Limit states and failure mechanisms of viscous dampers and the implications for large earthquakes

Fluid viscous dampers are used to control story drifts and member forces in structures during earthquake events. These elements provide satisfactory performance at the design‐level or maximum considered earthquake. However, buildings using fluid viscous dampers have not been subjected to very large earthquakes with intensities greater than the design and maximum considered events. Furthermore, an extensive database of viscous damper performance during large seismic events does not exist. To address these issues, a comprehensive analytical and experimental investigation was conducted to determine the performance of damped structures subjected to large earthquakes. A critical component of this research was the development and verification of a detailed viscous damper mathematical model that incorporates limit states. The development of this model and the laboratory and simulation results conclude good correlation with the new model and the damper limit states and provide superior results compared with the typical damper model when considering near collapse evaluation of structures. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Dynamic propagation criteria for catastrophic failure in planar landslides

Quantitative assessment of the risk of submarine landslides is an essential part of the design process for offshore oil and gas developments in deep water, beyond the continental shelf. Landslides may be triggered by a reduction in shear strength of subsea sediments over a given zone, caused for example by seismic activity. Simple criteria are then needed to identify critical conditions whereby the zone of weakness could grow catastrophically to cause a landslide. A number of such criteria have been developed over the last decade, based either on ideas drawn from fracture mechanics, or considering the equilibrium of the initial weakened zone and adjacent process zones of gradually softening material. Accounting for the history of the weak zone initiation is critical for derivation of reliable propagation criteria, in particular considering dynamic effects arising from accumulating kinetic energy of the failing material, which will allow the failure to propagate from a smaller initial zone of weakened sediments. Criteria are developed here for planar conditions, taking full account of such dynamic effects, which are shown to be capable of reducing the critical length of the softened zone by 20% or more compared with criteria based on static conditions. A numerical approach is used to solve the governing dynamic equations for the sliding material, the results from which justify assumptions that allow analytical criteria to be developed for the case where the initial softening occurs instantaneously. The effect of more gradual softening is also explored. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An improved SPH method for saturated soils and its application to investigate the mechanisms of embankment failure: Case of hydrostatic pore‐water pressure

The method of smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) has recently been applied to computational geomechanics and has been shown to be a powerful alternative to the standard numerical method, that is, the finite element method, for handling large deformation and post‐failure of geomaterials. However, very few studies apply the SPH method to model saturated or submerged soil problems. Our recent studies of this matter revealed that significant errors may be made if the gradient of the pore‐water pressure is handled using the standard SPH formulation. To overcome this problem and to enhance the SPH applications to computational geomechanics, this article proposes a general SPH formulation, which can be applied straightforwardly to dry and saturated soils. For simplicity, the current work assumes hydrostatic pore‐water pressure. It is shown that the proposed formulation can remove the numerical error mentioned earlier. Moreover, this formulation automatically satisfies the dynamic boundary conditions at a submerged ground surface, thereby saving computational cost. Discussions on the applications of the standard and new SPH formulations are also given through some numerical tests. Furthermore, techniques to obtain the correct SPH solution are also proposed and discussed throughout. As an application of the proposed method, the effect of the dilatancy angle on the failure mechanism of a two‐sided embankment subjected to a high groundwater table is presented and compared with that of other solutions. Finally, the proposed formulation can be considered a basic formulation for further developments of SPH for saturated soils. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Bearing capacity of strip foundations reinforced with geogrid sheets by using upper bound finite‐element limit analysis

By using the upper bound finite‐elements limit analysis, with an inclusion of single and two horizontal layers of reinforcements, the ultimate bearing capacity has been computed for a rigid strip footing placed over (i) fully granular, (ii) cohesive‐frictional, and (iii) fully cohesive soils. It is assumed that (i) the reinforcements are structurally strong so that no axial tension failure can occur, (ii) the reinforcement sheets have negligible resistance to bending, and (iii) the shear failure can take place between the reinforcement and soil mass. It is expected that the different approximations on which the analysis has been based would generally remain applicable for reinforcements in the form of geogrid sheets. A method has been proposed to incorporate the effect of the reinforcement in the analysis. The efficiency factors, η_c and η_γ, to be multiplied with N_c and N_γ , for finding the bearing capacity of reinforced foundations, have been established. The results have been obtained (i) for different values of ? in case of fully granular and cohesive‐frictional soils, and (ii) for different rates at which the cohesion increases with depth for a fully cohesive soil. The optimum positions of the reinforcements' layers have also been determined. The effect of the reinforcements' length on the results has also been analyzed. As compared to cohesive soils, the granular soils, especially with higher values of ?, cause a much greater increase in the bearing capacity. The results compare reasonably well with the available theoretical and experimental data from literature. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Stress‐dependent hardening and failure surfaces of dry sand

During several triaxial compression experiments on plastic hardening, softening, and failure properties of dense sand specimens, it was found on various stress paths that the size of the failure surface was not constant. Instead, it changed depending on the current state of hydrostatic pressure. This finding is in contrast to the standard opinion consisting of the fact that the failure surface remains constant, once it has been reached during an experiment or in situ. In general, the behaviour of cohesionless granular‐material‐like sand is somehow characterised in between fluid and solid, where the solid behaviour results from the angle of internal friction and the confining pressure. Although the friction angle is an intrinsic material property, the confining pressure varies with the boundary conditions, thus defining different solid properties like plastic hardening, softening, and also failure. Based on our findings, it was the goal of the present contribution to introduce an improved setting for the plastic strain hardening and softening behaviour including the newly found yield properties at the limit state. For the identification of the material parameters, a complete triaxial experimental analysis of the tested sand is given. The overall elasto‐plasticity concept is validated by numerical computations of several laboratory foundation‐ and slope‐failure experiments. The performance of the proposed approach is compared with the standard concept of a constant failure surface, where the corresponding yield surfaces are understood as contours of equivalent plastic work or plastic strain. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

独立参数降雹条件概率法识别雹云之探讨

利用江苏盐城和福建雷达回波资料，探空资料，天气实况，对独立参数降雹条件概率法识别雹云的应用范围，零度层高度对识别准确率的影响以及如何选取区分水平高的参数等问题进行了探讨，得出一些有意义的结论，有一定的实用价值。     

The System Analysis and Reliability Evaluation of Rock Slopes

The principal of preferred plane analysis is a new research view and model of rock slope engineering geology. It advocates that the rock slope stability, boundary conditions and failure model are controlled by preferred planes. Therefore, the problem of slope stability evaluation can be converted into the search for preferred planes and determination of preferred separating bodies. The organic combination of the deterministic model and the indeterministic model can be realized by applying the systems engineering principle and the research model and method of reliability analysis in the quantitative evaluation and prediction of rock slope stability. Finally, the paper presents the case studies of slopes of the Yangtze Gorge Project and the Ma'anshan openpit mine.     

不连续岩体变形破坏过程中AE的空间演化与意义

通过一些典型节理化岩体模型变形破坏过程中的AE事件的定位分析和破裂面形态的研究,探讨了不连续岩体变形破坏过程的空间演化特征。结果表明:单节理岩体变形破坏的空间动态特征受节理角控制,随着节理角从小变大,岩体的变形破坏方式从AE在局部集中的突发式失稳向AE弥漫于整个节理层面的类似渐进式的破坏形式发展；失稳破裂面从简单的整体状岩-膏界面变成形态复杂的层内复合破裂面；复杂节理岩体的变形破坏受一条（组）主导构造控制,强AE事件集中发生在不连续构造交汇部位,在包含多条主构造的岩体模型中最终失稳破裂面只与最后阶段AE的位置一致。     

What has seismic missed?

The relative efficiencies of alternative geometric patterns of both discrete borehole and continuous grid line search have been extensively discussed in the mathematical geology literature. However, an equally important problem has received virtually no attention: How to use a sample of properties of geologic anomalies detected by grid line search of a region to estimate systematically both the number and size distribution of geologic anomalies missed by the search. We show how estimation methods developed in the sample survey design literature can be adapted to this problem, and we apply these methods to data describing 94 anomalies identified by a seismic reconnaissance survey.