Evaluation of Liquefaction Potential Index Along Western Coast of South Korea Using SPT and CPT

For South Korea, liquefaction potential along the western coast has not been widely assessed because South Korea is considered to be a low seismic hazard. However, recent earthquake events and historical records indicate that the seismic hazard of South Korea should not be ignored. Moreover, as artificial fills are extensively used along the western coast for development, liquefaction evaluation of the soils in this area is necessary. In this paper, we present: (1) the seismic characteristics of the study area; (2) procedures for evaluating liquefaction potential, focusing on the liquefaction potential index (LPI) approach; and (3) LPI distributions at several representative locations along the western coast of South Korea under various seismic scenarios. The liquefaction potential index represents the liquefaction potential over the upper 20 m of a boring or sounding. Using cone penetration test (CPT) and standard penetration test (SPT) data from two coastal sites, we compare and discuss CPT-based and SPT-based LPI values, particularly values computed in nonplastic, silt-rich soils. In these soils, it appears that the CPT yields lower liquefaction resistance, resulting in large LPI values. Finally, discussion and suggestions are provided for CPT- and SPT-based liquefaction assessment of low plasticity and high fines content soils.     

Geotechnical characterization of slump scars,eroded slopes,and correlated deposits on continental margins: Gulf of Lions,Western Mediterranean sea

Abstract

Vertical variations of geotechnical properties in the uppermost sediment layers characterize the main sedimentary processes acting on the construction and destruction of progressive‐type continental slopes. In the Gulf of Lions, the original thicknesses and distribution of the uppermost sedimentary layers of the continental slope and rise, which consist of Holocene muds overlying Pleistocene muds, have been greatly modified by erosion and several kinds of slope failure processes. Each process is typified through sets of geotechnical properties measured in the eroded or slumped sections and in the associated sediment accumulations.

In slump scars, the water‐rich Holocene muds lie on fine, overconsolidated, Pleistocene muds with high plasticity and low shear strength. In bottom current‐eroded slopes, where modern sedimentation is extremely reduced, the Pleistocene muds frequently outcrop and may sometimes be overlain by a very thin layer of Holocene muds. The Pleistocene muds of eroded slopes are overconsolidated and more silty and less plastic than the Pleistocene muds from slopes affected by slope failure, their shear strength being 10 times greater.

Deposits at the toe of slumps are very often formed by several superposed three‐layer units (triplets of interstratified Holocene, transitional, and Pleistocene layers) issued from retrogressive slumping occurring in the slump scars above their head area. The main body of each layer is then relatively undisturbed, showing the usual burial geotechnical gradients due to overburden pressure (i.e., decrease of water content and increase of unit weight and shear strength). At the toe of bottom current‐eroded slopes, a thick and homogeneous layer of Holocene muds overlies the Pleistocene muds; this Holocene layer has unappreciable burial depth gradient of its geotechnical parameters because of a high rate of modem and continuous deposition.     

Offshore sand sources for beach replenishment: Potential borrows on the continental shelf of the Eastern Gulf of Mexico

Erosion of sandy beaches is a worldwide problem that elicits innovative geoengineer‐ing techniques to reduce adverse impacts of shoreline retreat. Beach replenishment has emerged as the “soft”; shore‐stabilization technique of choice for mitigating beach erosion. This method of shore protection involves the addition of sand to the littoral sediment budget for sacrificial purposes. Because inland sand sources are often uneconomical or impractical to use, and known nearshore sources are limited, finding adequate quantities of suitable sand on the inner continental shelf is often vital to beach replenishment projects. The technical studies of survey and materials analysis that identify and delineate usable sand sources are sometimes almost as expensive as small‐project dredging, pumping, and placing the sand on the beach as fill. Inadequate quantity or substandard quality of shelf sand, as well as often‐prohibitive overhead expenses, thus compel shoreline managers to seek suitable sand sources offshore.

In the study area off the central‐west coast of Florida, offshore potential borrow areas (PBAs) were identified on the basis of studies conducted in reconnoitory and detailed phases. Sophisticated state‐of‐the‐art equipment used in this investigation provided more detailed subbottom mapping information than is normally obtained with conventional seismic equipment. An example of sand exploration studies was incorporated in a 215‐km² survey of offshore areas by conducting bathymetric surveys and subbottom seismic profiling, collecting jet probes, grab samples, and vibrocores, and analyzing sediment grading in subsamples from vibrocores. These combined analyses indicated that at least 8.8 ×10⁶ m³ of sand is available in potential borrow areas from 7.0 to 12 km offshore in water depths of 8.0 to 11.5 m. In the PBAs, mean grain size of sand falls into the range 0.13–0.53 mm, sorting averages 0.65–1.31ø, and the overall silt content varies from 3.9–8.5%. High silt contents (13–19%) mapped in some areas make these sedimentary deposits unsuitable as fill for artificial beach renourishment.     

Comparison of vane shear and fall cone strengths of soft marine clay

A total of 1,014 measures of sediment shear strengths were measured by means of miniature vane shear and fall cone tests on five gravity cores collected in Eckernfo‐erde Bay, Baltic Sea. Paired t test was used to compare the shear strengths measured by the two methods. It was found that fall cone strength calculated with Wood's K₆₀value (0.29) overestimates the vane shear strength by 0.15 kPa (a = 0.001) and the sample mean of the fall cone strength is 4.1% higher than the mean of the vane shear strength. However, fall cone strength calculated with Hansbo's K₆₀ value (0.24) underestimates the vane shear strength by 0.88 kPa (a = 0.001), and the sample mean of the fall cone strength is 13.8% less than the mean of the vane shear strength. Both calculated fall cone strengths are significantly different from the vane shear strength, with a p value of less than 0.001. Regression analysis of the Echernfoerde Bay data indicates that a new K₆₀ value is 0.275 with a confidence interval (a = 0.01) from 0.2704 to 0.2786. Paired t test shows that there is no significant difference between miniature vane shear and fall cone tests for these samples if the fall cone strength is calculated with K₆₀ = 0.275.     

烟台海域海岛自动站大风对比试验

烟台北部面临黄、渤海,海岛自动站分布众多.我们发现,在同一大风过程中,各海岛自动站的风速、风向因为海拔高度、周围地形影响、下垫面摩擦的不同造成明显差异.本文主要以长岛作为渤海海峡大风的代表站,以崆峒岛和芝罘岛作为烟台北部沿海海域大风的代表站,利用便携自动站的观测数据近似代表海面大风的实况,与代表站进行大风的对比试验,对比试验的数据均采用指数廓线公式订正到海面10m高度.分析了三个海岛自动站的不同风向下的海面大风的实际代表性,并给出不同风向下的大风订正值.     

Application of High Energy Dynamic Compaction in Coastal Reclamation Areas

High energy dynamic compaction (HEDC) is adopted in a coastal reclamation area because the grain size of backfilled soil mostly ranges between 20 cm and 100 cm. The in situ tests for evaluating the effectiveness of HEDC were performed on the backfilled soil ground. The crater depth per drop and the whole test zone elevations before and after HEDC were measured and analyzed. Dynamic penetration tests and spectral analysis of surface wave (SASW) tests were used for investigating the improvement depth. Furthermore, the allowable bearing capacity of HEDC treated ground was determined based on the results of plate-load tests. It was found that HEDC did not cause the ground surface heave during construction, and was more effective than low energy dynamic compaction (LEDC) in terms of applied energy utilization. Based on the test results, the improvement depth of HEDC at this site was not less than 14 m, and there was no obvious weak layer within the range of improvement depth. The allowable bearing capacities were larger than 160 kPa. The investigation results indicate that the HEDC technique is an effective way for improving backfilled coarse-grained soil in coastal reclamation areas. This technique helps to achieve both greater improvement depths and higher ground bearing capacities as compared with LEDC.     

循环荷载下加固土体孔压的模糊正交试验分析

针对地铁循环荷载下加固软粘土的孔隙水压力发展规律,对上海地铁4号线宝山-海伦引导段隧道周围的加固软黏土进行室内GDS循环三轴试验。结合重复正交设计法安排试验,借助模糊数学的理论与方法处理试验数据,充分考虑了振动频率（0.5、1.5、2.5 Hz）、动应力幅值（20、30、40 kPa）、固结比（1、1.4、2）以及超固结比（1、1.5、2）对土体孔隙水压力的影响。研究结果表明:振动频率、动应力幅值、固结比及超固结比对加固软黏土孔隙水压力的影响率分别为0.722、15.821、0.944及6.628;这说明影响加固软粘土孔隙水压力变化的主要因素是动应力幅值及超固结比,而固结比和振动频率的影响不显著。     

Numerical Simulation of Rainfall-induced Xianchi Reservoir Landslide in Yunyang, Chongqing, China

A calamitous landslide happened at 22:00 on September 1, 2014 in the Yunyang area of Chongqing City, southwest China, enforcing the evacuation of 508 people and damaging 23 buildings. The landslide volume comprised 1.44 million m3 of material in the source area and 0.4 million m3 of shoveled material. The debris flow runout extended 400 m vertically and 1600 m horizontally. The Xianchi reservoir landslide event has been investigated as follows: (1) samples collected from the main body of landslide were carried out using GCTS ring shear apparatus; (2) the parameters of shear and pore water pressure have been measured; and (3) the post-failure characteristics of landslide have been analyzed using the numerical simulation method. The excess pore-water pressure and erosion in the motion path are considered to be the key reasons for the long-runout motion and the scale-up of landslides, such as that at Xianchi, were caused by the heavy rainfall. The aim of this paper is to acquired numerical parameters and the basic resistance model, which is beneficial to improve simulation accuracy for hazard assessment for similar to potentially dangerous hillslopes in China and elsewhere.     

突发地质灾害气象预警统计模型与应用

通过引入地质灾害潜势度,突发地质灾害气象预警统计模型解决了雨量判据法不能明确表达地质环境条件的问题,在此基础上,提出了潜势度计算、大气降雨变量设计、预警方程优化3方面的改进方法。为提高潜势度计算的准确性,增加了基于卡方检验的地质环境因子独立性判别步骤;对地质环境因子确信程度初始值和权值计算中确信程度变化量初始值设置进行了规定;并将预警模型中累计雨量修正为更为合理的有效累计雨量。在现有的预警方程的基础上提出了基于联合概率分析的预警方程,避免了其与基本地质认识和物理规律存在一定距离、方程系数的意义不明确的局限。以2009年7月2日发布的24 h雨量预报为例,计算结果表明：虽然预报区域面积从101 008 km²减小到27 553 km²,但是地质灾害点落入预报区的比例从44%增加到62%。这说明通过改进的预警模型理论上更加严密,空间准确率有所提高,空报率有所下降。     

区域Delaunay三角剖分法在全国平均降水量中的应用

介绍了Delaunay三角网的性质及其算法类型;根据1980～2009年全国2200个观测站的降水量资料,将观测点和采集的边界点共同进行普通的Delaunay三角剖分,通过删除边界点及其区域外的三角形以实现区域Delaunay三角剖分,得到了较理想全国陆地的Delaunay三角网;随后对球面上的三角片进行面积计算,在已知站点的经纬度情况下,将大地坐标系转换到空间直角坐标系中,应用平面三角余弦定理获得球面三角内角,从而求得三角片面积,并以面积大小确定各个站点降水量的权重系数,得到全国平均降水量值。对比分析了30年的全国不同时间尺度(日、月、年)平均降水量,Delaunay三角法对应全国平均降水量均值和标准差都明显低于算术平均法,但是两种方法计算的降水量值的相关系数较高;通过Shapiro-Wilk方法进行正态性检验分析,两种计算方法求得的年平均降水量总体服从正态分布;在方差奇性的F检验中,两者的方差具有非奇性特点;使用t检验,在显著性α=0.05时,Delaunay三角剖分法计算的全国平均降水量总体均值偏小。最后,根据欧洲和日本数值模式2009年的降水预报,对于两方法计算结果进行了比较,分析表明在较大区域的平均降水量计算中,较之于传统的算术平均法,基于区域的Delaunay三角剖分法更为合理;区域平均降水量不仅和计算方法有关,还和区域气候特点有密切关系。