The influence of tunnelling on piled foundations

A study of the influence of tunnelling on piled foundations was recently completed at the University of Cambridge. The study focussed on tunnelling near driven piles in dense sand and was carried out by means of centrifuge modelling. This paper presents a summary of the main findings, describing the mechanism controlling tunnelling-induced pile behaviour, a zone of influence around the tunnel where piles might be affected and recommendations for tunnelling near piles in practice. Both single piles and pile groups are considered.

A comparison of two models for the vibration response of piled foundations to inertial and underground-railway-induced loadings

The vibration response of piled foundations due to ground-borne vibration produced by an underground railway is a largely-neglected area in the field of structural dynamics. However, this continues to be an important aspect of research as it is expected that the presence of piled foundations can have a significant influence on the propagation and transmission of the wavefield produced by the underground railway. This paper presents a comparison of two methods that can be employed in calculating the vibration response of a piled foundation: an efficient semi-analytical model, and a Boundary Element model. The semi-analytical model uses a column or an Euler beam to model the pile, and the soil is modelled as a linear, elastic continuum that has the geometry of a thick-walled cylinder with an infinite outer radius and an inner radius equal to the radius of the pile. The boundary element model uses a constant-element BEM formulation for the halfspace, and a rectangular discretisation of the circular pile-soil interface. The piles are modelled as Timoshenko beams. Pile-soil-pile interactions are inherently accounted for in the BEM equations, whereas in the semi-analytical model these are quantified using the superposition of interaction factors. Both models use the method of joining subsystems to incorporate the incident wavefield generated by the underground railway into the pile model. Results are computed for a single pile subject to an inertial loading, pile-soil-pile interactions, and a pile group subjected to excitation from an underground railway. The two models are compared in terms of accuracy, computation time, versatility and applicability, and guidelines for future vibration prediction models involving piled foundations are proposed.

Fertile-free annular fuel for plutonium recycling

Up to 50% increase in the power density of the existing pressurized water reactor (PWR)-type reactors can be achieved by the use of internally and externally cooled annular fuel geometry. As a result, the accumulated stock-piles of Pu, especially if incorporated infertile-free inert matrix, can be burnt at a substantially higher rate as compared with the conventional mixed oxide-fueled reactors operating at standard power density. In this work, we explore the basic feasibility of a PWR core fully loaded with Pu incorporated infertile-free fuel of annular internally and externally cooled geometry and operating at 150% of nominal power density. We evaluate basic burnable poison designs, fuel management strategies, and reactivity feedback coefficients. The three-dimensional full core neutronic analysis performed with Studsvik Core Management System showed that the design of such a Pu-loaded annular fuel core is feasible but significantly more challenging than the Pu fertile-free core with solid fuel pins operating at nominal power density. The main difficulty arises from the fact that the annular fuel core requires at least 50% higher initial Pu loading in order to maintain the standard fuel cycle length of 18 months. Such a high Pu loading results in hardening of the neutron spectrum and consequent reduction in reactivity worth of all reactivity control mechanisms and, in some cases, positive moderator temperature coefficient (MTC). The use of isotopically enriched Gd and Er burnable poisons was found to be beneficial with respect to maximizing Pu burnup and reducing power peaking factors. Overall, the annular fertile-free Pu-loaded high-power-density core appears to be feasible, although it still has relatively high power peaking and potential for slightly positive MTC at beginning of cycle. However, we estimate that limiting the power density to 140% of the nominal case would assure acceptable core power peaking and negative MTC at all times during the cycle.

Re-mobilization of pile shaft friction after an earthquake

During strong earthquakes, significant excess pore pressures can develop in saturated soils. After shaking ceases, the dissipation of these pressures can cause significant soil settlement, creating downward-acting frictional loads on piled foundations. Additionally, if the piles do not support the full axial load at the end of shaking, then the proportion of the superstructure's vertical loading carried by the piles may change as a result of the soil settlement, further altering the axial load distribution on piles as the soil consolidates. In this paper, the effect of hydraulic conductivity and initial post-shaking pile head loading is investigated in terms of the changing axial load distribution and settlement responses. The investigation is carried out by considering the results from four dynamic centrifuge experiments in which a 2 × 2 pile group was embedded in a two-layer profile and subjected to strong shaking. It is found that large contrasts in hydraulic conductivity between the two layers of the soil model affected both the pile group settlements and axial load distribution. Both these results stem from the differences in excess pore pressure dissipation, part of which took place very rapidly when the underlying soil layer had a large hydraulic conductivity.

Evaluation of the p-y method in the design of monopiles for offshore wind turbines

Monopile foundations, currently designed using the p-y method, are technically viable in supporting larger offshore wind turbines in waters to a depth of 30 m. The p-y method was developed to better understand the behavior of laterally loaded long slender piles required for the offshore oil and gas installations. The lateral load-deformation behavior of two monopiles, 5 and 7.5 m dia, installed in soft clays of varying undrained shear strength and stiffness, was studied. A combination of axial and lateral loads expected at an offshore wind farm location with a water depth of 30 m was used in the analysis. It was established that the Matlock (1970) p-y curves are too soft and under-estimate the ultimate soil reaction at all depths except at the monopile tip. At the pile tip, the base shear was not accounted for in the p-y curves, hence resulting in the over-estimation of the soil reaction. Consequently, the Matlock (1970) p-y formulation significantly underestimates the monopile ultimate lateral capacity. The use of the Matlock (1970) p-y method would result in over-conservative designs of monopiles for offshore wind turbines. This is an abstract of a paper presented at the Offshore Technology Conference (Houston, TX 5/6-9/2013).

Centrifuge testing of monopiles subject to cyclic lateral loading

Monopiles supporting offshore wind turbines are subjected to cyclic lateral loading. The properties of the applied cyclic lateral load are known to have an effect on the accumulation of permanent displacement and rotation at the pile head. The results of centrifuge testing on model piles show that certain loading regimes lead to the development of locked in soil stresses around the pile. These locked in soil stresses change the stiffness of the monopile response to cyclic lateral loading and the natural frequency of the pile-soil system. © 2014 Taylor & Francis Group.

Lateral spreading-induced abutment rotation in the 2011 Christchurch earthquake: Observations and analysis

A series of strong earthquakes near Christchurch, New Zealand, occurred between September 2010 and December 2011, causing widespread liquefaction throughout the city's suburbs. Lateral spreading developed along the city's Avon River, damaging many of the bridges east of the city centre. The short-to medium-span bridges exhibited a similar pattern of deformation, involving back-rotation of their abutments and compression of their decks. By explicitly considering the rotational equilibrium of the abutments about their point of contact with the rigid bridge decks, it is shown that relatively small kinematic demands from the laterally spreading backfill soil are needed to initiate pile yielding, and that this mode of deformation should be taken into account in the design of the abutments and abutment piles.

The dynamic effect of a piled-foundation building on an incident vibration field from an underground railway tunnel

This paper presents a three-dimensional comprehensive model for the calculation of vibration in a building based on pile-foundation due to moving trains in a nearby underground tunnel. The model calculates the Power Spectral Density (PSD) of the building's responses due to trains moving on floating-slab tracks with random roughness. The tunnel and its surrounding soil are modelled as a cylindrical shell embedded in half-space using the well-known PiP model. The building and its piles are modelled as a 2D frame using the dynamic stiffness matrix. Coupling between the foundation and the ground is performed using the theory of joining subsystems in the frequency domain. The latter requires calculations of transfer functions of a half-space model. A convenient choice based on the thin-layer method is selected in this work for the calculations of responses in a half-space due to circular strip loadings. The coupling considers the influence of the building's dynamics on the incident wave field from the tunnel, but ignores any reflections of building's waves from the tunnel. The derivation made in the paper shows that the incident vibration field at the building's foundation gets modified by a term reflecting the coupling and the dynamics of the building and its foundation. The comparisons presented in the paper show that the dynamics of the building and its foundation significantly change the incident vibration field from the tunnel and they can lead to loss of accuracy of predictions if not considered in the calculation.

A role of monitoring to reduce the uncertainty in the performance of pile foundations

In typical conventional foundation design, the inherent variability of soil properties, model uncertainty and construction variability are not modeled explicitly. A main drawback of this is that the effect of each variability on the probability of an unfavorable event cannot be evaluated quantitatively. In this paper, a method to evaluate the uncertainty-reduction effect on the performance of a vertically-loaded pile foundation by monitoring the pile performance (such as pile load testing or placing sensors in piles) is proposed. The effectiveness of the proposed method is examined based on the investigation of a 120-pile foundation placed on three different ground profiles. The computed results show the capability of evaluating the uncertainty-reduction effect on the performance of a pile foundation by monitoring. © 2014 Taylor & Francis Group, London.

Increasing allowable deformation criteria through application of level II LTSM approach

In the central part of the Delft railway tunnel project, an underground railway station is being built at very close distance to the existing station building, which is still in operation. Although elaborate sensitivity analyses were made, some unforeseen deformations were encountered during the first phases of the execution process. Especially the installation of temporary sheet pile walls as well as the installation of a huge amount of grout anchor piles resulted in deformations exceeding the predicted final deformations as well as the boundary values defined by a level I limiting tensile strain method (LTSM) approach. In order to ensure the execution process, supplementary analyses were made to predict future deformations, and this for multiple cross sections. These deformations were implemented into a finite element model of the masonry of the building in order to define probable crack formation. This Level II LTSM approach made it possible to increase the initially foreseen deformation criteria and the continuation of the works. Design steps, design models and monitoring results will be explained within this paper.

CHARACTERISTICS OF OXIDES FORMED FROM A SI0.5GE0.5

X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) combined with Auger electron spectroscopy (AES) have been used to study the oxides from a Si0.5Ge0.5 alloy grown by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE). The oxidation was performed at 1000 degrees C wet atmosphere. The oxide consists of two layers: a mixed (Si,Ge)O-x layer near the surface and a pure SiOx layer underneath. Ge is rejected from the pure SiOx and piles up at the SiOx/SiGe interface. XPS analysis demonstrates that the chemical shifts of Si 2p and Ge 3d in the oxidized Si0.5Ge0.5 are significantly larger than those in SiO2 and GeO2 formed from pure Si and Ge crystals.

抗滑桩与滑体之间土拱效应的理论分析

从力平衡的角度,分析了抗滑桩的抗滑阻力与滑体的下滑力之间的依存关系以及传递过程.利用弹性力学理论,推导出桩后土体应力场的分布函数.通过绘制应力等值线图,发现抗滑桩与土体之间产生土拱现象的机制是滑体内的应力状态由不平衡逐渐到达平衡的结果,属于应力拱的表现形式

悬索桥隧道式锚碇与围岩系统的破坏模式研究

The anchorages are unparalleled structures only in a suspension bridge, and as main bearing facilities, play an important role in connecting the superstructures and the ground. The tunnel anchorage, as one alternative type of the anchorages, has more advantages over its counterpart, the gravity anchorage. With the tunnel anchorages adopted, not only can surface excavation be reduced to protect the environment, and natural condition of the rock be utilized and potential bearing capacity of surrounding rock be mobilized to save engineering cost, but also the technological predominance of auxiliary engineering measures, such as prestressed concrete, anchoring piles, rock anchors and collar beam between the two separated anchorages, can be easily cooperated to work together harmoniously under the circumstances of poor rock quality. There are plentiful high mountains and deep canyons in west part of China, and long-span bridge construction is inevitably encountered in order to realize leapfrogging development of the transportation infrastructure. Western mountainous areas usually possess the conditions for constructing tunnel anchorages, and therefore, the tunnel anchorages, which are conformed to the conception of resource conservative and sustainable society, extremely have application and popularization value in western underdeveloped region. The scientific and technological problem about the design, construction and operation of tunnel anchorages should be further investigated. Combining the engineering of western tunnel anchorages for the Balinghe Suspension Bridge, this paper probed into the survey method and in-situ test method for tunnel anchorages, scientific rock quality evaluation of surrounding rock to provide reasonable physical and mechanical parameters for design, construction and operation of tunnel anchorages, bearing capacity estimation for tunnel anchorage, deformation prediction of the anchorage-rockmass system, tunnel-anchorage slope stability analysis and the evaluation of excavation stability and degree of safety of the anchorage tunnel. The following outcomes were obtained: 1. Materials of tunnel anchorages of suspension bridge built (and in progress) at home and abroad were systematically sorted out, with the engineering geological condition and geomechanical property of surrounding rock around the anchorage tunnel, the design size of anchorages and the construction method of anchorage tunnel paid more emphasis on, to unveil the internal relationship between the engineering geological conditions of surrounding rock and the design size and axis angle of anchorages and provide references for future design, construction and study of tunnel anchorages. 2. Physical and mechanical parameters were recommended based on three domestic and foreign methods of rock quality evaluation. 3. In-situ tests, adopting the back-thrust method, of two kinds of reduced scale model, 1/30 and 1/20, for the tunnel anchorages were conducted in the declining exploration drift with rock mass at the test depth being the same as surrounding rock around real anchorages, and reliable field rockmass displacement data were acquired. Attenuation relation between the increment of distance from the anchorage and the decrement of rockmass displacement under maximum test load, and influential scope suffered by anchorage load were obtained. 4. Using similarity theory, the magnitude of real anchorage and rockmass displacement under design load and degree of safety of the anchorage system were deduced. Furthermore, inversion analysis to deformation modulus of slightly weathered dolomite rock, the surrounding rock of anchorage tunnel, was performed by the means of numerical simulation. 5. The influential law of the geometrical size to the limit bearing capacity of tunnel anchorage was studied. 6. Based on engineering geological survey data, accounting for the combination of strata layer and adverse discontinuities, the failure patterns of tunnel anchorage slope were divided into three modes: sliding of splay saddle pier slope, superficial-layer slippage, and deep-layer slippage. Using virtual work principle and taking anchorage load in account, the stability of the three kinds of failure patterns were analyzed in detail. 7. The step-by-step excavation of anchorage tunnel, the numerical overload and the staged decrement of rock strength parameters were numerically simulated to evaluate the excavation stability of surrounding rock around anchorage tunnel, the overload performance of tunnel anchorage, and the safety margin of strength parameters of the surrounding rock.

典型人类活动对边坡变形及稳定性的影响研究

China is a mountainous country in which geological hazards occurred frequently, especially in the east of China. Except the geology, topography and extreme climate, the large scale human activities have become a major factor to landslides. Typical human activities which induced landslides are fill, cut and underground mining. On the topic of the deformation mechanism and slope stability, taking three different man-made slopes as examples, deformation mechanism and slope stability were studied by several methods, such as field work, numerical modeling and monitor. The details are as following: (1) The numerical modeling approach advantages over other conventional methods such as limit methods, so the numerical modeling is the major tool in this thesis. So far, there is no uniform failure criterion for numerical simulation. The failure criterion were summarized and analyzed firstly, subsequently the appropriate criterion was determinated. (2) Taking 220kV Yanjin transformation substation fill slope as example, the deformable characteristic, unstable mode and laboratory tests were studied systematically. The results show: the slope deformation was probably caused by a combination effect of unfavorable topographic, geological and hydro geological conditions, and external loading due to filling. It was concluded that the creep deformation of the slope was triggered by external loading applied at the back of the slope. In order to define the calculating parameters, a set of consolidated drained (CD) tests, consolidated undrained (CU) tests, repeated direct shear tests and UCS tests were carried out. The stability of the slope before and after reinforcement was assessed using 3D numerical modeling and shear strength reduction technique. The numerical modeling results showed: the factor of safety (FOS) of the slope was 1.10 in the natural state, and reduced to 1.03 after fill, which was close to the critical state and it caused creeping slip or deformation under rainfall. The failure surface in the slope is in active shear failure, whereas tensile failure occurs at the slope crest. After the site was reinforced with piles, the FOS was 1.27. Therefore, the slope is stable after reinforcement measures were taken. (3) The cut slope stability is a complex problem. Taking the left cut slope of Xiangjiaba as example in this thesis, the deformation and slope stability were studied systematically by numerical modeling and monitor methods. The numerical results show: the displacement is gradually increasing along with the cutting, and the largest displacement is 27.5mm which located at the bench between the elevation 340 and 380. Some failure state units distribute near the undermining part and there is no linked failure state occurred from crest to bottom during cutting. After cutting, some failure units appeared at the ground surface between elevation 340 and 360. The increasing tense stress made the disturbed rock failed. The slope is stable after cutting by the monitor method, such as surface monitor, multipoint displacement meter, inclinometer and anchor cable tensometer. (4) The interaction between underground mining and slope stability is a common situation in mountainous. The slope deformation mechanism induced by underground mining may contributed significantly to slope destabilization. The Mabukan slope in xiangjiaba was analyzed to illustrate this. Failure mechanism and the slope stability were presented by numerical modeling and residual deformation monitor. The results show: the roof deformed to the free face and the floor uplift lightly to the free face. The subsidence basin is formed, but the subsidence and the horizontal movement is small, and there is no failure zone occurred. When the underground mining is going on, the roof deformation, subsidence and the horizontal movements begin increasing. The rock deformation near the free face is larger than the ground surface, and the interaction between these coal seams appeared. There are some tensile failures and shear failures occurred on the roof and floor, and a majority of failure is tensile failure. The roof deformation, subsidence and the horizontal movements increased obviously along with the underground mining. The failure characteristic is shear failure which means the tensile stress transformed to the compressive stress. So the underground mining will induced tensile stress first which lead to structure crack, subsequently the compressive stress appeared which result in slippage. The crest was subjected to horizontal tension which made the rock crack along with the joint. The long term residual deformation monitor demonstrates that the slope is stable after the underground mining stopped.

预应力结构抗滑桩设计计算方法及其在滑坡治理中的应用研究

Landslide is a kind of serious geological hazards and its damage is very great. In recent years, landslides become more and more frequent along with increase of scale of engineering constructions and cause greater loss. Consequently, how to protect landslides has become important research subject in the engineering field. This paper improves the method how to compute landslide thrust and solves the irrational problem in the design of piles because of the irrational landslide thrust according to the theory and technology of existed anti-slide piles and pre-stressed cable anti-slide piles. Modern pre-stressing technology has been introduced and load balancing method has been used to improve the stressing behavior of anti-slide piles. Anchor cables, anti-slide piles and modern pre-stressing technology have been used to prevention complicated landslide. It is an important base to select values for the landslide thrust. An improved method to calculate design thrust of anti-slide piles has been presented in this paper on the base of residual thrust method by comparing existing methods to select values of landslide thrust in the design of anti-slide piles. In the method, residual landslide thrust behind the anti-slide piles and residual skid resistance before the piles has been analyzed, equitable distribution of residual landslide thrust behind the piles has been realized, and the method to select value of design thrust becomes more reasonable. The pre-stressed cable anti-slide piles are developed from the common anti-slide piles and are common method to prevent landslide. Their principle is that internal force of anti-slide piles is adjusted and size of section is diminished by changing constraint conditions of anti-slide piles. For landslides with deep slip surface and large scale of slopes, limitation of the method appears. Such landslides are in need of long piles and anchor cables which are not only non-economic but also can generate larger deformation and leave potential danger after prevention. For solving the problem, a new kind of anti-slide piles, inner pre-stressing force anti-slide piles, is presented in this paper, and its principle is that an additional force, which is generated in the inner anti-slide piles by arranging pre-stressed reinforcement or tight wire in a certain form in interior of anti-slide piles and stretching the steel reinforcement or tight wire, may balance out the internal force induced by landslide thrust whole or partly (load balancing method). The method will change bending moment which anti-slide piles are not good at bearing into compressive stress which piles are good at bearing, improve stressing performance of anti-slide piles greatly, diminish size of section, and make anti-slide piles not fissured in the natural service or postpone appearance of the fissures, and improve viability of anti-slide piles. Pre-stressed cable anti-slide piles and inner pre-stressing force anti-slide piles go by the general name of pre-stressed structure anti-slide piles in the paper, and their design and calculation method is also analyzed. A new calculation method is provided in the paper for design of anti-slide piles. For pre-stressed structure anti-slide piles, a new computation mode is firstly presented in the paper on the foundation of cantilever piles. In the mode, constraint form of load-bearing section of the anti-slide piles should be confirmed according to reservoir conditions in order to figure out amount of pre-stress of the anchor cables, and internal force should be analyzed for the load-bearing section of pre-stressed structure anti-slide piles so as to confirm anchorage section of anti-slide piles. Pre-stressed cables of the pre-stressed cable anti-slide piles can be arranged as required. This paper analyzes the load-bearing section of single-row and double-row pre-stressed cable anti-slide piles and provides a calculation method for design of the pre-stressed cable anti-slide piles. Inner pre-stressing force anti-slide piles are a new kind of structural style. Their load-bearing section is divided into four computation modes according to whether pre-stressed cables are applied for exterior of the anti-slide piles, and whether single-row or double-row exterior pre-stressed cables are applied. The load balancing method is used to analyze the computation modes for providing a method to design the inner pre-stressing force anti-slide piles rationally. Pre-stressed cable anti-slide piles and inner pre-stressing force anti-slide piles are applied to research on Mahe landfall in Yalong Lenggu hydropower station by the improved method to select value of design thrust of anti-slide piles. A good effect is obtained in the analysis.