Journal of Engineering Geology

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The ever increasing growth and development of the metropolitan city of Karaj in recent years has placed implementation of basic studies on Alluvium of Karaj Plain on the top of significant priorities of the region’s development projects. Therefore, in the present paper, the alluvium of South Karaj was studied based on relevant numerous geotechnical laboratory and field tests. In this regard, an area from Pol-e Fardis to Serāh-e Andishe with a length of 10 km is selected and the geotechnical engineering features of this area were taken into careful consideration and study. The carried out studies divide South Karaj Alluvium into five independent parts whose engineering description are presented. On the other hand, since the results of most of relevant laboratory and field tests have been collected, some relations for calculating Elasticity Modulus, Soil Inner Friction Angle as well as other geotechnical parameters in South Karaj Alluvium are introduced. Finally, the process of soil classification in South Karaj Alluvium is compared with the same process in other regions of Karaj, and, given the soil engineering features of Southern part of South Karaj Alluvium, some suggestions are presented for optimization and facilitation of future development projects in south Karaj Alluvium. Geotechnical studies.

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Determination of stress in earthfill dams is one of the most important parameters in dam safety studies. Stress monitoring can be done using total pressure cells which are typically installed during construction. The cell is installed with its sensitive surface in direct contact with the soil to measure total stress of soil and in combination with piezometers to measure pore-water pressure acting in the soil mass. Total pressure cells needs to be installed with care to get reasonable measurements. However, measurements are often incompatible with the theoretical predictions such that pressure cell results usually have some inaccuracies. There are several parameters effecting pressure cell errors. However, in the present paper it is only focused on the height of embankment and the duration of dam construction. For this purpose, a case study, namely Alborz embankment dam located in northern part of Iran was studied. It is an earth dam with clay core with a height of 78 m. Using the monitoring data and considering the effect of embankment height and construction period parameters, a model is presented to predict the pressure cells error with Gene Expression Programming (GEP) procedure by GeneXProTools 4.0 software. The computed coefficient of correlation (R²) for the proposed model is 0.98 showing a good agreement with the monitoring data. The obtained results indicate that the ratio of height difference to time difference for Alborz dam has a significant role in dam pressure cells errors

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Due to the increasing importance of geomorphologic conditions on the seismic ground response, the effect of liquefiable soils on seismic ground surface response is discussed. At first, the equivalent linear analysis based on total stress model in the frequency domain is carried out and then the nonlinear analyses based on total stress, effective stress model and considering the pore water pressure development in time domain are done in order to evaluate the differences between the several types of ground response analysis methods. DEEPSOIL.Ver5 software is used based on the latest achievements and various techniques in both solution domains. LNG port project in Assaluyeh, situated in south of Iran, is considered as a case study. Due to lack of the real data recorded near-field fault at the project site, the simulated method is used in order to create the artificial earthquake. Also three far-field earthquakes have been selected based on conventional seismic hazard studies for the seismic ground response analysis. Then, in order to better understanding of the obtained responses, the resulted responses spectra are compared with the acceleration design spectra provided in some valid codes. The result of this study indicates that the pulse effect in the horizontal component of acceleration perpendicular to the fault plane direction, affects severely the surface ground response of the near-field earthquake. The obtained results of the nonlinear modeling of the soil with excess pore water pressure build-up in the time-domain are extremely different from those of frequency-domain responses based on the equivalent linear method. In addition, because of the inherent linearity of equivalent linear analysis which can lead to spurious resonances in ground responses, the peak ground acceleration in the time-domain is lower than the frequency-domain.

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Objective of the present research is to identify, analyze, and assess risk of Paveroud Dam during construction phase. Following collection and analysis of the information related to environmental conditions of the area of study and technical specifications of dam construction, a list of probable risk factors was prepared in the form of a questionnaire, and for verification, the questionnaires were provided to a group of specialists consisting of elites and professors specialized at the disciplines relevant to environment and civil engineering. Number of questionnaires was determined based on Cochran’s formula. In the first step, the expert group in the research was asked to score in Likert scale format so as to analyze the acquired responses and the risks present in the region. Having analyzed the scores using the findings of PHA method, TOPSIS technique was applied to prioritize the identified risks of Paveroud Dam. The results indicated that erosion had the highest priority among 36 risk factors. After prioritization among the risk factors, risk was also assessed using RAM-D technique in which “impact on Sorkhabad Protected Zone with 9 scores, “erosion” with 6 scores, and “work at high elevation” with 3 scores were recognized as three major risks of Paveroud Dam. In order to mitigate the effects of dam risks during construction phase, environmental management planning is crucial, and for this purpose, risk mitigation choices were recommended at the end aimed at coping with the identified risks.

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Free vibration of soil often occurs during earthquakes. Since the vibration caused by earthquake does not have (steady state harmonic vibration) continuity, the alluvium vibrates with its natural frequency between two natural seismic waves. This study evaluates the effect of piles on the period of free vibration of a soil layer using numerical method. In the first stage, using analytical equations for calculation of vibration period of a soil layer and a column with continuous mass, the results were analyzed by the software. In the second step, piles with the same dimensions and distance were added step by step, and the vibration period for the soil layer with piles was calculated. The friction or floating effects of the piles on alluvial soil vibration period was also examined. The results show that as the number of piles increases, the differences between the results of one dimensional analysis of alluvium soil and the results of the software become different, and this creates the need for specific arrangements for seismic analysis of this kind of alluvium (with inserted piles). The results also suggest that end-bearing piles have a greater effect on alluvial soil vibration period, and with increased amount of the floating of these piles, these effects decline.

 

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Introduction
Earth is a dynamic system. Change is one of its features. At its surface, there is almost no region that over the past few thousand years has not affected its neotectonic activities. In fact, it can be said that active neotectonic is changing the surface of the earth. Among geological methods for analyzing active tectonic movements, deciphering the geomorphology and morphotectonic nature play a very important role, because many geomorphic complications are sensitive to active tectonic movements and the geometric analysis of these complications provides evidence of the type, rate, and configuration of active tectonic deformations. Moreover, these geomorphic indices at a regional scale provide basic reconnaissance tool to identify tectonically active regions, their susceptibility to tectonic deformation, and level of tectonic activity.
In the presented study, tectonic activities and geological structural features of the Vark basin in Lorestan province, such as the discontinuities that may be detected on satellite imagery as lineaments, and in many cases control landslide occurrences, have been analyzed using the GIS and remote sensing.
Material and methods
Neotectonic investigation in the area: in order to analyze and to evaluate the tectonic movements in the Vark basin, considering the validity of geomorphic indices, longitudinal gradient (SL), river meanders (S), basin hypsometric curves (HC) and asymmetry factor (AF) have been used.  After calculating the desired indices, the tectonic activity of the area has been evaluated using the index of active tectonic (IAT).
Vark basin lineaments map derived from satellite images with proper resolution: using remote sensing techniques and visual interpretation of the OLI Landsat 8 satellite imagery, all fractures and lineaments of the region were identified and then by preparing the rose diagram, the trend of the lineaments of the area analyzed.
Landslide hazard zonation in the Vark basin: In this study, in addition to plotting landslide occurrence Points, eight other factors were also investigated. In order to provide a map of the factors affecting slip, the digital elevation model (DEM) in ENVI 4.8 and ArcGIS soft wares were used and the maps of slope, slope aspects, altitude classes, area geology, land use, topography and precipitation were prepared. Then, in order to zoning the landslide hazard, fuzzy logic method has been used. Fuzzy logic is based on the fuzzy layers and the fuzzy inference process.
Results and discussion
Analyzing the Neotectonic of the Area: as stated above, the relative active-Neotectonic (IRAT) index is derived from the interpolation of the morphotectonic indexes. In this case, after reviewing the morphotectonic indices of the study area and determining the activity rate of each indicator, the classification or prioritization of these activities were done. The results obtained from calculating the active tectonic index indicate that the study area with IAT is equal to one, has an active neotectonic.
Preparing the Lineation Maps of the Area: in this research, the aim of the data processing including satellite imagery and digital elevation model is identification and extraction of fractures and faults in the Vark basin. To this end, we can use the integration of the information layers derived from the above processes. In this step, all layers of information are logged into the ArcGIS software so that their overlap can provide a map of fractures and faults. On each information layer processed there is a series of lineaments recognizable that can be visually distinguished. After extraction of lineaments by comparing them with bundle compounds and maps derived from digital elevation model and geological map of the region, the lineaments of fractures and faults were separated from other lineaments and their shape file map has been prepared. In order to plot the rose diagram of fractures and faults, the Polar Plots ArcGIS Extension was used. The results obtained from this rose diagram showed that the dominant trend is the northwest southeast followed the trend in the region.
Preparing a map of landslide hazards zoning in the region and investigating its relationship with the lineaments: In order to overlap layers affecting the area's landslide hazard, Gamma fuzzy operator (λ= 0.9) has been used and landslides hazard mapping prepared. Based on the results, 12.40, 8.25, 37, 32.61 and 9.73 percent of the area are located in the very low, moderate, high and very high-risk classes, respectively.
In order to investigate the relationship between the lineaments and the landslide hazard maps as parameters that are affected by the tectonic activities of the area, the lineaments map was integrated with the map of landslide hazard. The results show that the most of lineaments identified in the study area have a northwest-southeast trend that are similar to the main faults of the region and Zagros. It can therefore be said that the lineaments are influenced by the faults and folds mechanism of the region. According to the lineament density in areas in places that are exposed to landslides, one can understand the close relationship between the lineaments and the landslide.
Conclusion
Based on the results obtained from relative active tectonics index, the Vark basin has an active neotectonic, which leads to an uplift in parts of the basin, as well as tilting in the southern part of the area.
In this research, the tectonic of the area, and then the relationship between the lineaments and the map of the landslide risk, as two phenomena affected by active neotectonic were reviewed. Investigating the lineaments of the region shows that the dominant trend is fractures north-west-south-east and following the trend in the region. In addition, analyzing the relationship between the lineaments with the map of the landslide hazard of the area shows that there is a close relationship between the lineaments and the zones with high risk of slipping.

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Introduction
Geotechnical investigations merely through boring and engineering experiments are considered a difficult task as they are highly costly and time-consuming. The identification of large areas initially requires geological studies followed by the inclusion of geotechnical information. Finally, a geological and geotechnical classification is prepared for the entire area. This type of classifications is employed in strategic urban planning and quick selection of geotechnical variables in small-scale projects. The present research performed the steps involved in these investigations and classifications for the city of Sanandaj, Iran. Hence, the geological-geotechnical classification of the city of Sanandaj was presented by integrating the geological information of this city with the geotechnical data obtained from drilled boreholes as well as multiple wells at different locations in this city.
Materials and Methods
This study was conducted on the city of Sanandaj in six steps. The steps involved and their respective objectives are given in summary in Table 1.
Discussion
This study is applicable to those regions with insufficient information on their boreholes. The present study used only 211 boreholes, the distance
Table1. Steps involved in this study

Objective or result	Title	Step
Identifying the general geological characteristics	General geological investigation of the considered region	1
Determining the rock units and soil layers as well as their outcrops and investigating their appearance	Determining the appearance of the layers through field investigations	2
Determining the layer types and drawing the longitudinal and lateral profiles	Identifying subsurface layers	3
Determining the characteristics of geological units and their origin of emergence	Geological classification based on the steps involved in formation of units	4
a)Collecting the available information, b) controlling the available information, c) completing the information	Determining the geotechnical attributes of geological units	5
a) Presenting geological-geotechnical classification, b) presenting geological identification criteria to determine the type of a given unit at the site of the project	Presenting a geological-geotechnical classification for the considered region	6

between which was greater than 5 km in some areas of the Sanandaj city. Hence, although no sufficient information was available on many areas of Sanandaj, the proposed method in this study was able to identify the geotechnical attributes of all soil layers and rock units. This study emphasizes on geological and geotechnical classification and presents a step-by-step method to systematically relate geological and geotechnical studies. By integrating these classifications, geotechnical identification of extensive regions such as urban areas can be facilitated even if the number of boreholes is insufficient. Moreover, simple identification criteria can be extracted from this method, through which the engineering attributes of the layers at each point can be determined. This method can be used as an optimal and economical method for geotechnical identification of extensive areas.
Conclusion
The following summaries can be concluded from this study:
-The step-by-step procedure of integrating geological and geotechnical information was described, through which the geological-geotechnical classification for this city was obtained.
-The geological units identified for Sanandaj were shale, limestone, andesite, and Quaternary, which includes layers of alluvial clay, residual clay, and sand and gravel. The extent and distribution of each of the aforementioned units in Sanandaj were identified and plotted. Moreover, the physical and mechanical characteristics of each of the units as well as their geotechnical hazards were determined and presented.
-In this study, simple geotechnical criteria such as faults, altitude level, and distance from river were identified. These parameters were effective in identification of geological units in Sanandaj../files/site1/files/131/5Extended_Abstract.pdf
 

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Introduction
Retaining walls are geotechnical structures built to resist the driving and resistant lateral pressure. In terms of serviceability life, these walls are divided into two groups including short-term structures (temporary), such as urban excavation project, and long-term (permanent) structures, such as Mechanically Stabilized Earth Walls (MSE Walls). Retaining walls are implemented by two main methods including Top-down and Bottom-up. Among the reinforcements applied in the Bottom-up walls, one can name geocells, geogrids, metal strips, and plate anchors. On the other hand, the common reinforcements applied in the Top-down walls are grouted soil nails and anchors and helical (screw) soil nails and anchors.
Plate anchors are burial mechanical reinforcements that have one or multiple bearing plates with a bar or cable to transfer the load to an area with stable soil. Among different types of plate anchor applied in onshore and offshore projects, one can name simple horizontal, inclined, and vertical plate anchors, deadman anchors, multi-plate anchors, cross-plate anchors, expanding pole key anchors, helical anchors, drag embedment anchors, vertically loaded anchors (VLAs), suction-embedded plate anchors (SEPLAs), dynamically-embedded plate anchors (DEPLAs) like Omni-max and torpedo anchors, and duckbill, manta ray and stingray anchors.
The present research reports the results from physical modeling of plate anchor retaining walls under static loading. The evaluation parameters in this work include the geometry, dimension, and reinforcement configuration of plate anchors on wall stability. PIV technique was employed to observe critical slip surface. It is worth mentioning that PIV is an image processing technique firstly used in the field of fluid mechanics to observe the flow path of gas and fluid particles. This method was used in geotechnical modeling by White et al. (2003) and few reports are already available about its application to observe wedge failure of mechanically stabilized retaining walls.
Material and methods
To carry out tests at a laboratory scale, a dimensionality reduction ratio of 1/10 was applied. Thus, all dimensions of the designed retaining wall were divided by 10. As a result, a retaining wall with a height and length of 3000 mm was reduced to a wall with 300×300 mm² dimensions. To build a retaining wall, a chamber was designed with a length, width, and depth of 1000 mm, 300 mm, and 600 mm, respectively.
The soil used in all tests was the sandy soil supplied from Sufian (in Eastern Azerbaijan, Iran). According to the Unified Soil Classification System (USCS), the soil is classified as poorly graded sand with letter symbol ‘SP’.
To create a perfect planar strain condition and prevent any friction between the footing and the lateral sides of the test box, the footing length was selected 1 mm smaller than the 300 mm width of the test chamber. Therefore, the length, width, and thickness of footing were selected as 299, 70, and 30 mm, respectively.
The length and diameter of applied tie rods were respectively 300 mm and 4 mm, which are the smaller scales of 3000 mm length and 40 mm diameter tie rod. The two sides of the tie rods were threaded to plate anchors and wall facing. Four polished square and circular anchor plates with two different areas were used. The area of small and medium circulars are respectively equivalent to the area of small and medium square plates.
Because no post-tensioning occurs in these plate anchors, the horizontal and vertical distances were both selected as 1500 mm. By applying a dimensionality reduction coefficient of 1/10, a 150 mm center-to-center distance was obtained for reinforcements in the wall. Accordingly, three applied reinforcement configurations including 5-anchor, diamond, and square configurations were used.
To construct permanent retaining wall facing, prefabricated or precast concrete blocks with a thickness of 300 mm were used. Wood (2003) conducted a dimensional analysis and introduced four types of material with different thicknesses for a 300 mm concrete facing in laboratory modeling. Accordingly, a 0.9 mm thick aluminum plate was used in the experiments performed in the present work.
Results and discussion
With an increase in dimensions of anchor plates, an increase in bearing capacity of footing and a decrease in horizontal displacement of the wall are noticed. By comparing the 24 mm footing settlement in three configurations, with changing dimension of the plates from C1 to C2 and S1 to S2 respectively, 63% increases are observed in bearing capacity of the wall.
An increase in anchor plate dimensions results in a significant decrease in wall displacement. Therefore, changing the plates from C1 to C2, S1 to S2 leads to 24% and 28% declination in wall displacement.
By changing reinforcement configuration from square to diamond, diamond to 5-anchore, and square to 5-anchor, respectively, 27%, 31%, and 67.5% increases in bearing capacity for small plates, 9.2%, 27%, and 38% for medium plates are achieved using a comparison of the final loading steps in experiments. An analogy of percentages shows that a decrease in the effect of changing the reinforcement configurations on the bearing capacity of the wall with an increase in plate anchors dimensions is reached. 
Conclusion
In the present research, a set of laboratory experiments were carried out to evaluate the stability of mechanical retaining walls reinforced with plate anchors with different geometries (square and circular), sizes (small and medium), and configurations (diamond, square, and 5-anchor). The main results of the present work can be outlined as follows:
• The maximum bearing capacity is for the 5-anchor configuration since it has one more reinforcement. After 5-anchor configuration, the diamond configuration results in a higher bearing capacity compared to the square configuration.
• Circular anchor plates compared to square anchor plates provide a higher wall stability and in the most of the experiments lead to higher bearing and lower displacement in the wall.
• Wall displacement in a diamond configuration with one less reinforcement shows a little difference with 5-anchor configuration. The maximum wall displacement occurs in a square configuration and more wall swelling is observed in the wall middle height due to inefficient anchors configuration in the wall.
./files/site1/files/132/2Extended_Abstracts.pdf

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Introduction
Stone column installation method is one of the popular methods of ground improvement. One of the common uses of stone columns is to increase slope stability. Several studies have been performed to examine the behavior of stone columns under vertical loads. However, limited research, mostly focused on numerical investigations, has been performed to evaluate the shear strength of soil reinforced with stone column. The study presented herein is an experimental program, aimed to explore the shear strength of loose sand bed reinforced with stone column. Direct shear tests were carried out on specimens of sand bed material, stone column material and sand bed reinforced with stone column, using a direct shear device with in-plane dimensions of 305*305 mm² and height of 152.4 mm. Experiments were performed under normal stresses of 35, 55 and 75 kPa . In this study, 4 different area replacement ratios (8.4, 12, 16.4 and 25%), and 3 different stone column arrangements (single, square and triangular) were considered for investigation. The obtained results from this study showed that stone column arrangement had an impact on improving the shear strength of stone columns. The most increase in shear strength and stiffness values was observed for square arrangement of stone columns and the least increase was for single stone columns. This study also compares the equivalent shear strength values and equivalent shear strength parameters (internal friction angle and cohesion) measured during experiments with those predicted by analytical relationships. Results show that shear strength values and shear strength parameters measured from experiments are higher than those obtained from analytical relationships. Accordingly, a corrective coefficient was calculated for each column arrangement to represent the correlation between experimental and analytical results.
Material Properties of Loose Bed and Stone Column
Fine-grained sand with particle size ranging from 0.425 to 1.18 mm was used to prepare loose sand bed, and crushed gravel with particle size ranging from 2 to 8 mm was used as stone column material. The sand material used as bed material had a unit weight of 16 kN/m³ and a relative density of 32.5%, and the stone material used in stone columns had a unit weight of 16.5 kN/m³ and a relative density of 80%. The required standard tests were performed to obtain the mechanical parameters of bed material and stone column material. As the diameters of model scale stone columns were smaller than the diameters of stone columns installed in the field, the particle dimensions of stone column material were reduced by an appropriate scale factor to allow an accurate simulation of stone columns behavior.
Testing Procedure
In this study, large direct shear device with in-plane dimensions of 305*305 mm² and height of 152.4 mm was used to evaluate the shear strength and equivalent shear strength parameters of loose sand bed reinforced with stone column. Experiments were performed under normal stresses of 35, 55 and 75 kPa.
Two class C load cells with capacity of 2 ton were used to measure and record vertical forces and the developed shear forces during the experiments, and a Linear Variable Differential Transformer (LVDT) was used to measure horizontal displacement. All achieved data from the experiments including data on vertical forces, shear forces and horizontal displacements were collected and recorded using a data logger, and an especial software was used to transfer data between the computer and the direct shear device. All specimens were sheared under a horizontal displacement rate of 1 mm/min.
Testing Program
Experiments were performed on single stone columns and group stone columns arranged in square and triangular patterns. The selected area replacement ratios were 8.4, 12, 16.4, and 25% for single stone columns, and 8.4, 12 and 16.4% for square and triangular stone column arrangements. To eliminate boundary effects, the distance between stone columns and the inner walls of the shear box was kept as high as 42.5 mm. In total, 12 direct shear tests were carried out, including 2 tests on loose sand bed material and stone column material, and 10 tests on stone columns with different arrangements. From the tests performed on group stone columns, 4 tests were performed on single stone columns, 3 tests on stone columns with square arrangement and 3 tests on stone columns with triangular arrangement. Hollow pipes with wall thickness of 2 mm and inner diameters equal to stone column diameters were used to construct stone columns. To prepare the specimens, first, the hollow pipes were installed in the shear box according to the desired arrangement. Then, bed material with unit weight of 16.5 kN/m³ was placed and compacted in the box in 5 layers, each 3 cm thick. Stone material was uniformly compacted to construct stone columns with uniform unit weight. The compaction energy was 67 kJ/m³ in all tests.
Results and discussion
In this paper, the behavior of stone columns under shear loading was experimentally investigated in large direct shear device by performing tests with different area replacement ratios (8.4, 12, 16.4, and 25%), different stone column installation arrangements (single, square and triangular), and different normal stresses (55, 75 and 100 kPa). The key findings of this study are as follows:
1. Shear strength increases with increase of area replacement ratio due to the higher strength of combined soil-stone column system, and due to the increase of stone column area effective in shear plane. The amount of shear strength increase with area replacement ratio is low for ratios lower than 15%. However, this amount is higher for area replacement ratios higher than 15%.
2. For stone columns with equal area replacement ratios, higher shear strength was mobilized in stone columns with square and triangular installation arrangements compared to single stone columns. Among the installation patterns investigated in this study, stone columns with square arrangement experienced the highest increase in shear strength value, while single stone columns experienced the lowest. One of the reasons of shear strength increase in square and triangular patterns is the increase of confining pressure applied by stone columns to the soil between them. Another reason is the increase the total lateral surface by changing the column arrangement from single column to square and triangular patterns. This increased lateral surface increases the lateral force imposed on the stone columns, resulting in higher shear strength mobilization of stone material.
3. The slope increase of shear strength-horizontal displacement curves shows that soil-stone column system has higher stiffness than loose sand bed, and this stiffness varies with area replacement ratio and installation pattern. The maximum stiffness values refer to stone columns installed in square pattern and the minimum values refer to single stone columns. In general, stone column installation pattern has an effective role in increasing stiffness.
4. Results show that shear strength parameters increase in soil reinforced with stone column. The maximum increase in internal friction angle refers to stone columns with square pattern and the minimum increase refers to single stone columns.
5. The equivalent shear strength values measured from experiments are higher than those obtained from analytical relationships. Accordingly, it is conservative to use analytical relationships to calculate shear strength parameters. It is worthy to mention that these relationships assume that the value of stress concentration ratio is equal to 1. Results from this study indicate that the value of stress concentration ratio should be accurately calculated and used in the relationships.
6. As discrepancy was observed between values measured from experiments and those obtained from analytical relationships, corrective coefficients were calculated to modify analytical relationships. These coefficients were computed and presented based on stone column installation pattern, area replacement ratio and the applied normal stress values../files/site1/files/133/2Extended_Abstracts.pdf 

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One of the effective parameters in the dynamic behavior of reinforced soil walls is the fundamental vibration frequency. In this paper, analytical expressions for the first three natural frequencies of a geosynthetic reinforced soil wall are obtained in the 3D domain, using plate vibration theory and the energy method. The interaction between reinforced soil and the wall is also considered by modeling the soil and the reinforcement as axial springs. The in-depth transverse vibration mode-shapes, which were impossible to analyze via 2D modeling, are also analyzed by employing plate vibration theory. Different behaviors of soil and reinforcements in tension and compression are also considered for the first time in a 3D analytical investigation to achieve a more realistic result. The effect of different parameters on the natural frequencies of geosynthetic reinforced soil walls are investigated, including the soil to reinforcement stiffness ratio, reinforcement to wall stiffness ratio, reinforcement length, backfill width and length to height ratio of the wall, using the proposed analytical expressions. Finally, the results obtained from the analytical expressions proposed are compared with results from the finite element software Abaqus and other researchers’ results, showing that the proposed method has high accuracy. The proposed method will be a beginning of the 3D analytical modeling of reinforced soil walls.
 

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In this study, it is attempted to analyze sensitivity and reliability in order to evaluate the liquefaction potential in soil layers in Tabriz. 62 boreholes that had possible conditions for liquefaction were selected. Seismic mapping was simulated using finite fault method and then the effect of soil layers on PGA was estimated. In continue, the liquefaction potential index was estimated and the zoning map of liquefaction risk was presented. In final, through sensitivity and reliability analysis of the Monte Carlo method, the rate of density function against safety factor of the soil layers versus to liquefaction was determined.

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