Time dependent creep settlements are one of the most important causes of material deteriorations for the huge water structures such as concrete faced rockfill dams (CFRDs). For this reason, performing creep analyses of CFRDs is vital important for monitoring and evaluating of the future and safety of such dams. In this study, it is observed how changes viscoplastic behaviour of a CFR dam depending the time. Ilısu dam that is the longest concrete faced rockfill dam (1775 m) in the world is selected for the three dimensional (3D) analyses. 3D finite difference model of Ilısu dam is modelled using FLAC3D software based on the finite difference method. Two different special creep material models are considered in the numerical analyses. Wipp-creep viscoplastic material model and burger-creep viscoplastic material model were rarely used for the creep analyses of CFRDs in the last are taken into account for the concrete slab and rockfill materials-foundation, respectively. Moreover, interface elements are defined between the concrete slab-rockfill materials and rockfill materials-foundation to provide interaction condition for 3D model. Firstly, dam and foundation are collapsed under its self-weight and static behaviour of the dam is evaluated for the empty reservoir conditions. Then, reservoir water is modelled considering maximum water level of the dam and time-dependent creep analyses are performed for maximum reservoir condition. In this paper, maximum principal stresses, vertical-horizontal displacements and pore pressures that may occur on the dam body surface during 30 years (from 2017 to 2047) are evaluated in detail. According to numerical analyses, empty and maximum reservoir conditions of Ilısu dam are compared with each other in detail. 4 various nodal points are selected under the concrete slab to better seen viscoplastic behaviour changes of the dam and viscoplastic behaviour differences of these points during 30 years are graphically presented. It is clearly seen that horizontal-vertical displacements and principal stresses for maximum reservoir condition are more than the empty reservoir condition of the dam and significant pore pressures are observed during 30 years for maximum reservoir condition. In addition, horizontal-vertical displacements, principal stresses and pore pressures for 4 nodal points obviously increased until a certain time and changes decreased after this time.

An optimal hydraulic section is critical for irrigated water conservancy in seasonal frozen ground due to a large proportion of water leakage, as investigated by in-situ surveys. This is highly correlated with the frost heave of underlain soils in cold season. This paper firstly derived a practical model for frost heave of clayey soils, with temperature dependent thermal indexes incorporating phase change effect. A model test carried out on clay was used to verify the rationality of the model. A novel approach for optimizing the cross-section of irrigation canals in cold regions was suggested with live updated geometry characterized by three unique geometric constraints including slope of canal, ratio of practical flow section to the optimal and lining thickness. Allowable frost heave deformation and tensile stress in canal lining are utilized as standard in computation iterating with geometry updating while the construction cost per unit length is regarded as the eventual target in optimization. A typical section along the Jinghui irrigation canal was selected to be optimized with the above requirements satisfied. Results prove that the optimized hydraulic section exhibits smaller frost heave deformation, lower tensile stress and lower construction cost.

Since behaviors of loose, dense, silty sands vary under seismic loading, understanding the liquefaction mechanism of sandy soils continues to be an important challenges of geotechnical earthquake engineering. In this study, 36 deformation controlled cyclic simple shear tests were performed and the liquefaction potential of the sands was investigated using three different relative densities (40, 55, 70%), four different effective stresses (25, 50, 100, 150 kPa) and three different shear strain amplitudes (2, 3.5, 5%) by using energy based approach. Experiments revealed the relationship between per unit volume dissipated energy with effective stress, relative density and shear strain. The dissipate energy per unit volume was much less affected by shear strain than effective stress and relative density. In other words, the dissipated energy is strongly dependent on relative density and effective stress. These results show that the dissipated energy per unit volume is very useful and may contain the non-uniform loading conditions of the earthquake spectrum. When multiple regression analysis is performed on experiment results, a relationship is proposed that gives liquefaction energy of sandy soils depending on relative density and effective stress parameters.

The effect of electrochemical modification of the physical and mechanical properties of sandstone from Paleozoic coal measure strata was investigated by means of liquid nitrogen physical adsorption, X-ray diffraction and uniaxial compressive strength (UCS) tests using purified water, 1 mol/L NaCl, 1 mol/L $CaCl_2$ and 1 mol/L $AlCl_3$ aqueous solution as electrolytes. Electrochemical corrosion of electrodes and wire leads occurred mainly in the anodic zone. After electrochemical modification, pore morphology showed little change in distribution, decrease in total pore specific surface area and volume, and increased average pore diameter. The total pore specific surface area in the anodic zone was greater than in the cathodic zone, but total pore volume was less. Mineralogical composition was unchanged by the modification. Changes in UCS were caused by a number of factors, including corrosion, weakening by aqueous solutions, and electrochemical cementation, and electrochemical cementation stronger than corrosion and weakening by aqueous solutions.

Plate anchors are generally used for structures like transmission towers, mooring systems etc. where the uplift and lateral forces are expected to be predominant. The capacity of anchor plate can be increased by the use of geosynthetics without altering the size of plates. Numerical simulations have been carried out on three different sizes of square anchor plates. A single layer geosynthetic has been used as reinforcement in the analysis and placed at three different positions from the plate. The effects of various parameters like embedment ratio, position of reinforcement, width of reinforcement, frequency and loading amplitude on the pull out capacity have been presented in this study. The load-displacement behaviour of anchors for various embedment ratios with and without reinforcement has been also observed. The pull out load, corresponding to a displacement equal to each of the considered maximum amplitudes of a given frequency, has been expressed in terms of a dimensionless breakout factor. The pull out load for all anchors has been found to increase by more than 100% with embedment ratio varying from 1 to 6. Finally a semi empirical formulation for breakout factor for square anchors in reinforced soil has also been proposed by carrying out regression analysis on the data obtained from numerical simulations.

This research is concerned with post-buckling investigation of nano-scaled beams constructed from porous functionally graded (FG) materials taking into account geometrical imperfection shape. Hence, two types of nanobeams which are perfect and imperfect have been studied. Porous FG materials are classified based on even or uneven porosity distributions. A higher order nonlinear refined beam theory is used in the present research. Both perfect and imperfect nanobeams are formulated based on this refined theory. A detailed study is provided to understand the effects of geometric imperfection, pore distribution, material distribution and small scale effects on buckling of FG nanobeams.

Due to the seepage of groundwater, the resisting force of slopes decreases and the sliding force increases, resulting in significantly reduced slope stability. The instability of most natural slopes is closely related to the influence of groundwater. Therefore, it is important to study slope stability under groundwater seepage conditions. Thus, using a simplified seepage model of groundwater combined with the analysis of stresses on the slip surface, the limit equilibrium (LE) analytical solutions for two- and three-dimensional slope stability under groundwater seepage are deduced in this work. Meanwhile, the general nonlinear Mohr-Coulomb (M-C) strength criterion is adopted to describe the shear failure of a slope. By comparing the results with the traditional LE methods on slope examples, the feasibility of the proposed method is verified. In contrast to traditional LE methods, the proposed method is more suitable for analyzing slope stability under complex conditions. In addition, to facilitate the optimization of drainage design in the slope, stability charts are drawn for slopes with different groundwater tables. Furthermore, the study concluded that: (1) when the hydraulic gradient of groundwater is small, the effect on slope stability is also small for a change in the groundwater table; and (2) compared with a slope without a groundwater table, a slope with a groundwater table has a larger failure range under groundwater seepage.

The gypsiferous soils are significantly sensitive to moisture and the water has a severe destructive effect on them. Therefore, the effect of lime and silica fume addition on their mechanical properties, when subjected to water, is investigated. Gypsiferous soil specimens were mixed with 1, 2 and 3% lime and 1, 3, 5 and 7% silica fume, in terms of the dry weight of soil. The specimens were mixed at optimum moisture content and cured for 24 hours, 7 and 28 days. 86 specimens in the sizes of unconfined compression strength test mold were prepared to perform unconfined compressive strength and durability tests. The results proved that adding even 1% of each of these additives can lead to a 15 times increase in unconfined compressive strength, compared with untreated specimen, and this increases as the curing time is prolonged. Also, after soaking, the compressive strength of the specimens stabilized with 2 and 3% lime plus different percentages of silica fume was considerably higher than before soaking. The durability of the treated specimens increased significantly after soaking. Direct shear tests showed that lime treatment is more efficient than silica fume treatment. Moreover, it is concluded that the initial tangent modulus and the strain at failure increased as the normal stress of the test was increased. Also, the higher lime contents, up to certain limits, increase the shear strength. Therefore, simultaneous use of lime and silica fume is recommended to improve the geotechnical properties of gypsiferous soils.

Dams have a great importance on energy and irrigation. Dams must be evaluated statically and dynamically even after construction. For this purpose, Torul dam built between years 2000 and 2007 Harsit River in Gümüşhane province, Turkey, is selected as an application. The Torul dam has 137 m height and 322 GWh annual energy production capacity. Torul dam is a kind of concrete face rock fill dam (CFRD). In this study, static and pseudo seismic stability of Torul dam was investigated using finite element method. Torul dam model is constituted by numerical stress analysis named Phase2 which is based on finite element method. The dam was examined under 11 different water filling levels. Thirteenth stage of the numerical model is corresponding full reservoir condition which water filled up under crest line. Besides, pseudo static coefficients for dynamic condition applied to the dam in fourteenth stage of the model. Stability assessment of the Torul dam has been discussed according to the displacement throughout the dam body. For static and pseudo seismic cases, the displacements in the dam body have been compared. The total displacements of the dam according to its the empty state increase dramatically at the height of the water level of about 70 m and above. Compared to the pseudo-seismic analysis, the displacement of dam at the full reservoir condition is approximately two times as high as static analysis.

The mechanical behavior of rock is essential to estimate the capacity and long-term stability of $CO_2$ storage in deep saline aquifers. As the depth of reservoir increases, the pressure and temperature that applied on the rock increase. To answer the question of how the confining pressure and temperature influence the mechanical behavior of reservoir rock, triaxial compression experiments were carried out on brine-saturated sandstone at elevated temperature. The triaxial compressive strength of brine-saturated sandstone was observed to decrease with increasing testing temperature, and the temperature weakening effect in strength enhanced with the increase of confining pressure. Sandstone specimens showed single fracture failures under triaxial compression. Three typical regions around the main fracture were identified: fracture band, damaged zone and undamaged zone. A function was proposed to describe the evolution of acoustic emission count under loading. Finally, the mechanism of elevated temperature causing the reduction of strength of brine-saturated sandstone was discussed.