Journal of Engineering Geology

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Construction of asphaltic core dams is a relatively novel method especially in Iran. Iran is located in a region with high seismicity risk. Therefore, many researchers have focused on the behavior of such types of dams under earthquake loading. In this research, the behavior of asphaltic core rockfill dams (ACRD) has been studied under earthquake loading using nonlinear dynamic analysis method and a new method is presented to assess seismic stability of these types of dams in earthquake conditions. Based on nonlinear dynamic analysis, the current study attempts to provide an appropriate criterion for predicting the behavior of earth and rockfill dams considering real behavior of materials together with actual records of earthquake loading. In this method, the maximum acceleration of the earthquake record (PGA) increases until instability conditions. Finally, a new criterion is presented for evaluating seismic safety of ACRDs via demonstrating curves of the crest's permanent settlement and maximum shear strain against maximum earthquake acceleration. Results of the proposed criteria can assist designers of asphaltic core dams to predict dam stability during earthquake event

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In this paper, a constitutive model is proposed for prediction of the shear behavior of a gravely sand cemented with different cement types. The model is based on combining stress-strain behavior of uncemented soil and cemented bonds using deformation consistency and energy equilibrium equations. Cement content and cement type are considered in a model as two main parameters. Based on the proposed method, the behavior of cemented soil with different cement types is predicted for conventional triaxial test condition. Porepressure developed during undrained loading besides volumetric strains in drained condition are also modeled according to this framework. Comparison of model results with experimental data indicates its reasonable accuracy.

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Time history analyses as crucial means in many earthquake engineering applications are highly dependent to characteristics of the seismic excitation record so that the resulting responses may vary from case to case. Strong ground motion scaling is a known codified solution to reduce such a dependency and increase reliability of time history analyses. The well-known code practice may result in highly non-economic designs due to considerable error in the spectra scaled to match the target code spectrum. This problem is formulated here in an optimization framework with the scaling coefficients as the design variables. Harmony search as a recent meta-heuristic algorithm is utilized to solve the problem and is applied to the treated examples. Using a variety of target period ranges the scaling error is evaluated and studied after more unified via optimization. The effect of base structural period and interval variation on the scaling error is then studied in addition to considerable error decrease with respect to traditional code-based procedure. The results also show dependency of spectral matching error to the period-interval elongation/variation, the base-structural period and more error sensitivity for narrow-band resonance with the filtered records on softer soil types

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In this research, one of the new methods for seismic landslides hazard zonation (CAMEL) to predict the behavior of these types of landslides have been discussed.  It is also tried to eveluate this method with the proposed Mahdavifar method.  For achieving this result, the influence of  Sarein earthquake (1997), have been selected as a case study. In order to apply seismic hazard zonation, the methodology of Computing with Words (CW), an approach using fuzzy logic systems in which words are used in place of numbers for computing and reasoning is employed. First, the required information which includes disturbance distance, ground strength class, moisture content, shake intensity, slope angle, slope height, soil depth, terrain roughness, and vegetation have been collected using air photos, Landsat Satellite images, geological and topographic maps, and site investigation of the studied region. The data is digitized and weighted using Geological Information System (GIS). At the next step, the hazard rate and areal concentrations with respect to landslide types are calculated using CAMEL program and then, landslides hazard map produced by the above mentioned method is compared with landslides occurred as a result of Sarein earthquake. Finally, for evaluating on prediction of the earthquake-induced landslides, empirical comparison have been done between CAMEL and Mahdavifar methods.

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In this study using finite element procedure was used to simulate the dynamic behavior of reinforced soil walls, to evaluate their dynamic response on all types of deformation modes, different mechanisms of failure detection and identification of parameters in each of the modes and the mechanisms. Detailed numerical modeling, behavioral models and materials were described and Dynamic response of the physical model has been validated experimentally. Parametric study has been of the wall height of 5 meters by the effective parameters such as hardness, length to height ratio, the vertical reinforcement, wall height, and acceleration inputs. Three modes of deformation were observed. The study showed that occur bulging deformation mode while the use of flexible reinforcement and occur overturning deformation mode while the use of stiffness reinforcement. Stiffness reinforcements have the most effective in changing the type of deformation. Length to height ratio of reinforcements has the minimum effective in changing the type of deformation.

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Tunneling in complex geological and geotechnical conditions is often inevitable, especially in urban areas. The stability analysis and the assessment of ground surface settlement of a shield tunneling are of major importance in real shield tunneling projects. The objective of this research is to determine the collapse pressure of a shallow circular tunnel driven by a Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) of the Earth Pressure Balance (EPB) type.  In this study, analytical methods and three-dimensional numerical modeling with ABAQUS software were implemented to examine the effect of face pressure on the behavior of the tunnel. The parameters were calculated using data from Karaj subway-line 2 as a case study. The analytical method used in this study is Leca-Dormiex which is based on limit analysis theory.  The method is based on a translational multiblock failure mechanism.  Also, elastic and Mohr-Coulomb constitutive model have been used for soil behavior. The results of analytical method and numerical modeling were then compared. Based on the obtained results, face pressure assessed from the analytical method of Leca-Dormiex (upper bound) is the minimum pressure that can be implemented on the face tunnel. It also indicates that with implementation of suggested pressure of analytical method, Karaj subway face tunnel is stable and consequently execution of pre-consolidation methods in this section of the tunnel does not seem to be necessary

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In the recent years there was a great improvement in the development of underground structures. Due to the increase in the costs of constructions and the importance of the safety in transportation, attention has been focused on the hazards of earthquakes. In this paper, the effect of earthquakes and the importance of seismic analysis are described. The analysis method is presented briefly, and then the simplified analysis of Hashash et al. (2001) is used. Two metro station structures under two different seismic hazardlevels were analyzed. Pushover analysis method is also used which is a simple and static non-linear method in seismic analysis and design of structures.  In this non-linear analysis, the target displacement is computed by the simplified frame analysis model. The finding of this study showed that the structure behavior was remained elastically to a large extent of displacement using this method. Hence, the design of the structures based on the performance level or reduction of the moment extracted from the Hashash et al. (2001) method is recommended.

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This paper has evaluated the groundwater quality index of Lenjanat aquifer. Water quality index as a unique index is presented to describe overall water quality conditions using multiple water quality variables. Physical and chemical data of 66 water samples were used in this study. The results have been obtained by Comparing the qualitative features with the World Health Organization (WHO) standard and Industrial Research of Iran (ISIRI) standards. In calculating GQI, 7 parameters, including calcium (Ca), magnesium (Mg), sodium (Na), chlorine (Cl), sulfate (SO4), total dissolved solids (TDS) and nitrate (NO3) have been used. Groundwater quality index shows the medium to relatively high groundwater quality in the study area. Minimum and maximum value of the index is calculated as respectively 55 and 93. Land use map shows that along the Zayanderood River and around the location of rice paddies, water quality reaches to the lowest quantity. Optimum index factor technique allows the selection of the best combination of parameters dictating the variability of groundwater quality.

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In the present study, landslides occurred during 1997 Sarein, Iran earthquake are discussed and evaluated. In order to meet the objectives, the Computing with Words (CW), an approach using fuzzy logic systems in which words are used in place of numbers for computing and reasoning is applied. Firstly, the necessary information which include disturbance distance, ground class, moisture, shaking intensity, slope angle, slope height, soil depth, terrain roughness, and land-use have been collected using air photos, LANDSAT satellite images, geological and topographic maps, and site investigation of the studied region. The data is digitized and weighted using ARCGIS software. At the next step, the hazard rate and predicted areal concentrations of landslides with respect to their types are calculated using CAMEL software (Miles & Keefer, 2007). CAMEL provides an integrated framework for modeling all types of earthquake-induced landslides using geographical information system(GIS). Finally, landslides hazard map is compared to landslides triggered by Sarein earthquake.

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For prediction of exact effect of soil temperature, soil water retention, unsaturated hydraulic conductivity and water flow of soils on seep development, information about soil hydraulic, physical properties soil temperature is necessary. In this study, using geophysical and thermal methods the hydraulic properties and thermal conductivity of unsaturated porous media was estimated. Infiltrated water temperature was 50° C and the temperature data used in inverse solution technique was recorded by 2 thermal sensors during 3255 sec. One of thermal sensor was installed at a depth of 50 cm and the soil hydraulic and thermal parameters were estimated using 48 collected data of the injection water temperature variations. In this research 121 geoelectrical sounding with the Wener, Schlumberger and polar-polar arrays configuration were used. Evaluation and interpretation of the sounding curves show that the water table is located at depth of 75 meters. Top alluvium layer (unsaturated zone) is composed of three layers. In this study, to investigate the distribution and diffusion of pollutants in the unsaturated zone, the brine concentration of 20 g/L was used. Wener and polar-polar arrays were used to detect and image the contaminants plume. The polar-polar configuration shows less spreading of contaminated plume in both vertically and horizontally direction than the Wener array.  Particularly by the Wener configuration the plume depth is more underestimated than the real value. Based on water injection visibility in the vicinity of the trenches and observing the water seepage at the trench face, the real velocity of the water at direction of 35 degrees relative to the horizon was measured equal to 0.159 m/h. Horizontal and vertical contaminant plume expansion coefficient was determined equal to 1.4. Evaluation of thermal and hydraulic properties of unsaturated porous media was done by HYDRUS-2D software. In this study five hydraulic parameters &thetar, &thetas, &alpha, n and Ks and five soil heat transfer parameters including the &lambdaL, &lambdaT, Cn, Co and Cw were included in the parameter estimation process. After implementation of the parameter estimation (adjusted for ​​observed and predicted temperature values) Coefficient of Determination  R² was equal to 0.97 and the objective function value was equal to 11.5. Computational error in the mass balance was about 67 percent. 

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The objective of this paper is to investigate the bearing capacity of strip foundations next to sand slope. A series of laboratory model tests has been carried out and a new correlation coefficient to estimate the bearing capacity of shallow foundations near slopes is presented. The sand layers were prepared in a steel test tank with inside dimensions 500 ´ 200´ 250 mm. After vertical loading, the applied load and displacement of foundation were recorded and stress-settlement curve is drawn. Finally, the load at which the shear failure of the soil occurs is recorded as ultimate bearing capacity of foundation. The test sand used in this study was Babolsar sand with relative density of 50%. The relative performance of different distance of foundation from the edge of slope and inclination angle of slope are compared using same quantity of soil properties in each test. The results indicate that with increasing distance from the edge of the slope, bearing capacity increases linearly. Also with increasing slope angle, the bearing capacity has declined linearly

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This paper describes triaxial compression tests conducted to determine the effect of fiber inclusion on stiffness and deformation characteristics of sand-gravel mixtures. Tested soil was a mixture of Babolsar sand from the shores of the Caspian Sea and Karaj River gravel. Portland cement was used as the cementing agent and fibers 12mm in length and 0.023mm in diameter at 0%, 0.5% and 1.0% were added to the mixtures. Triaxial tests were performed on saturated samples in consolidated drained and undrained conditions at confining pressures of 100, 200 and 300 kPa. Deviatoric stress-axial strain, volumetric strain-axial strain, pore pressure-axial strain curves with deformation and stiffness characteristics were investigated. Tests results show that fiber addition increased peak and residual shear strength of the soil. Fiber addition resulted in an increase of the maximum positive and negative volumetric strains. In undrained condition, fiber inclusion caused increase in initial positive pore pressure and final suction. It has also been observed that fibers decreased initial tangent stiffness of the cemented sand-gravel mixture.

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Buried pipeline system form a key part of global lifeline infrastructure and any significant disruption to the performance of these systems often lead to undesirable impact on regional business, economies or the living condition of citizens. In this paper the response of buried pipelines at fault crossings are studied. A fault movement can be resolved into an axial component, a lateral component in the horizontal plane, and a vertical component. Applying finite element method, the effect of various parameters such as anchored length, internal friction angle of surrounding soil, fault movement and fault crossing angle on the behavior of buried pipeline were studied. Nonlinear behavior for pipe and surrounding soil are assumed using beam-spring model. Results showed an increase in internal friction angle of surrounding soil increases strain and also normalized bending moment and axial force. Comparing bending moment at friction angle of 20^° and 40^° shows about 30% differences with certain crossing angle we can prevent producing large strain and bending moment on pipeline

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Soil nailing is a prevalent method for temporary or permanent stabilization of excavations which, if it is used for permanent purposes, the seismic study of these structures is important. There are a few physical models, with limited information available, for the study of behavior of soil nailed walls under earthquake loading. Numerical methods may be used for the study of effects of various parameters on the performance of soil nailed walls, and this technique has been used in the current paper. In this research, the effects of various parameters such as the spacing, configuration, and lengths of nails, and the height of wall on seismic displacement of soil nailed walls under the various earthquake excitations were studied. To investigate the effects of the configuration and the lengths of nails on the performance of these structures, two configurations of uniform and variable lengths of nails have been used. To study the effects of the spacing between nails and the height of the wall the spacings of 2 and 1.5 meters and the heights of 14, 20, and 26 meters have been considered. The seismic analysis has been carried out using the finite element software Plaxis 2D. To analyze the lengths' of nails, it was assumed that the safety factors of stability of different models are constant, and the limit equilibrium software GeoSlope was used. After specification of the lengths of nails based on constant safety factor of stability, the deformations of the models under several earthquakes records were analyzed, and recommendations were made on minimizing the deformations of soil nailed walls under seismic loading.

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Landslides are natural hazards that make a lot of economical and life losses every year. Landslide hazard zonation maps can help to reduce these damages. Taleghan watershed is one the susceptible basin to landslide that has been studied. In this paper, landslide hazard zonation of the study area is performed at a scale of 1:50,000. To achieve this aim, layers information such as landslides distribution, slope, aspect, geology (lithology), distance from the faults and distance from rivers using artificial neural network-based Radial Basis Function (RBF) and perceptron neural network (MLP), has been studied. Principal of RBF method is similar to perceptron neural network (MLP), which its ability somewhat has been identified up to now and there are several structural differences between these two neural networks. The final results showed that the maps obtained from both methods are acceptable but the MLP method has a higher accuracy than the RBF method.

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There are various methods for the analysis of the interactional behavior of the surrounding land, using the lining structure which is the most common method of deigning lining structure tools for the static loads by using the hyper static methods. In recent years, there has been a question that depicts whether this method provides the best results in designing the tunnel structure or not.Due to the nonlinear behavior of the earth surrounding the lining structure, utilizing the lining method could lead to conservative results in the design. If it is possible to somehow find the forces caused by the real behavior of the land surrounding the lining structure influencing the structure and conduct the design based on them, more optimal results would be obtained. This study is based on the actual behavior of the land surrounding the lining structure and the displacement of the structure caused by forces with linear behavior in the static design according to the non-linear behavior of the land around the tunnel structure. The behavior is modeled using the non-linear programs and the forces affecting the lining of the structure will be inference. Also there is a case study based on this method in which the soil interaction with the tunnel analysis and designing the lining structure was first performed and eventually the obtained results were compared with the hyper static method. In this paper, analysis of maintenance system with lower thicknesses considering land-shield, indicated that applying the reinforced concrete with 40cm thickness has the potential to tolerate the applied load but lining with 45cm thickness is capable of tolerating the loads of design and it can be concluded that applying the simulation method combined with the soil and structure besides considering the nonlinear behavior of the soil leads to more economical results in a project. 

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Consolidated-drained triaxial compression tests were conducted to compare the stress-strain and volume change response of sands and clayey sands reinforced with discrete randomly distributed poly-propylene fibers. The influence of various test parameters such as fiber content (0.0%, 0.5% and 1.0% by weight), clay content (0%, 10% and 20% by weight), relative density (50% and 90%) and confining pressure (100 kPa, 200 kPa and 300 kPa) were investigated. It has been observed that addition of clay particles to the sands decreased the shear strength of samples. Also, increase in clay content reduced dilation and increased compressibility of the mixed soil. Addition of the fiber to both sands and clayey sands samples improved the shear strength and increased ductility and axial strain at failure point. 

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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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Most of masonry buildings are vulnerable against earthquakes and need to be rehabilitated. One of the pragmatic methods for strengthening is to utilize shotcreting the masonry walls. In this paper the effects of the soil type (in view of seismic behavior) on the rehabilitation of the masonry building by shotcrete are investigated. Three types of masonry buildings are simulated by ABAQUS software and analyzed against three earthquake records to find their reporses and seismic demands. Using five types of shotcrete configuration consisted of shotcrete strips in vertical and horizontal directions for rehabilitation are studied to find the appropriate method for damage mitigation. The suitable method for rehabilitation are used to study the effects of soil type on the rehabilitated buildings. Three records of the Tabas (1979) earthquake which were recorded on different types of soils (Type I, II and III based on the Iranian seismic design regulations) are considered to analyze the sample masonry building. The results show that the shotcrete method is more effective for buildings which are relying on the softer soils and in stiff soils it is recommended to combine the shotcrete method with other rehabilitation methods which are able to strengthen the building without increasing the stiffness of the building, like utilizing post tensioning cables.

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In seismic prone areas, earthquakes happen more than just main shocks which are happen with sequences of shocks include of different intensity of aftershocks. In technical documents, these kinds of several earthquakes are called mainshock-aftershock ground motions. In this study, seismic behavior of RC frame under mainshock-aftershock with different ratios of maximum acceleration of aftershock to maximum acceleration of mainshock was evaluated. In this paper, nonlinear time-history analysis of frame were performed under mainshock-aftershock sequences and then the residual interstory drift ratio for comparing response of frame under seismic sequences was evaluated. The results show that, residual interstory drift ratio of frame, related to intensity of aftershocks to mainshock and enhance of intensity of aftershock due to increase residual interstory drift ratio of frame. Although, growth of residual interstory drift ratio of top stories more significant than below stories of frame.