Post-earthquake investigation on several geosynthetic-reinforced soil retaining walls and slopes during the Ji-Ji earthquake of Taiwan

This paper gives an overview on the application of geosynthetic-reinforced soil structures in Taiwan. Taiwan has an unique topography and geotechnical conditions that rendered a less conservative and more challenging design compared to that of North America, Europe and Japan. The Ji-Ji (Chi-Chi) earthquake of 1999 gave an opportunity to examine the behavior of reinforced soil structures. The performance of several modular-block reinforced soil retaining walls and reinforced slopes at the vicinity of the fault was evaluated. Reinforced structures performed better than unreinforced soil retaining walls. The failure cases were highlighted and the cause of failure was identified. The lack of seismic design consideration could be a major cause of failure. The compound failure mode, the inertia force of the blocks, and the connection stiffness and strength relative to the large dynamic earth pressure, were among major items that would warrant further design consideration.     

Evaluation of seismic energy demand

In this paper, a method is proposed in order to obtain a simplified representation of hysteretic and input energy spectra. The method is based on the evaluation of the equivalent number of cycles correlated to the earthquake characteristics by the proposed seismic index I_D. This procedure allows us to obtain peak values of the hysteretic and input energy that depend on the demanded ductility, on the seismic index I_D and on the peak pseudo‐velocity. The assessment of the input energy represents a first step towards the definition of a damage potential index capable of taking into account the effect of the duration of the ground motions. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Inelastic buildings with tuned mass dampers under moderate ground motions from distant earthquakes

The effectiveness of tuned mass dampers (TMD) in vibration control of buildings was investigated under moderate ground shaking caused by long‐distance earthquakes with frequency contents resembling the 1985 Mexico City (SCT) or the 1995 Bangkok ground motion. The elastic–perfectly plastic material behaviour was assumed for the main structure, with linear TMDs employed by virtue of their simplicity and robustness. The accumulated hysteretic energy dissipation affected by TMD was examined, and the ratio of the hysteretic energy absorption in the structure with TMD to that without it is proposed to be used, in conjunction with the peak displacement ratio, as a supplementary TMD performance index since it gives an indication of the accumulated damage induced in the inelastic structures. For the ground motions considered, TMD would be effective in reducing the hysteretic energy absorption demand in the critical storeys for buildings in the 1.8–2.8 s range. The consequence is reduction in damage of the buildings which would otherwise suffer heavy damage in the absence of TMD, resulting in economical restorability in the damage control limit state. This is of practical significance in view of the current trend toward performance‐based design. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

n—D Radon变换与波动方程偏移

本文把Ｒａｄｏｎ变换公式推广到任意ｎ维的情况。同时结合ｎ维Ｒａｄｏｎ变换和摄动理论提出了一种既能用于地面资料又能用于ＶＳＰ资料的偏移方法。     

带阻尼的一维地震反射波成像

本文是文献［８］的继续，文中提出了地震勘探的带阻尼波动方程反演的新方法，应用此反演算法可以通过微机识别地层的波阻抗，这里把地层分成１００层，地震数据含有１０％的误差，且反演计算时间仅仅是正演计算时间的三倍．文献［１］－［４］的计算方法是基于波动方程的混合问题，而文献［８］所提出的反演算法是基于波动方程的哥西问题，许多例子充分说明后者更有效．     

Spatial variation of seismic motion induced by propagation of body waves

Spatial variation of earthquake ground motion is an important phenomenon that cannot be ignored in the design and safety of strategic structures. Several models have been developed to describe this variation using statistical, mathematical or physical approaches. The latter approach is not specific to an event. A recent contribution, which uses such an approach and called complete stochastic deamplification approach (CSDA), was developed [1]. The aim of this paper is to analyze the spatial variation of earthquake motion induced by the propagation of body waves using the CSDA. Coherency functions are evaluated for the cases of SH–SV–P waves propagating through stratified soil. Results obtained show that the variation of the coherency function is not the same for vertical and horizontal components and that the motion is more coherent at depth than at the free surface. In fact, we found that the rate of decrease with frequency and distance is not the same if P–SV waves propagate through stratified soil.     

Seismic hazard in Takamatsu Japan from fault trenching and paleo-liquefaction studies

Takamatsu is a harbor city of 330,000 people on the northern shore of Shikoku Island, southwest Japan. Earthquakes in the Nankai Trough, typically of magnitude M 8+, have been considered the primary source of seismic hazard for the island and Takamatsu. A major active fault system, the Median Tectonic Line, runs across the Shikoku from east to west near the north shore. There is no documented historical seismicity associated with this major fault system in Shikoku or with associated faults such as the 20 km Nagao Fault near Takamatsu. Therefore the trenches were cut across some of the more important faults to expose the record of past seismicity. Additional data on past seismicity is derived from paleo-liquefaction studies in the Takamatsu plain. This paper describes the trenching and paleo-seismic studies and discusses the implications of the findings for seismic hazard in Takamatsu.     

Flow and deformation failure of sandy slopes

The effects of earthquake induced pore pressure on seismic and post seismic stability conditions of cohesionless slopes are investigated with reference to the infinite slope scheme. In cohesionless slopes the shear strength reduction caused by pore pressure build-up may lead the slope to a deformation failure or to a flow failure if liquefaction conditions are approached. Two critical values of the seismic induced pore pressure ratio are introduced to evaluate the effect of shear strength reduction on the slope failure mechanism. The results are given in the form of stability charts and a procedure for the evaluation of the seismic stability condition is described. The procedure gives useful information about the failure mechanism that slopes may exhibit and the displacement analysis which should be carried out.     

Predicting average annual groundwater levels from climatic variables: an empirical model

On the basis of one-dimensional theoretical water flow model, we demonstrate that the groundwater level variation follows a pattern similar to recharge fluctuation, with a time delay that depends on the characteristics of aquifer, recharge pattern as well as the distance between the recharge and observation locations. On the basis of a water budget model and the groundwater flow model, we propose an empirical model that links climatic variables to groundwater level. The empirical model is tested using a partial data set from historical records of water levels from more than 80 wells in a monitoring network for the carbonate rock aquifer, southern Manitoba, Canada. The testing results show that the predicted groundwater levels are very close to the observed ones in most cases. The overall average correlation coefficient between the predicted and observed water levels is 0.92. This proposed empirical statistical model could be used to predict variations in groundwater level in response to different climate scenarios in a climate change impact assessment.     

Species sensitivity distributions: data and model choice

Species sensitivity distributions (SSDs) are increasingly incorporated into ecological risk assessment procedures. Although these new techniques offer a more transparent approach to risk assessment they demand more and superior quality data. Issues of data quantity and quality are especially important for marine datasets that tend to be smaller (and have fewer standard test methods) when compared with freshwater data. An additional source of uncertainty when using SSDs is appropriate selection from the range of methods used in their construction. We show through examples the influence of data quantity, data quality, and choice of model. We then show how regulatory decisions may be affected by these factors.