The dependence of response spectrum on the tectonic ambient shear stress field

Introduction The acceleration response spectrum and peak ground acceleration are the necessary and im-portant parameters in earthquake-resistant design at present. They are still active research field. With the increase of digital high accurate strong motion observation data, especially the earth-quakes of Loma Prieta (M=7.0) in 1989; Landers (M=7.3) in 1992; Big Bear (M=6.4) in 1994 and Northridge (M=6.7) in 1994 in USA; Kozani (M=6.6) earthquake and afteshocks in 1995 in Greece; Dinar…     

Strain accumulation in sand due to cyclic loading: drained triaxial tests

Our aim is the prediction of the accumulation of strain and/or stress under cyclic loading with many (thousands to millions) cycles and relatively small amplitudes. A high-cycle constitutive model is used for this purpose. Its formulas are based on numerous cyclic tests. This paper describes drained tests with triaxial compression and uniaxial stress cycles. The influence of the strain amplitude, the average stress, the density, the cyclic preloading history and the grain size distribution on the direction and the intensity of strain accumulation is discussed.     

Caldera formation by magma withdrawal from a reservoir beneath a volcanic edifice

Caldera formation has been explained by magma withdrawal from a crustal reservoir, but little is known about the conditions that lead to the critical reservoir pressure for collapse. During an eruption, the reservoir pressure is constrained to lie within a finite range: it cannot exceed the threshold value for eruption, and cannot decrease below another threshold value such that feeder dykes get shut by the confining pressure, which stops the eruption. For caldera collapse to occur, the critical reservoir pressure for roof failure must therefore be within this operating range. We use an analytical elastic model to evaluate the changes of reservoir pressure that are required for failure of roof rocks above the reservoir with and without a volcanic edifice at Earth's surface. With no edifice at Earth's surface, faulting in the roof region can only occur in the initial phase of reservoir inflation and affects a very small part of the focal area. Such conditions do not allow caldera collapse. With a volcanic edifice, large tensile stresses develop in the roof region, whose magnitude increase as the reservoir deflates during an eruption. The edifice size must exceed a threshold value for failure of the roof region before the end of eruption. The largest tensile stresses are reached at Earth's surface, indicating that faulting starts there. Failure affects an area whose horizontal dimensions depend on edifice and chamber dimensions. For small and deep reservoirs, failure conditions cannot be achieved even if the edifice is very large. Quantitative predictions are consistent with observations on a number of volcanoes.     

Tidal Stress/Strain and the b-values of Acoustic Emissions at the Underground Research Laboratory, Canada

The correlation between the b-values of acoustic emissions (AEs) and the phase of the moon was investigated at the Underground Research Laboratory (URL) in Canada. The same data as those used in Iwata (2002) were examined, which showed that the occurrence of AEs is correlated with the phase of the moon. It was expected, therefore, that the b-value of the AEs would also be sensitive to tidal stress/strain fluctuations. We investigated the variation of the b-values as a function of the phase of the moon. Results show that b-values immediately following the times of full/new moon are higher than those at other times. Using AIC (Akaike Information Criterion) and random (Monte Carlo) simulations, it was confirmed that this feature is statistically significant. We also investigated whether or not there was a change in the b-values immediately before the times of full/new moon, but no statistically significant change was observed. The results suggest that the effect of stress/strain fluctuations on AE occurrences at the URL is asymmetric to the times of full/new moon.All authors are members of the Academic Robotics Group. In listing The Academic Robotics Group, the authors are endeavoring to place each of the participant institutions on an equal footing in terms of effort and authorship. M. A. Talamini is serving as presenter.     

垫层对CFG桩复合地基影响的分析

对CFG桩复合地基垫层进行分析 ,探讨了垫层厚度和模量对桩土应力比、桩侧摩阻力、沉降变形、承载力的影响 ,并得出一些规律     

Deep Mechanical Background for the Cenozoic Volcanism in the Tibetan Plateau

INTRODUCTION Volcanoesaremostlyobservedinoceanicridges,hotspotsandcontinentalriftzones(Hongetal.,2003),andarerarelyobservedincontinentalinteri ors.However,sincethevolcanoeswithintheconti nentinteriorscannotbeattributedtotheplate/block marginprocess,theydr…     

Effect of suction on the mechanical behaviour of iron ore rock

The effect of suction on the behaviour of iron ore has been studied from both physical and mechanical points of view. The porosity and the suction phenomena have been analysed using different experimental techniques. Uniaxial compressive tests on partially saturated samples have shown that the suction is responsible for strength and cohesion improvement. Considering the theory of partially saturated porous soils of Coussy and Dangla (Mécanique des sols non saturés (2002 edn). Hermès Science: 2002; 390), we have proposed a constitutive law for partially saturated iron ore. The real increase in the apparent cohesion due to the capillary attraction forces is overestimated if the yield function is written in terms of effective stresses. The effect of the capillary cohesion has been modelled with a function in the expression of the apparent cohesion of the yield function. The effect of suction on the mechanical behaviour has been represented in the effective stresses space and in the total stresses space like the Alonso model (Géotechnique 1990; 40 :405–430). Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Fracture mechanics analysis of multiple cracks in anisotropic media

This paper presents a single‐domain boundary element method (BEM) for linear elastic fracture mechanics analysis in the two‐dimensional anisotropic material. In this formulation, the displacement integral equation is collocated on the un‐cracked boundary only, and the traction integral equation is collocated on one side of the crack surface only. A special crack‐tip element was introduced to capture exactly the crack‐tip behavior. A computer program with the FORTRAN language has been developed to effectively calculate the stress intensity factors of an anisotropic material. This BEM program has been verified having a good accuracy with the previous researches. Furthermore, by analyzing the different anisotropic degree cracks in a finite plate, we found that the stress intensity factors of crack tips had apparent influence by the geometry forms of cracks and media with different anisotropic degrees. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.