Time effects on dynamic soil properties under random excitation conditions

Two types of clayey soils, a kaolinite and a bentonite, were tested using a resonant column apparatus under random excitation conditions. The concept of root mean square (rms) strain was utilized for the purpose of strain calculations during random loading. The conventional estimator of the transfer function was used for random vibration analysis. The effect of confinement duration (at a constant pressure) on dynamic soil properties, namely damping and shear modulus, was evaluated. The results indicate that for both cohesive soils, the effect of time was less pronounced during random vibration than sinusoidal loading at the same rms strain. This effect is however more pronounced when the peak shearing strain of sinusoidal loading is considered. Furthermore, time effects were more pronounced at low strain levels than at high strain levels.     

River channel adjustments downstream from channelization works in England and Wales

Relatively little attention has been given to river channel adjustments that occur downstream from channelization works. This study is concerned with the nature of channel adjustments downstream from a total of 46 channelization works located in low and high energy environments in England and Wales. Channel changes are identified principally by the method of field survey and by reconstructing the original positions of eroded beds and banks. Use is also made of maps, aerial photographs, and engineering drawings of different dates and the technique of space-for-time substitution is applied. Enlargement of channel cross-sections through erosion had occurred downstream from a variety of types, sizes, and dates of channelization works. The maximum increase of channel size was 153 per cent. Out of a total of 14 sites with enlarged channel cross-sections, seven had undergone a change of width only, at a further three width increased rather than depth, and at the remaining four sites depth increases were dominant. These sites all have relatively high stream powers. Factors causing spatial variation of erosion included tree roots locally binding bank sediments and the occurrence of bends. Planform change had taken place at only one site. A further three high stream power sites had downstream reaches incised into bedrock and therefore did not exhibit adjustment. Channel enlargement is explained in terms of increased flood flows downstream from channelization works causing higher stream velocities, which in turn cause erosion, thereby increasing channel width and/or depth. Examination of flow records for 35 stations revealed flood events which would formerly have spread overbank but are now confined by the channelization works and are therefore likely to alter downstream flows. At sites with downstream change it is proposed that the energy of increased flows was sufficient to exceed a threshold required for erosion of perimeter sediments. By contrast the absence of change at a majority of sites in low energy lowland areas could be a reflection of both the incompetence of increased flows to erode and resistance provided by perimeter sediments. Sites with erosion features appear not to have yet attained new equilibrium conditions.     

The effect of the Mt St Helens eruption on tropospheric and stratospheric ions

Balloon-borne observations of electrical conductivity in the troposphere and stratosphere were performed using conductivity sondes at Garmisch-Partenkirchen, West Germany, from June to November, 1980, after the Mt St Helens eruption. A significant decrease of atmospheric ions in the altitudes from the troposphere to lower stratosphere has been detected until several months after the eruption in comparison with the observational results obtained before the eruption. Simulteneous ruby lidar observation a month after the eruption indicates an increased amount of aerosol at nearly the same altitude as that of conductivity decrease. Several months after the eruption it appears that aerosols detected by lidar and those effective in reducing ion concentration have different profiles.     

Relationships between land-use and forced-pool characteristics in the Colorado Front Range

Land use practices in Colorado during the last two centuries altered the supply of sediment and water to many channels in the upper South Platte Basin. As a result of increased supply of sediment and mobility and reduced peak flows, the characteristics of pools associated with channel constrictions, referred to as forced pools, may have been altered. Increased supply of sediment and reduced transport capacity of high flows could lead to aggradation in forced pools. Channel confined by road corridors could lead to high velocities at normal flows, increased energy dissipation from riprap, or even increased pool frequency resulting from failed riprap. To assess potential alterations, four hypotheses were tested: (1) impacted streams will show significantly different mean volume of pools than a control stream; (2) mean volume of pools on streams where land-use activities increased the supply of sediment will be significantly different from streams solely affected by flow regulation; (3) the strongest change in characteristics of pools of impacted streams will be a reduced volume of pools; (4) streams affected by road corridors will show statistically lower spacing of pools than streams unaffected by roads. The downstream spacing and residual volume of twenty consecutive forced pools were surveyed on five streams in the Colorado Front Range that varied from no contemporary impact to multiple historical and contemporary impacts. ANCOVA with stepwise model selection indicated that degree of land-use (categorical), bankfull spacing of pools, upstream riffle slope and expansion ratio were all significant (α = 0.1) predictors of volume of pools (R² = 0.73). Simple linear regression of mean volume of pools and stream specific variables (gradient, drainage area and discharge) and least square means comparison of mean volume of pools indicated a need to standardize volumes of pools by slope and discharge so that the volumes of pools could be compared among different levels of land-use. Significant correlations between drainage area and volume of pools allowed volume of pools to be standardized by drainage area and thereby discharge. This dimensionless variable was also significantly correlated with channel slope, which permitted the construction of a new variable, PV_QS (volume of pools standardized by discharge and slope). Least square means comparison of mean PV_QS revealed that the control reach was significantly different from road-impacted reaches. Mean volume of pools was significantly larger in the control reach compared to all but one road-impacted stream. This was likely a function of higher wood loading in the control reach and the competence of high flows in the road-impacted reach. Streams affected by road corridors did not have significantly different bankfull spacing of pools from streams not impacted by roads. The multiple interactions among control and response variables explored in this study indicate the need to identify the most constrained and sensitive response variables when attempting to assess channel response to land use.     

Seismicity, seismic input and site effects in the Sahel—Algiers region (North Algeria)

Algiers city is located in a seismogenic zone. To reduce the impact of seismic risk in this Capital city, a realistic modelling of the seismic ground motion (SGM) is conducted by using the hybrid method that combines the finite differences method and the modal summation. For this purpose, a complete database of geological, geophysical and earthquake data is constructed. A critical re-appraisal of the seismicity of the zone [2.25°E–3.50°E, 36.50°N–37.00°N] is performed and an earthquake list, for the period 1359–2002, is compiled. The analysis of existing and newly retrieved macroseismic information allowed the definition of earthquake parameters of macroseismic events for which a degree of reliability is assigned. Geological cross sections have been built up to model the SGM in the city, caused by the 1989 Mont-Chenoua and the 1924 Douéra earthquakes. Synthetic seismograms and response spectral ratio is produced for Algiers, and they show that the soft sediments in Algiers centre are responsible of the noticed amplification of the SGM.     

A contribution to seismic shear design of R/C walls in dual structures

The paper focuses on the seismic response of walls in dual (frame + wall) structures, with particular emphasis on shear behaviour. Although dual structures are widely used in earthquake-resistant medium-rise and high-rise buildings, the provisions of modern seismic codes regarding design of walls for shear are not fully satisfactory, particularly in the (common) case that walls of substantially different length form part of the same structure. Relevant provisions of the leading seismic codes are first summarised and their limitations discussed. Then an extensive parametric study is presented, involving two multistorey dual systems, one with identical walls, and one with walls with unequal length, designed to the provisions of Eurocode 8 for two different ductility classes (H and M). The walls of the same structures are also designed to other methods such as those used in New Zealand and Greece. The resulting different designs are then assessed by subjecting the structures to a suite of strong ground motions, carrying out inelastic time history analysis, and comparing the results against design action effects. It is found that although modern code procedures generally lead to satisfactory performance (differences among them do exist), the design of walls seems to be less appropriate in the case of unequal length walls. For this case a modified procedure is proposed, consisting of an additional factor to account for the relative contribution of walls of the same length to the total base and an improved envelope of wall shears along the height; this improved method seems to work better than the other procedures evaluated herein, but further calibration is clearly required.     

Inferred ground motions on Guadeloupe during the 2004 Les Saintes earthquake

Accurate estimates of the ground motions that occurred during damaging earthquakes are a vital part of many aspects of earthquake engineering, such as the study of the size and cause of the uncertainties within earthquake risk assessments. This article compares a number of methods to estimate the ground shaking that occurred on Guadeloupe (French Antilles) during the 21st November 2004 (M _w 6.3) Les Saintes earthquake, with the aim of providing more accurate shaking estimates for the investigation of the sources of uncertainties within loss evaluations, based on damage data from this event. The various techniques make differing use of the available ground-motion recordings of this earthquake and by consequence the estimates obtained by the different approaches are associated with differing uncertainties. Ground motions on the French Antilles are affected by strong local site effects, which have been extensively investigated in previous studies. In this article, use is made of these studies in order to improve the shaking estimates. It is shown that the simple methods neglecting the spatial correlation of earthquake shaking lead to uncertainties similar to those predicted by empirical ground-motion models and that these are uniform across the whole of Guadeloupe. In contrast, methods (such as the ShakeMap approach) that take account of the spatial correlation in motions demonstrate that shaking within roughly 10 km of a recording station (covering a significant portion of the investigated area) can be defined with reasonable accuracy but that motions at more distant points are not well constrained.     

Simulation of the dissolution of weathered versus unweathered limestone in carbonic acid solutions of varying strength

A simulation was undertaken within a climatic chamber to investigate limestone dissolution under varied carbonic acid (H₂CO₃) strengths as a possible analogue for future increases in atmospheric CO₂ arising from global warming. Twenty‐eight samples cut from a block of Bath (Box Hill) limestone from Somerville College, Oxford, which had been removed during restoration after 150 years in an urban environment, were weighed and placed in closed bottles of thin plastic containing varying concentrations of H₂CO₃. Half of the stone samples were derived from exposed surfaces of the stone block (weathered) while the others were obtained from the centre of the block on unexposed surfaces (unweathered). The purpose of this was to compare dissolution of previously weathered versus unweathered surfaces in strong (pH 4·73) versus weak (pH 6·43) solutions of H₂CO₃. A temperature of c. 19 °C was maintained within the chamber representing a plausible future temperature in Oxford for the year 2200 given current warming scenarios. The simulation lasted 25 days with a few stone samples being removed midway. Stone samples show reduced weight in all cases but one. There was greater dissolution of stone samples in a strong H₂CO₃ solution as conveyed by higher concentrations of total hardness and Ca²⁺ in the water samples as well as enhanced microscopic dissolution features identified using SEM. The simulation confirms that enhanced atmospheric CO₂ under global warming, given adequate moisture, will accelerate dissolution rates particularly of newly replaced limestone building stones. However, previously weathered surfaces, such as those on historical stone exposed for a century or more, appear to be less susceptible to the effects of such increased rainfall acidity. Conservation techniques which remove weathered surfaces, such as stone cleaning, may accelerate future decay of historical limestone structures by increasing their susceptibility to dissolution. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Analysis of the weightiness of site effects on reinforced concrete (RC) building seismic behaviour: The Adra town example (SE Spain)

The damage distribution in Adra town (south‐eastern Spain) during the 1993 and 1994 Adra earthquakes (5.0 magnitude), that reached a maximum intensity degree of VII (European Macroseismic Scale (EMS scale)), was concentrated mainly in the south‐east zone of the town and the most relevant damage occurred in reinforced concrete (RC) buildings with four or five storeys. In order to evaluate the influence of ground condition on RC building behaviour, geological, geomorphological and geophysical surveys were carried out, and a detailed map of ground surface structure was obtained. Short‐period microtremor observations were performed in 160 sites on a 100m × 100m dimension grid and Nakamura's method was applied in order to determine a distribution map of soil predominant periods. Shorter predominant periods (0.1–0.3 s) were found in mountainous and neighbouring zones and larger periods (greater than 0.5 s) in thicker Holocene alluvial fans. A relationship T = (0.049 ± 0.001)N, where T is the natural period of swaying motion and N is the number of storeys, has been empirically obtained by using microtremor measurements at the top of 38 RC buildings (ranging from 2 to 9 storeys). 1‐D simulation of strong motion on different soil conditions and for several typical RC buildings were computed, using the acceleration record in Adra town of the 1993 earthquake. It is noteworthy that all the aforementioned results show the influence of site effects in the degree and distribution of observed building damage. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Surface current variability in the Keum River Estuary (South Korea) during summer 2002 as observed by high-frequency radar and coastal monitoring buoy

High-frequency (HF) radar observations of surface currents were conducted for 3 months during summer 2002 in the Keum River estuary. A comparison between HF radar-derived currents and directly measured ones form a buoy showed that the regression slope is close to 1 and the correlation coefficient greater than 0.86, with an RMS difference less than 13 cm/s which is less than 17% of the tidal current. This fairly good agreement allows us to use HF radar observation in investigating the surface flow and circulation in this tidal-current-dominant coastal-plume area. To examine the spatial variation in tidal current characteristics, as well as currents associated with non-tidal forcing, the HF radar-derived currents were separated into tidal and sub-tidal frequency currents. The overall pattern of M₂-current ellipse distribution in the study area showed a counterclockwise rotation, with the offshore maximum current direction to the northeast. Eccentricity, the direction of maximum current, and the phase of net motion of the ellipse changed near the estuary mouth and near the gap of the Saemangeum reclamation tide dyke due to the complex coastal geometry and the out-flowing jet during the ebb period.