This study aimed to investigate the engineering properties and mechanical behaviors of polymer-fibers treated sand. Para rubber (PR), natural fiber (NF), and geosynthetic fiber (GF) were used to reinforce poorly graded sand. A series of unconfined compressive and splitting tensile strength tests were performed to analyze the engineering behaviors and strength enhancement mechanism. The experiment results indicated that the PR-fibers mixture could firmly enhance the strength properties of sand. The stress-strain characteristics and failure patterns have been changed due to the increase of PR and fibers content. The presence of PR and fibers strengthened the sand and enhanced the stiffness and ductility behavior of the mixture. The stiffness of reinforced sand reaches an optimum state when both NF and GF are 0.5%, while the optimum PR contents are 20% and 22.5% for the mixture with NF and GF, respectively. An addition of PR and fiber into sand contributed to increasing interlocking zone and bonding of PR-sand interfacial.

There are many joint fissures distributed in the engineering rock mass. In the process of geological history, the underground rock mass undergoes strong geological processes, and undergoes complex geological processes such as fracture breeding, expansion, recementation, and re-expansion. In this paper, the damage-stick-slip process (DSSP), an analysis model used for rock mass failure slip, was established to examine the master control and time-dependent mechanical properties of the new and primary fractures of a multi-fractured rock mass under the action of stress loading. The experimental system for the recemented multi-fractured rock mass was developed to validate the above theory. First, a rock mass failure test was conducted. Then, the failure stress state was kept constant, and the fractured rock mass was grouted and cemented. A secondary loading was applied until the grouted mass reached the intended strength to investigate the bearing capacity of the recemented multi-fractured rock mass, and an acoustic emission (AE) system was used to monitor AE events and the update of damage energy. The results show that the initial fracture angle and direction had a significant effect on the re-failure process of the cement rock mass; Compared with the monitoring results of the acoustic emission (AE) measurements, the master control surface, key blocks and other control factors in the multi-fractured rock mass were obtained; The triangular shaped block in rock mass plays an important role in the stress and displacement change of multi-fracture rock mass and the long fissure and the fractures with close fracture tip are easier to activate, and the position where the longer fractures intersect with the smaller fractures is easier to generate new fractures. The results are of great significance to a multi-block structure, which affects the safety of underground coal mining.

Ground subsidence, which is a current concern that affects piled raft foundations, has occurred at a high rate in Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam, due primarily to groundwater pumping for water supply. In this study, the groundwater level (GWL) change affect on a piled raft foundation was investigated based on the three-dimensional finite element method (3D-FEM) using the PLAXIS 3D software. The GWL change due to global groundwater pumping and dewatering were simulated in PLAXIS 3D based on the GWL reduction and consolidation. Settlement and the pile axial force of the piled raft foundation in Ho Chi Minh subsoil were investigated based on the actual design and the proposed optimal case. The actual design used the piled foundation concept, while the optimal case applied a pile spacing of 6D using a piled raft concept to reduce the number of piles, with little increased settlement. The results indicated that the settlement increased with the GWL reduction, caused by groundwater pumping and dewatering. The subsidence started to affect the piled raft foundation 2.5 years after construction for the actual design and after 3.4 years for the optimal case due to global groundwater pumping. The pile's axial force, which was affected by negative skin friction, increased during that time.

This study examines two traditional approaches (non-linear elastic and elasto-plastic) in association with 2D and 3D FEM analyses of a box-section pile embedded in sand. A particular emphasis is placed on stress singularities concerning both reentrant corners of the pile section and the resulting tension zones. From the experience gained in this study, non-linear elastic soil models are less restrictive when one considers stress singularities and their possible effects on convergence of the solution. At least for monotonic loading, when compared with field tests, non-linear elastic models yield better results than the plasticity ones. On the other hand, although elasto-plastic models are not limited to monotonic loading, they are much more sensitive to stress singularities. For this reason, a spherical elastic region is necessary at the pile tip to ensure convergence. Without this region, one must artificially impose an apparent cohesion to limit the tension stresses within a sand medium.

Soft clay is widely distributed in the southeast coastal areas of China. Many large underground structures, such as subway stations and underground pipe corridors, are shallow buried in the soft clay foundation, so the dynamic characteristics of the soft clay must be considered to the seismic design of underground structures. In this paper, the dynamic characteristics of saturated soft clay in Shanghai under the bidirectional excitation for earthquake loading are studied by dynamic triaxial tests, comparing the backbone curve and hysteretic curve of the saturated soft clay under different confining pressures with those under different vibration frequencies. Considering the coupling effects of the confining pressure and the vibration frequency, a fitting model of the maximum dynamic shear modulus was proposed by the multiple linear regression method. The M-D model was used to fit the variations of the dynamic shear modulus ratio with the shear strain. Based on the Chen model and the Park model, the effects of the consolidation confining pressure and the vibration frequency on the damping ratio were studied. The results can provide a reference to the earthquake prevention and disaster reduction in soft clay area.

Across the globe, rapid urbanization demands the construction of basements for car parking and sub way station within the vicinity of high-rise buildings supported on piled raft foundations. As a consequence, ground movements caused by such excavations could interfere with the serviceability of the building and the piled raft as well. Hence, the prediction of the building responses to the adjacent excavations is of utmost importance. This study used three-dimensional numerical modelling to capture the effects of twin excavations (final depth of each excavation, H_e=24 m) on a 20-storey building resting on (4×4) piled raft. Because the considered structure, pile foundation, and soil deposit are three-dimensional in nature, the adopted three-dimensional numerical modelling can provide a more realistic simulation to capture responses of the system. The hypoplastic constitutive model was used to capture soil behaviour. The concrete damaged plasticity (CDP) model was used to capture the cracking behaviour in the concrete beams, columns and piles. The computed results revealed that the first excavation- induced substantial differential settlement (i.e., tilting) in the adjacent high-rise building while second excavation caused the building tilt back with smaller rate. As a result, the building remains tilted towards the first excavation with final value of tilting of 0.28%. Consequently, the most severe tensile cracking damage at the bottom of two middle columns. At the end of twin excavations, the building load resisted by the raft reduced to half of that the load before the excavations. The reduced load transferred to the piles resulting in increment of the axial load along the entire length of piles.

Temperature is one of the important factors affecting the permeability of water in the soil. In the present study, the impact of water temperature on hydraulic conductivity (k) with and without coarse aggregations by considering six types of soils was analyzed. Moreover, the effect of sand and gravel presence in the soil was investigated through the infiltration based on constant and inconstant water head experiments. Results indicated that by increasing the water temperature, adding gravel to sandy soil caused the hydraulic conductivity to raise. It is supposed that the gravel decreased the contact surface between the water and the soil aggregates. It is deduced that due to decreasing kinetic energy, k tends to have lower values. Furthermore, adding the sand to sandy silt-clay soil showed that the sand did not have a marginal effect on the variation of k since the added sand cannot increase the contact surface like gravel. Finally, increasing the main diameter of the soil will increase the effect of the water temperature on hydraulic conductivity.

Designing pile foundations subjected to the uplift forces such as buildings, oil platforms, and anchors is becoming increasingly concerned. In this paper, the conceptual design of a new type of driven piles called expanding pile is presented and assessed. Some grooves have been created in the shaft of the novel pile, and some moveable arms have been designed at the pile tip. At first, static analyses using the finite element method were performed to evaluate the effectiveness of the innovative pile on the axial bearing capacity. Then its effect on seismic behavior of moment frame is considered. Results show that the expanding arms were provided an ideal anchorage system because of the soil's noticeable locking-up effect increasing uplift bearing capacity. For example at the end of the static tensile loading procedure, displacement decrement up to 55 percent is observed. In addition, comparing the uplift bearing capacity of the usual and new pile with different lengths in sand and clay layers shows noticeable effect and sharp increase up to about two times especially in longer piles. Besides, a sensible reduction in the seismic response and the stresses in the beam-column connection between 23-36 percent are achieved that ensures better seismic behavior of the structures.