogeneous viscoelastic half‐space. Different pile group configurations, pile‐soil stiffness ratios, and rake angles are considered. The relevance and main trends observed in the influence of the rake angle on the kinematic interaction factors of the analysed foundations are inferred from the presented results. An important dependence of the kinematic interaction factors on the rake angle is observed together with the existence of an inclination angle at which cap rotation and excitation become out of phase in the low‐to‐mid frequency range. The existence of a small batter angle that provides minimum cap rotation is also shown. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Bidirectional behavior of unreinforced masonry walls

Most of the studies related to the modeling of masonry structures have by far investigated either the in‐plane (IP) or the out‐of‐plane (OP) behavior of walls. However, seismic loads mostly impose simultaneous IP and OP demands on load‐bearing or shear masonry walls. Thus, there is a need to reconsider design equations of unreinforced masonry walls by taking into account bidirectional effects. The intent of this study is to investigate the bidirectional behavior of an unreinforced masonry wall with a typical aspect ratio under different displacement‐controlled loading directions making use of finite element analysis. For this purpose, the numerical procedure is first validated against the results of the tests on walls with different failure modes conducted by the authors. Afterward, the response of the wall systems is evaluated with increasing top displacement having different orientations. A set of 19 monotonic and three cyclic loading analyses are performed, and the results are discussed in terms of the variation of failure modes and load–displacement diagrams. Moreover, the results of wall capacity in each loading condition are compared with those of the ASCE41‐06 formulations. The results indicate that the direction of the resultant force, vectorial summation of IP and OP forces, of the wall is initially proportional to the ratio of stiffness in the IP and the OP directions. However, with the increase of damage, the resultant force direction inclines towards the wall's longitudinal direction regardless of the direction of the imposed displacement. Finally, recommendations are made for applicability of ASCE41‐06 formulations under different bidirectional loading conditions. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Geotechnical design with apparent seismic safety factors well-bellow 1

The paper demonstrates that whereas often in seismic geotechnical design it is not realistically feasible to design with ample factor of safety against failure as is done in static design, an “engineering” apparent seismic factor of safety less than 1 does not imply failure. Examples from slope stability and foundation rocking illustrate the concept. It is also shown that in many cases it may be beneficial to under-design the foundation by accepting substantial uplifting and/or full mobilization of bearing capacity failure mechanisms.     

Damping coefficients for soil–structure systems and evaluation of FEMA 440 subjected to pulse-like near-fault earthquakes

In this study, attempts are made to investigate the effects of inertial soil–structure interaction (SSI) on damping coefficients subjected to pulse-like near-fault ground motions. To this end, a suit of 91 pulse-like near-fault ground motions is adopted. The soil and superstructure are idealized employing cone model and single-degree-of-freedom (SDOF) oscillator, respectively. The results demonstrate that soil flexibility reduces and amplifies the damping coefficients for structural viscous damping levels higher and lower than 5%, respectively. The coefficients reach one for both acceleration and displacement responses in cases of dominant SSI effects. The effect of structure dimensions on damping confidents are found insignificant. Moreover, damping coefficients of displacement responses are higher than those of acceleration responses for both fixed-base and flexible-base systems. Evaluation of damping correction factor introduced by FEMA 440 shows its inefficiency to predict acceleration response of soil–structure systems under pulse-like near-fault ground motions. Soil flexibility makes the damping correction factor of moderate earthquakes more pronounced and a distinctive peak value is reported for cases with dominant SSI effects.     

Approximate soil–structure interaction analysis by a perturbation approach: The case of soft soils

An approximate solution of the classical eigenvalue problem governing the vibrations of a relatively stiff structure on a soft elastic soil is derived through the application of a perturbation analysis. The full solution is obtained as the sum of the solution for an unconstrained elastic structure and small perturbing terms related to the ratio of the stiffness of the soil to that of the superstructure. The procedure leads to approximate analytical expressions for the system frequencies, modal damping ratios and participation factors for all system modes that generalize those presented earlier for the case of stiff soils. The resulting approximate expressions for the system modal properties are validated by comparison with the corresponding quantities obtained by numerical solution of the eigenvalue problem for a nine-story building. The accuracy of the proposed approach and of the classical normal mode approach is assessed through comparison with the exact frequency response of the test structure.     

Idealisation of soil–structure system to determine inelastic seismic response of mid-rise building frames

In this study, a novel and enhanced soil–structure model is developed adopting the direct analysis method using FLAC 2D software to simulate the complex dynamic soil–structure interaction and treat the behaviour of both soil and structure with equal rigour simultaneously. To have a better judgment on the inelastic structural response, three types of mid-rise moment resisting building frames, including 5, 10, and 15 storey buildings are selected in conjunction with three soil types with the shear wave velocities less than 600 m/s, representing soil classes C_e, D_e and E_e, according to Australian Standards. The above mentioned frames have been analysed under two different boundary conditions: (i) fixed-base (no soil–structure interaction) and (ii) flexible-base (considering soil–structure interaction). The results of the analyses in terms of structural displacements and drifts for the above mentioned boundary conditions have been compared and discussed. It is concluded that considering dynamic soil–structure interaction effects in seismic design of moment resisting building frames resting on soil classes D_e and E_e is essential.