• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
• /
• 1998.05a
• /
• pp.153-204
• /
• 1998

Prediction of lining loads due to tunnelling is one of the major issues to be addressed in the design of a tunnel. The objective of this study is to investigate rational and realistic design loads on tunnel linings. factors influencing the lining load are summarized and discussed. The instruments for measuring the lining loads are reviewed and discussed because field measurements are often necessary to verify the design methods. Tunnel construction in the City of Edmonton has been very active for storm and sanitary purposes. Since the early 1970's, the city has also been developing an underground Light Rail Transit system. The load measurements obtained from these tunnels are compared with the results from the existing design methods. However, none of the existing methods are totally satisfactory, Therefore, there is some room for improvement in the prediction of lining loads. The convergence-confinement method is reviewed and applied to a case history of a tunnel in Edmonton. The convergence curves are obtained from 2-D finite element analyses using three different material models and theoretical equations. The limitation of the convergence-confinement method is discussed by comparing these curves with the field measurements. Three-dimensional finite element analyses are performed to gain a better understanding of stress and displacement behaviour near the tunnel face. An improved design method is proposed based on the review of existing design methods and the performance of numerical analyses. A specific method or combination of two different methods is suggested for the estimation of lining loads for different conditions of tunnelling. A method to determine the stress reduction factor is described. Typical values of dimensionless load factors nD/H for tunnels in Edmonton are obtained from parametric analyses. Finally, the loads calculated using the proposed method are compared with field measurements collected from various tunnels in terms of soil types and construction methods to verify the method. The proposed method gives a reasonable approximation of the lining loads. The proposed method is recommended as an approximate guideline for the design of tunnels, but the results should be confirmed by field measurements due to the uncertainties of the ground and lining properties and the construction procedures, This is the reason that in-situ monitoring should be an integral part of the design procedure.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
• /
• v.18 no.3
• /
• pp.105-112
• /
• 2002

Increases in excess pore water pressure without change of surcharge load were reported in clay underneath embankment at Berthierville and Olga sites after the end of construction. These abnormal phenomena could not be explained by classical consolidation theory. This paper presents a nonlinear viscoplastic model to interpret an increase in pore water pressure on natural clay, The proposed model can consider the combined processes of pore water pressure dissipation according to Darcy's law and pore water pressure generation due to viscoplastic strain, as well as time-dependent viscoplastic behaviour and strain rate dependency of preconsolidation pressure. The calculated results using numerical analysis are compared with measured ones under embankments built on soft clay at Berthierville and Olga in Quebec, Canada. It may be possible to explain the phenomenon of excess pore water pressure increase after the end of construction using the proposed nonlinear viscoplastic model.

• Earthquakes and Structures
• /
• v.1 no.4
• /
• pp.371-390
• /
• 2010

Historical buildings in seismically active regions are severely damaged by earthquakes, since they certainly were not designed by the original builders to withstand seismic effects. In particular the reports after major ground motions indicate that earthquake-induced pounding between buildings may lead to substantial damage or even collapse of colliding structures. The research on structural pounding during earthquakes has been recently much advanced, although most of the studies are conducted on simplified single degree of freedom systems. In this paper a detailed pounding-involved response analysis of three adjacent structures is performed, concerning the main bodies of the "Quinto Orazio Flacco" school. The construction includes a main masonry building, with an M-shaped plan, and a reinforced concrete building, separated from the masonry one and realized along its free perimeter. By the analysis of the capacity curves obtained by suitable pushover procedures performed separately for each building, it emerges that masonry and reinforced concrete buildings are vulnerable to earthquake-induced structural pounding in the longitudinal direction. In particular, due to the geometric configuration of the school, a special case of impact between the reinforced concrete structure and two parts of the masonry building occurs. In order to evaluate the pounding-involved response of three adjacent structures, in this paper a numerical procedure is proposed, programmed using MATLAB software. Both a non-linear viscoelastic model to simulate impact and an elastic-perfectly plastic approximation of the storey shear force-drift relation are assumed, differently from many commercial softwares which admit just one non-linearity.

• Journal of Korean Association for Spatial Structures
• /
• v.9 no.3
• /
• pp.75-82
• /
• 2009

This paper investigates the variation of post-buckling behaviours of spatial structures after sizing optimization with linear assumptions. The mathematical programming technique is used to produce the optimum member size of spatial structures against external load. Total weight of structure is considered as the objective function to be minimized and the displacement occurred at loading point and member stresses of structures are used as the constraint functions. The finite difference method is used to calculate the design sensitivity of objective function with respect to design variables. The post-buckling analysis carried out by using the geometrically nonlinear finite element analysis code ISADO-GN. It is found to be that there is a huge difference between the post buckling behaviours of the initial and optimized structures. Therefore, the stability of optimized spatial structures with linear assumption should be throughly checked by appropriate nonlinear analysis techniques. Finally, the present numerical results are provided as benchmark test suite for future study of large spatial structures.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
• /
• 2009.09a
• /
• pp.157-171
• /
• 2009

A 151 storey super high-rise building located in an area of reclaimed land constructed over soft marine clay in Songdo, Korea is currently under design. This paper describes the design process of the foundation system of the supertall tower, which is required to support the large building vertical and lateral loads and to restrain the horizontal displacement due to wind and seismic forces. The behaviour of the foundation system due to these loads and foundation stiffness influence the design of the building super structure, displacement of the tower, as well as the raft foundation design. Therefore, the design takes in account the interactions between soil, foundation and super structure, so as to achieve a safe and efficient building performance. The site lies entirely within an area of reclamation underlain by up to 20m of soft to firm marine silty clay, which overlies residual soil and a profile of weathered rock. The nature of the foundation rock materials are highly complex and are interpreted as possible roof pendant metamorphic rocks, which within about 50m from the surface have been affected by weathering which has reduced their strength. The presence of closely spaced joints, sheared and crushed zones within the rock has resulted in deeper areas of weathering of over 80m present within the building footprint. The foundation design process described includes the initial stages of geotechnical site characterization using the results of investigation boreholes and geotechnical parameter selection, and a series of detailed two- and three-dimensional numerical analysis for the Tower foundation comprising over 172 bored piles of varying length. The effect of the overall foundation stiffness and rotation under wind and seismic load is also discussed since the foundation rotation has a direct impact on the overall displacement of the tower.

• Wind and Structures
• /
• v.10 no.3
• /
• pp.233-247
• /
• 2007

The insertion of steel braces has become a common technique to limit the deformability of steel framed buildings subjected to wind loads. However, when this technique is inadequate to keep floor accelerations within acceptable levels of human comfort, dampers placed in series with the steel braces can be adopted. To check the effectiveness of braces equipped with viscoelastic (VEDs) or friction dampers (FRDs), a numerical investigation is carried out focusing attention on a three-bay fifteen-storey steel framed building with K-braces. More precisely, three alternative structural solutions are examined for the purpose of controlling wind-induced vibrations: the insertion of additional diagonal braces; the insertion of additional diagonal braces equipped with dampers; the insertion of both additional diagonal braces and dampers supported by the existing K-braces. Additional braces and dampers are designed according to a simplified procedure based on a proportional stiffness criterion. A dynamic analysis is carried out in the time domain using a step-by-step initial-stress-like iterative procedure. Along-wind loads are considered at each storey assuming the time histories of the wind velocity, for a return period $T_r=5$ years, according to an equivalent wind spectrum technique. The behaviour of the structural members, except dampers, is assumed linear elastic. A VED and an FRD are idealized by a six-element generalized model and a bilinear (rigid-plastic) model, respectively. The results show that the structure with damped additional braces can be considered, among those examined, the most effective to control vibrations due to wind, particularly the floor accelerations. Moreover, once the stiffness of the additional braces is selected, the VEDs are slightly more efficient than the FRDs, because they, unlike the FRDs, dissipate energy also for small amplitude vibrations.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
• /
• v.12 no.2
• /
• pp.295-312
• /
• 2017

Cast in situ and grouted concrete helical piles with 150-200 mm diameter half cylindrical ribs have become an economical and effective choice in Shanghai, China for uplift piles in deep soft soils. Though this type of pile has been successful used in practice, the reinforcing mechanism and the contribution of the ribs to the total resistance is not clear, and there is no clear guideline for the design of such piles. To study the inclusion of ribs to the contribution of shear resistance, the shear behaviour between silty sand and concrete slabs with parallel ribs at different spacing and angles were tested in a large direct shear box ($600mm{\times}400mm{\times}200mm$). The front panels of the shear box are detachable to observe the soil deformation after the test. The tests were modelled with three-dimensional finite element method in ABAQUS. It was found that, passive zones can be developed ahead of the ribs to form undulated failure surfaces. The shear resistance and failure mode are affected by the ratio of rib spacing to rib diameter. Based on the shape and continuity of the failure zones at the interface, the failure modes at the interface can be classified as "punching", "local" or "general" shear failure respectively. With the inclusion of the ribs, the pull out resistance can increase up to 17%. The optimum rib spacing to rib diameter ratio was found to be around 7 based on the observed experimental results and the numerical modelling.

• Smart Structures and Systems
• /
• v.26 no.3
• /
• pp.391-401
• /
• 2020

The present article reports the feasibility of the electrical energy generation from ambient low-frequency vibration using a piezoelectric material mounted on a bimorph cantilever beam actuator. A corresponding higher-order analytical model is developed using MATLAB in conjunction with finite element method under low-frequency with both damped and undamped conditions. An alternate model is also developed to check the material and dimensional viability of both piezoelectric materials (mainly focussed to PVDF and PZT) and the base material. Also, Genetic Algorithm is implemented to find the optimum dimensions which can produce the higher values of voltage at low-frequency frequencies (≤ 100 Hz). The delamination constraints are employed to avoid inter-laminar stresses and to increase the fracture toughness. The delamination has been done using a Teflon sheet sandwiched in between base plates and the piezo material is stuck to the base plate using adhesives. The analytical model is tested for both homogenous and isotropic material characteristics of the base material and extended to investigate the effect of the different geometrical parameters (base plate dimensions, piezo layer dimensions and placement, delamination thickness and placement, excitation frequency) on the model responses of the bimorph cantilever beam. It has been observed that when the base material characteristics are homogenous, the efficiency of the model remains higher when compared to the condition when it is of isotropic material. The necessary convergence behaviour of the current numerical model has been established and checked for the accuracy by comparing with available published results. Finally, using the results obtained from the model, a prototype is fabricated for the experimental validation via a suitable circuit considering Glass fibre and Aluminium as the bimorph material.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
• /
• v.55 no.4
• /
• pp.765-784
• /
• 2015

Connections are usually designed either as pinned usually associated with simple construction or rigid normally is associated with continuous construction. However, the actual behaviour falls in between these two extreme cases. The use of partial strength or semi-rigid connections has been encouraged by Euro-code 3 and studies on semi-continuous construction have shown substantial savings in steel weight of the overall construction. Composite connections are proposed in this paper as partial or full strength connections. Standardized connection tables are developed based on checking on all possible failure modes as suggested by "component method" for beam-to-column composite connection on major axis. Four experimental tests were carried out to validate the proposed standardised connection table. The test results showed good agreement between experimental and theoretical values with the ratio in the range between 1.06 to 1.50. All tested specimens of the composite connections showed ductile type of failure with the formation of cracks occurred on concrete slab at maximum load. No failure occurred on the Trapezoidal Web Profiled Steel Section as beam and on the British Section as column.

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.19 no.5 s.66
• /
• pp.16-25
• /
• 2005

The effect of vertical riser support system on the dynamic behaviour of a classical spar platform is investigated. Spar platform generally uses buoyancy-can riser support system, but as water depth gets deeper the alternative riser support system is required due to safety and cost issues. The alternative riser support system is to hang risers off the spar platform using pneumatic cylinders rather than the buoyancy-can. The existing numerical model for hull/mooring/riser coupled dynamics analysis treats riser as an elastic rod truncated at the keel (truncated riser model), thus, in this model, the effect of riser support system can not be modeled correctly. Due to this reason, the truncated riser model tends to overestimate the spar pitch and heave motion. To evaluate more realistic global spar motion, mechanical coupling among risers, guide frames and support cylinders inside of spar moon-pool should be modeled. In the newly developed model, the risers are extended through the moon-pool by using nonlinear finite element methods with realistic boundary condition at multiple guide frames. In the simulation, the vertical tension from pneumatic cylinders is modeled by using ideal-gas equation and the vertical tension from buoyancy-cans is modeled as constant top tension. The different dynamic characteristics between buoyancy-can riser support system and pneumatic riser support system are extensively studied. The alternative riser support system tends to increase spar heave motion and needs damper system to reduce the spar heave motion.