Physical and mechanical properties of rocks are of interest in many fields, including materials science, petrophysics, geophysics and geotechnical engineering. Uniaxial compressive strength UCS is one of the key mechanical properties, while density and porosity are important physical parameters for the characterization of rocks. The economic interest of carbonate rocks is very important in chemical or biological procedures and in the field of construction. Carbonate rocks exploitation depends on their quality and their physical, chemical and geotechnical characteristics. A fast, economic and reliable technique would be an evolutionary advance in the exploration of carbonate rocks. This paper discusses the ability of ultrasonic wave velocity to evaluate some mechanical and physical parameters within carbonate rocks (collected from different regions within Tunisia). The ultrasonic technique was used to establish empirical correlations allowing the estimation of UCS values, the density and the porosity of carbonate rocks. The results illustrated the behavior of ultrasonic pulse velocity as a function of the applied stress. The main output of the work is the confirmation that ultrasonic velocity can be effectively used as a simple and economical non-destructive method for a preliminary prediction of mechanical behavior and physical properties of rocks.

This work presents a simple and refined nth-order shear deformation theory for mechanical and thermal buckling behaviors of functionally graded (FG) plates resting on elastic foundation. The proposed refined nth-order shear deformation theory has a new displacement field which includes undetermined integral terms and contains only four unknowns. Governing equations are obtained from the principle of minimum total potential energy. A Navier type analytical solution methodology is also presented for simply supported FG plates resting on elastic foundation which predicts accurate solution. The accuracy of the present model is checked by comparing the computed results with those obtained by classical plate theory (CPT), first-order shear deformation theory (FSDT) and higher-order shear deformation theory (HSDT). Moreover, results demonstrate that the proposed theory can achieve the same accuracy of the existing HSDTs which have more number of variables.

A Spectral Element Method for 3D seismic wave propagation simulation is derived based on the three-dimensional fluctuating elastic dynamic equation. Considering the 3D real terrain and the attenuation characteristics of the medium, the topographic effect of Wenchuan earthquake is simulated by using the Spectral Element Method (SEM) algorithm and the ASTER DEM model. Results show that the high PGA (peak ground acceleration) region was distributed along the peak and the slope side away from the epicenter in the epicenter area. The overall distribution direction of high PGA and high PGV (peak ground velocity) region is parallel to the direction of the seismogenic fault. In the epicenter of the earthquake, the ground motion is to some extent amplified under the influence of the terrain. The amplification effect of the terrain on PGA is complicated. It does not exactly lead to amplification of PGA at the ridge and the summit or attenuation of PGA in the valley.

Rock bridges in rock masses would increase the bearing capacity of Non-persistent discontinuities. In this paper the effect of ratio of rock bridge surface to joint surface, rock bridge shape and normal load on failure behaviour of intermittent rock joint were investigated. A total of 42 various models with dimensions of $15cm{\times}15cm{\times}15cm$ of plaster specimens were fabricated simulating the open joints possessing rock bridge. The introduced rock bridges have various continuities in shear surface. The area of the rock bridge was $45cm^2$ and $90cm^2$ out of the total fixed area of $225cm^2$ respectively. The fabricated specimens were subjected to shear tests under normal loads of 0.5 MPa, 2 MPa and 4 MPa in order to investigate the shear mechanism of rock bridge. The results indicated that the failure pattern and the failure mechanism were affected by two parameters; i.e., the ratio of joint surface to rock bridge surface and normal load. So that increasing in joint area in front of the rock bridge changes the shear failure mode to tensile failure mode. Also the tensile failure change to shear failure by increasing the normal load.

This study proposes a sensitivity analysis method for slope stability based on the least squares support vector machine (LS-SVM) to examine the influencing factors of slope stability. The method uses LS-SVM as an algorithm for machine learning. An appropriate training dataset is established according to the slope characteristics, and a testing dataset is designed orthogonally. Results of the testing data in the experiment design are calculated after training using the LS-SVM model. The sensitivity of the slope stability of each factor is examined via gray correlation analysis. The results are consistent with those of the traditional Bishop analysis and can be used as a reference for optimizing slope design.

To investigate the mechanical properties of Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) Beads Stabilized Lightweight Soil (EBSLS), Laboratory studies were conducted. Totally 20 sets of specimens according to the complete test design were prepared and tested with unconfined compressive test and consolidated drained triaxial test. Results showed that dry density of EBSLS ($0.67-1.62g/cm^3$) decreases dramatically with the increase of EPS beads volumetric content, while increase slightly with the increase of cement content. Unconfined compressive strength (10-2580 kPa) increases dramatically in parabolic relationship with the increase of cement content, while decreases with the increase of EPS beads volumetric content in hyperbolic relationship. Cohesion (31.1-257.5 kPa) increases with the increase of cement content because it is mainly caused by the bonding function of hydration products of cement. The more EPS beads volumetric content is, the less dramatically the increase is, which is a result of the cohesion between hydration products of cement and EPS beads is less than that between hydration products of cement and sand particles. Friction angle ($14.92-47.42^{\circ}$) decreases with the increase of EPS beads volumetric content, which is caused by the smoother surfaces of EPS beads than sand grains. The stress strain curves of EBSLS tend to be more softening with the increase of EPS beads content or the decrease of cement content. The shear contraction of EBSLS increases with the increase of $c_e$ or the decrease of $c_c$. The results provided quantitative relationships between physico-mechanical properties of EBSLS and material proportion, and design process for engineering application of EBSLS.

Geotechnical data contributes substantially to the cost of engineering projects due to increasing cost of site investigations. Existing information in the form of soil maps can save considerable time and expenses while deciding the scope and extent of site exploration for a proposed project site. This paper presents spatial interpolation of data obtained from soil investigation reports of different construction sites and development of soil maps for geotechnical characterization of Multan area using ArcGIS. The subsurface conditions of the study area have been examined in terms of soil type and standard penetration resistance. The Inverse Distance Weighting method in the Spatial Analyst extension of ArcMap10 has been employed to develop zonation maps at different depths of the study area. Each depth level has been interpolated as a surface to create zonation maps for soil type and standard penetration resistance. Correlations have been presented based on linear regression of standard penetration resistance values with depth for quick estimation of strength and stiffness of soil during preliminary planning and design stage of a proposed project in the study area. Such information helps engineers to use data derived from nearby sites or sites of similar subsoils subjected to similar geological process to build a preliminary ground model for a new site. Moreover, reliable information on geometry and engineering properties of underground layers would make projects safer and economical.

The localized shear and the slip lines are easily observed in elastic-brittle-plastic rock. After yielding, the strength of the brittle rock suddenly drops from the peak value to the residual value, and there are slip lines which divide the macro rock into numbers of elements. There are slippages of elements along the slip lines and the displacement field in the plastic region is discontinuous. With some restraints, the discontinuities can be described by the combination of two smooth functions, one is for the meaning of averaging the original function, and the other is for characterizing the breaks of the original function. The slip lines around the circular opening in the plastic region of an isotropic H-B rock which subjected to a hydrostatic in situ stress can be described by the logarithmic spirals. After failure, the deformation mechanism of the plastic region is mainly attributed to the slippage, and a slippage parameter is introduced. A new analytical solution is presented for the plane strain analysis of displacements around circular openings. The displacements obtained by using the new solution are found to be well coincide with the exact solutions from the published sources.

Based on the collapse characteristics of a shallow rectangular cavity, a three-dimensional failure mechanism which can be used to study the collapsing region of the rock mass above a shallow cavity roof is constructed. Considering the effects of surcharge pressure and surface bolt on the collapsing block, the external rate of works produced by surcharge pressure and surface bolt are included in the energy dissipation calculation. Using variational approach, an analytic expression of surface equation for the collapsing block, which can be used to study the collapsing region of the rock mass above a shallow cavity roof, is derived in the framework of upper bound theorem. Based on the analytic expression of surface equation, the shape of the collapsing block for shallow cavity is drawn. Moreover, the changing law of the collapsing region for different parameters indicates that the collapsing region of rock mass decreases with the increase of the density of surface bolt. This conclusion can provide reference for practicing geotechnical engineers to achieve an optimal design of supporting structure for a shallow cavity.

In this paper, with a graphical approach, a series of stability charts for homogeneous slopes with benches are presented based on the upper bound limit analysis theory and strength reduction technique. The objective function of the slope safety factor $F_s$ is optimized by the nonlinear sequential quadratic programming, and a substantial number of examples are illustrated to use the stability charts for homogeneous slopes with benches driven by only the action of the soil weight. These charts can be applied to quick and accurate estimations of the stability status of homogeneous slopes with benches. Moreover, the failure modes and the formula for safety factor Fs of homogeneous slopes with benches are provided to illustrate the stability analysis of slopes with benches, which is validated by samples.