• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• 제32권2호
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• pp.145-157
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• 2023

This paper aims at investigating the face stability of large-diameter underwater shield tunnels considering seepage in soft-hard uneven strata. Using the kinematic approach of limit upper-bound analysis, the analytical solution of limit supporting pressure on the tunnel face considering seepage was obtained based on a logarithmic spiral collapsed body in uneven strata. The stability analysis method of the excavation face with different soft- and hard-stratum ratios was explored and validated. Moreover, the effects of water level and burial depth on tunnel face stability were discussed. The results show the effect of seepage on the excavation face stability can be accounted as the seepage force on the excavation face and the seepage force of pore water in instability body. When the thickness ratio of hard soil layer within the excavation face exceeds 1/6D, the interface of the soft and hard soil layer can be placed at tunnel axis during stability analysis. The reliability of the analytical solution of the limit supporting pressure is validated by numerical method and literature methods. The increase of water level causes the instability of upper soft soil layer firstly due to the higher seepage force. With the rise of burial depth, the horizontal displacement of the upper soft soil decreases and the limit supporting pressure changes little because of soil arching effect.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• 제10권1호
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• pp.21-35
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• 2016

Employing non-associated flow rule and Power-Law failure criterion, the failure mechanisms of tunnel roof in homogeneous and layered soils are studied in present analysis. From the viewpoint of energy, limit analysis upper bound theorem and variation principle are introduced to study the influence of dilatancy on the collapse mechanism of rectangular tunnel considering effects of supporting force and seepage force. Through calculation, the collapsing curve expressions of rectangular tunnel which are excavated in homogeneous soil and layered soils respectively are derived. The accuracy of this work is verified by comparing with the existing research results. The collapsing surface shapes with different dilatancy coefficients are draw out and the influence of dilatancy coefficient on possible collapsing range is analyzed. The results show that, in homogeneous soil, the potential collapsing range decreases with the decrease of the dilatancy coefficient. In layered soils, the total height and the width on the layered position of possible collapsing block increase and the width of the falling block on tunnel roof decrease when only the upper soil's dilatancy coefficient decrease. When only the lower soil's dilatancy coefficient decrease or both layers' dilatancy coefficients decrease, the range of the potential collapsing block reduces.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• 제10권5호
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• pp.617-633
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• 2016

A numerical study has been conducted to examine the improvement achieved in the ultimate pullout capacity of horizontal circular anchor plates embedded in undrained clay, by constructing granular columns of varying diameter over the anchor plates. The analysis has been carried out by using lower bound theorem of limit analysis and finite elements in combination with linear programming. The improvement in uplifting capacity of anchor plate is expressed in terms of an efficiency factor (${\xi}$). The efficiency factor (${\xi}$) has been defined as the ratio of ultimate vertical pullout capacity of anchor plate having diameter D embedded in soft clay reinforced by granular column to the vertical pullout capacity of the anchor plate with same diameter D embedded in soft clay only. The variation of efficiency factor (${\xi}$) for different embedment ratios and different diameter of granular column has been studied considering a wide range of softness of clay and different value of soil internal friction angle (${\phi}$) of the granular material. It is observed that ${\xi}$ increases with an increase in diameter of the granular column ($D_t$) and increase in friction angle of granular material. Also, the effectiveness of the usage of granular column increases with decrease in cohesion of the clay.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• 제14권2호
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• pp.171-190
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• 2002

Two cases of design are performed for the hyperbolic paraboloid saddle shell (Lin-Scordelis saddle shell) and the hyperbolic cooling tower (Grand Gulf cooling tower) to check the design strength against a consistent design load, therefore to verify the adequacy of the design algorithm. An iterative numerical computational algorithm is developed for combined membrane and flexural forces, which is based on equilibrium consideration for the limit state of reinforcement and cracked concrete. The design algorithm is implemented in a finite element analysis computer program developed by Mahmoud and Gupta. The amount of reinforcement is then determined at the center of each element by an elastic finite element analysis with the design ultimate load. Based on ultimate nonlinear analyses performed with designed saddle shell, the analytically calculated ultimate load exceeded the design ultimate load from 7% to 34% for analyses with various magnitude of tension stiffening. For the cooling tower problem the calculated ultimate load exceeded the design ultimate load from 26% to 63% with similar types of analyses. Since the effective tension stiffening would vary over the life of the shells due to environmental factors, a degree of uncertainty seems inevitable in calculating the actual failure load by means of numerical analysis. Even though the ultimate loads are strongly dependent on the tensile properties of concrete, the calculated ultimate loads are higher than the design ultimate loads for both design cases. For the cases designed, the design algorithm gives a lower bound on the design ultimate load with respect to the lower bound theorem. This shows the adequacy of the design algorithm developed, at least for the shells studied. The presented design algorithm for the combined membrane and flexural forces can be evolved as a general design method for reinforced concrete plates and shells through further studies involving the performance of multiple designs and the analyses of differing shell configurations.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• 제9권3호
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• pp.481-501
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• 2015

Current design codes and technical recommendations often provide rough indications on how to assess effective stiffness of Reinforced Concrete (R/C) frames subjected to seismic loads, which is a key factor when a linear analysis is performed. The Italian design code (NTC-2008), Eurocode 8 and ACI 318 do not take into account all the structural parameters affecting the effective stiffness and this may not be on the safe side when second-order $P-{\Delta}$ effects may occur. This paper presents a study on the factors influencing the effective stiffness of R/C beams, columns and walls under seismic forces. Five different approaches are adopted and analyzed in order to evaluate the effective stiffness of R/C members, in accordance with the scientific literature and the international design codes. Furthermore, the paper discusses the outcomes of a parametric analysis performed on an actual R/C building and analyses the main variables, namely reinforcement ratio, axial load ratio, concrete compressive strength, and type of shallow beams. The second-order effects are investigated and the resulting displacements related to the Damage Limit State (DLS) under seismic loads are discussed. Although the effective stiffness increases with steel ratio, the analytical results show that the limit of 50% of the initial stiffness turns out to be the upper bound for small values of axial-load ratio, rather than a lower bound as indicated by both Italian NTC-2008 and EC8. As a result, in some cases the current Italian and European provisions tend to underestimate second-order $P-{\Delta}$ effects, when the DLS is investigated under seismic loading.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• 제1권3호
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• pp.205-218
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• 2009

The bearing capacity factor $N_{\gamma}$ is computed for a rough conical footing placed over horizontal ground surface. The axisymmetric lower bound limit analysis formulation, in combination with finite elements and linear programming, proposed recently by the authors is used in this study. The variation of $N_{\gamma}$ with cone apex angle (${\beta}$), in a range of $30^{\circ}-180^{\circ}$, is obtained for different values of ${\phi}$; where ${\phi}$ is soil friction angle. For ${\phi}<30^{\circ}$, the magnitude of $N_{\gamma}$ is found to decrease continuously with an increase in ${\beta}$ from $30^{\circ}$ to $180^{\circ}$. On the other hand, for ${\phi}>30^{\circ}$, the minimum magnitude of $N_{\gamma}$ is found to occur generally between ${\beta}=120^{\circ}$ and ${\beta}=150^{\circ}$. In all the cases, it is noticed that the magnitude of $N_{\gamma}$ becomes maximum for ${\beta}=30^{\circ}$. For a given diameter of the cone, the area of the plastic zone reduces generally with an increase in ${\beta}$. The obtained values of $N_{\gamma}$ are found to compare quite well with those available in literature.

• 한국압력기기공학회 논문집
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• 제17권1호
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• pp.28-35
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• 2021

The flow accelerated corrosion (FAC) is one of significant aging and degradation mechanism and can affect structural integrity of CANDU feeder pipes. Pipe burst can occur under normal operation pressure (min. 10 MPa) if wall-thinning of the feeder pipe due to FAC is accumulated. Previous studies considered simple shapes of feeder pipe with local wall-thinning in order to conservatively assess structural integrity of wall-thinned feeder pipe. In this paper, a new FE model is developed, having an actual shape of the feeder pipe (double bent) as well as the actual wall-thinning shape and location based on the in-service inspection result. Then, the burst pressure assessment of the wall-thinned feeder pipe is performed using lower bound limit load analysis considering elastic-perfectly plastic material. In addition, an improved formulation to predict the burst pressure of the wall-thinned feeder pipe is presented and the safety margin is compared with an existing assessment method.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• 제18권3호
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• pp.367-377
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• 2020

Incremental dynamic analysis (IDA) widely uses for the collapse risk assessment procedures of buildings. In this study, an IDA-based collapse risk assessment methodology is proposed, which employs a novel approach for detecting the near-collapse (NC) limit state. The proposed approach uses the modal pushover analysis results to calculate the maximum inter-story drift ratio of the structure. This value, which is used as the upper-bound limit in the IDA process, depends on the structural characteristics and global seismic responses of the structure. In this paper, steel midrise intermediate moment resisting frames (IMRFs) have selected as case studies, and their collapse risk parameters are evaluated by the suggested methodology. The composite action of a concrete floor slab and steel beams, and the interaction between the infill walls and the frames could change the collapse mechanism of the structure. In this study, the influences of the metal deck floor and autoclaved aerated concrete (AAC) masonry infill walls with uniform distribution are investigated on the seismic collapse risk of the IMRFs using the proposed methodology. The results demonstrate that the suggested modified IDA method can accurately discover the near-collapse limit state. Also, this method leads to much fewer steps and lower calculation costs rather than the current IDA method. Moreover, the results show that the concrete slab and the AAC infill walls can change the collapse parameters of the structure and should be considered in the analytical modeling and the collapse assessment process of the steel mid-rise intermediate moment resisting frames.

• 한국콘크리트학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국콘크리트학회 2003년도 봄 학술발표회 논문집
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• pp.896-901
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• 2003

This paper describes a model on shear strength of RC columns strengthened with FRP sheets. In this study, we propose a confined concrete strength model of RC columns confined by transverse reinforcement as well as FRP sheet by introducing corresponding effective confinement coefficient for each confined concrete area. Then, a shear strength model of the confined RC columns is proposed by lower and upper bound limit analysis which are based on the truss-arch model theory and shear band failure theory, respectively. Along with shear test data obtained from strengthened column specimens, the developed analytical models are verified. The comparison shows that the proposed model can be used effectively for the prediction of both ultimate strength and required amount of strengthening in retrofit design for RC columns.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• 제13권5호
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• pp.825-844
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• 2017

This study aimed to find out the pullout capacity of inclined strip anchor plate embedded in anisotropic and nonhomogeneous fully saturated cohesive soil in undrained condition. The ultimate pullout load has been found out by using numerical lower bound finite element analysis with linear programming. The undrained pullout capacity of anchor plate of width B is determined for different embedment ratios (H/B) varying from 3 to 7 and various inclination of anchor plates ranging from $0^{\circ}$ to $90^{\circ}$ with an interval of $15^{\circ}$. In case of anisotropic fully saturated clay the variation of cohesion with direction has been considered by varying the ratio of the cohesion along vertical direction ($c_v$) to the cohesion along horizontal direction ($c_h$). In case of nonhomogeneous clay the cohesion of the undrained clay has been considered to be increased with depth below ground surface keeping $c_v/c_h=1$. The results are presented in terms of pullout capacity factor ($F_{c0}=p_u/c_H$) where $p_u$ is the ultimate pullout stress along the anchor plate at failure and $c_H$ is the cohesion in horizontal direction at the level of the middle point of the anchor plate. It is observed that the pullout capacity factor increases with an increase in anisotropic cohesion ratio ($c_v/c_h$) whereas the pullout capacity factor decreases with an increase in undrained cohesion of the soil with depth.