Reliability assessment of granular filters in embankment dams

Empirical criteria have been used successfully to design filters of most embankment large dam projects throughout the world. However, these empirical rules are only applicable to a particular range of soils tested in laboratory and do not take into account the variability of the base material and filter particle sizes. In addition, it is widely accepted that the safety of fill dams is mainly dependent on the reliability of their filter performance. The work herein presented consists in a new general method for assessing the probability of fulfilling any empirical filter design criteria accounting for base and filter heterogeneity by means of first‐order reliability methods (FORM), so that reliability indexes and probabilities of fulfilling any particular criteria are obtained. This method will allow engineers to estimate the safety of existing filters in terms of probability of fulfilling their design criteria and might also be used as a decision tool on sampling needs and material size tolerances during construction. In addition, sensitivity analysis makes possible to analyse how reliabilities are influenced by different sources of input data. Finally, in case of a portfolio risk assessment, this method will allow engineers to compare the safety of several existing dams in order to prioritize safety investments and it is expected to be a very useful tool to evaluate probabilities of failure due to internal erosion. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Centrifugal test of a road embankment built after new dredger fill on thick marine clay

Abstract

The construction of a 100-km road network is planned on a land reclamation area in the Oujiang Estuary in China. The embankment had a height of 4 m and a base width of 60 m. The reclamation area is newly filled by a 3-m dredger fill on a 48-m thick layer of marine clay. Estimation of the settlement of the future road network is difficult. To guide the construction of the road network, a 1/100-scale centrifuge model test was performed with a marine clay sample from the construction site to simulate the layered settlements and evaluate the drainage effect of prefabricated vertical drains in the dredger fill in the following 10 years. The results of the centrifuge modeling test are verified by 10-month in situ monitoring, which shows agreement between the centrifuge modeling test results and the in situ results. The test results indicate that additional time is needed to reinforce the newly added dredger fill by the surcharge preloading method to uplift the elevation of the reclamation area with dredger fill.     

青藏高原清水河多年冻土区铁路路基沉降变形特征研究

通过埋设在青藏铁路路基中两个断面内的6条沉降观测管3 a来的地基沉降变形资料,研究了高原多年冻土区铁路路基的沉降变形特征,分析了填筑铁路路基对下伏多年冻土融化变形的影响。研究表明,由于受到填筑路基时赋存在路基填料内的热量的影响,铁路路基下伏多年冻土上限在施工初期会有一个明显的下移沉降,铁路路基也随之有一个较大幅度的工后下沉变动,随着时间的推移,路基下降速率会逐渐下降,但在短时间内不会停止下来,而且由于太阳辐射和路基边坡形状的影响,路基向阳面与背阴面的变形有较大的差别,且在近南北向展布的路基上表现最为明显。     

The Mount Parnitha (Athens) Earthquake of September 7, 1999: A Disaster Management Perspective

Natural Hazards - Strong earthquakes in the proximity of densely inhabited urban areas pose one ofthe most complicated disaster management situations faced by societies today. Herethe experience...     

洪水对非防洪工程建设项目影响评价方法研究

讨论了洪水对洪泛区或滞蓄洪区中非防洪工程建设项目影响评价方法,包括洪灾直接经济损失和间接经济损失的估算方法,洪灾发生时含有有毒物质的非防洪工程建设项目对环境的影响,以及对地下水的污染等影响评价方法.这些方法是洪水对非防洪工程建设项目影响评价的核心,也是整个影响评价的重点和难点所在.这些方法可为制定洪水对洪泛区非防洪工程建设项目影响评价指南或规范提供科学依据.     

青藏铁路抛石路基的温度特性研究

铁路道渣和片石铺层的对流换热为多孔介质的热传导问题，根据多孔介质中流体热对流的连续性方程、动量方程和能量方程，应用伽辽金法导出了多孔介质对流换热的有限元公式，并对抛石路基和传统道渣路基在未来25a创温度变化进行了预报分析和比较．计算结果表明，在150cm的抛石厚度，片石直径为10cm，年温度较差30℃的倩况下，在路基中心线y＝一5m处，抛石路基下的冻土温度要比传统路基的温度低2．45℃，抛石路基有对其下面的冻土提供冷能的制冷作用，可以保证冻土路基的稳定．因此，推荐该种路基作为青藏铁路高温冻土区的路基结构，可以最大限度地保护冻土区的铁路．     

青藏铁路管道通风试验路基地温变化及热状况分析

基于青藏铁路北麓河试验段管道通风路基在2个冻融循环周期内的地温监测资料，分析了路基温度的发展、温度场分布特征及多年冻土的热流量变化．结果表明：通风管埋设于路堤中部的路基温度变化和发展情况与一般路基类似，路基在施工后的2个冻融周期内仍处于整体升温的过程；通风管埋设于路堤下部的路基，虽然前2个冻融循环周期内土体温度与原始状态相比同样有所升高，但开始出现逐渐降低的趋势，同时地温场的分布在横向上的对称性也比较好，在热交换方面，一般填土路基和通风管位于路堤中部的路基在施工后的前2个冻融循环周期内一直处于吸热过程，而通风管位于路堤下部的路基在经历了第1个周期的持续吸热过程后，在第2个冻融循环周期内已经开始放热。     

March 1990 Hailstorm Damage in Sydney,Australia

On 18 March 1990, an intense hailstorm in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia caused insured damage valued at A$million – the third most expensive loss event in Australian insurance history.While damage was widespread with claims for buildings spread across more than 130 postcodes, 20% of the claims came from just two postcodes. The proportion of dwellings of brick construction that made a claim was significantly less than the proportion of policies for this type of construction. Fibro (fibre-cement), timber and aluminium-clad dwellings are more likely to sustain damage than brick buildings in this type of storm.Hail caused the majority of damage to exterior building items while water damage more commonly affected interior building items and contents. While the repair of Interior building items such as ceilings and walls cost more than contents damage on average, the repair/replacement costs of contents contributed more to the total costs. Damage to window glass and roofs together made up more than 50% of the total claim.     

多年冻土地区砂砾路面路堤临界高度数值分析

In permafrost regions of Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, the critical embankment height must be considered in the process of the construction of highway, especially for the global climatic warming. In this paper, the two-dimensional numerical analysis for the critical embankment height (for gravel road surface and coarse-grained soil) has been performed by using thefinite element method. In the calculation, we think that the service life of the construction is at least 50 years. The mean annual air temperatures applied to the calculation model are -6.5 ℃, -6.0 ℃, -5.5 ℃, -5.0 ℃, -4.5 ℃ and -4.0 ℃, respectively, and the value of temperature rise are taken as 1.10℃ in the coming 50 years. The minimum embankment heights derived from the analysis are 0.85 m, 0.92 m, 1.01 m, 1.18 m, 1.60 m and 2.66 m for the different mean annual air temperatures and the maximum embankment heights are 7.68 m,7.55 m, 7.34 m, 7.00 m, 6.45 m and 5.85m, accordingly. On condition that the service life of embankment is 50 years, the critical value of the mean annual air temperature is -3.5 ℃. Namely, in the areas where the mean annual air temperature is higher than -3.5 ℃, the critical embankment height does not exist.