3D FE Analyses of Buried Pipeline with Elbows Subjected to Lateral Loading

This study investigates the interaction between soil and pipeline in sand subjected to lateral ground displacements with emphasis on the peak force exerted to a bended elbow-pipe. A series of three-dimensional (3D) finite-element (FE) analyses were performed in both opening and closing modes of the elbow section for different initial pipe bending angles. To model the mechanical behavior of sands, two soil models were adopted: Mohr-Coulomb and Nor-Sand soil model. Investigations also included the effects of pipe embedment depth and soil density. Results show that the opening mode exhibits higher ultimate forces and greater localized deformations than the closing mode. Nondimensional charts that account for pipeline location, bending angle, and soil density are developed. Soil-spring pipeline analyses of an elbow-pipe were performed using modified F-δ soil-spring models based on the 3D FE results and were compared to the findings of conventional spring model analyses using the standard two-dimensional soil-spring model. Results show that the pipe strain does not change in the closing mode case. However, in the opening mode case, the pipe strain computed by the modified analysis is larger than that by the conventional analysis and the difference is more pronounced when the pipe stiffness is stiffer. © 2011 American Society of Civil Engineers.

Embodied Energy and Gas Emissions of Retaining Wall Structures

The embodied energy (EE) and gas emissions of four design alternatives for an embankment retaining wall system are analyzed for a hypothetical highway construction project. The airborne emissions considered are carbon dioxide (CO 2), methane (CH 4), nitrous oxide (N 2O), sulphur oxides (SO X), and nitrogen oxides (NO X). The process stages considered in this study are the initial materials production, transportation of construction machineries and materials, machinery operation during installation, and machinery depreciations. The objectives are (1) to determine whether there are statistically significant differences among the structural alternatives; (2) to understand the relative proportions of impacts for the process stages within each design; (3) to contextualize the impacts to other aspects in life by comparing the computed EE values to household energy consumption and car emission values; and (4) to examine the validity of the adopted EE as an environmental impact indicator through comparison with the amount of gas emissions. For the project considered in this study, the calculated results indicate that propped steel sheet pile wall and minipile wall systems have less embodied energy and gas emissions than cantilever steel tubular wall and secant concrete pile wall systems. The difference in CO 2 emission for the retaining wall of 100 m length between the most and least environmentally preferable wall design is equivalent to an average 2.0 L family car being driven for 6.2 million miles (or 62 cars with a mileage of 10,000 miles/year for 10 years). The impacts in construction are generally notable and careful consideration and optimization of designs will reduce such impacts. The use of recycled steel or steel pile as reinforcement bar is effective in reducing the environmental impact. The embodied energy value of a given design is correlated to the amount of gas emissions. © 2011 American Society of Civil Engineers.

Strength mobilization in clays and silts

A large database of 115 triaxial, direct simple shear, and cyclic tests on 19 clays and silts is presented and analysed to develop an empirical framework for the prediction of the mobilization of the undrained shear strength, cu, of natural clays tested from an initially isotropic state of stress. The strain at half the peak undrained strength (γM=2) is used to normalize the shear strain data between mobilized strengths of 0.2cu and 0.8cu. A power law with an exponent of 0.6 is found to describe all the normalized data within a strain factor of 1.75 when a representative sample provides a value for γM=2. Multi-linear regression analysis shows that γM=2 is a function of cu, plasticity index Ip, and initial mean effective stress p′0. Of the 97 stress-strain curves for which cu, Ip, and p′0 were available, the observed values of γM=2 fell within a factor of three of the regression; this additional uncertainty should be acknowledged if a designer wished to limit immediate foundation settlements on the basis of an undrained strength profile and the plasticity index of the clay. The influence of stress history is also discussed. The application of these stress-strain relations to serviceability design calculations is portrayed through a worked example. The implications for geotechnical decision-making and codes of practice are considered.

Modelling of liquefaction-induced instability in pile

Centrifuge testing has been undertaken to investigate instability failure of pile groups during seismic liquefaction, with specific reference to the 'top-down' propagation of liquefaction during the earthquake and to account for initial imperfections in pile geometry. The results of these tests were used to validate numerical models within the finite element program ABAQUS, based on the popular p-y analysis method. Pseudostatic classical and post-buckling analyses were conducted to examine the collapse behaviour of the pile groups and were found to give reasonable predictions of collapse load and conservative predictions of the associated deflection conditions. This numerical model was compared to currently published methods which were found to over-predict collapse loads. The resulting insights into the collapse of axially loaded pile groups revealed that the failure load is strongly dependent on both the depth of liquefaction propagation and initial imperfections, which reduce the collapse load.

Mechanism of pile group settlement in liquefiable soils

This paper examines the settlement of instrumented 2 × 2 model pile groups in liquefiable soil based on the results of dynamic centrifuge tests. The piles are end-bearing in dense sand, and are instrumented such that base, shaft and total pile load components can be measured. The data suggest that the overall co-seismic group settlement is accrued from incremental settlements of the individual piles as the group rocks under the action of the kinematic and inertial lateral loads. A Newmarkian framework for describing this behaviour is presented in which permanent settlement is incremented whenever the load in any of the piles exceeds the capacity of the soil to support the pile. This bearing capacity of the piles in liquefied soil is estimated based on measured dynamic soil properties during shaking and observations of the changes in load carried by the piles. The contribution of the pile cap in reducing settlement is also discussed. © 2008 ASCE.

Case study on a deep excavation in soft ground by centrifuge model tests

This paper provides a case study on the deepest excavation carried out so far in the construction of the metro network in Shanghai, which typically features soft ground. The excavation is 38 m deep with retaining walls 65 m deep braced by 9 levels of concrete props. To obtain a quick and rough prediction, two centrifuge model tests were conducted, in which one is for the 'standard' section with green field surrounding and the other with an adjacent piled building. The tests were carried out in a run-stop-excavation-run style, in which excavation was conducted manually. By analyzing the lateral wall displacement, ground deformation, bending moment and earth pressure, the test results are shown to be reasonably convincing and the design and construction were validated. Such industry orientated centrifuge modeling was shown to be useful in understanding the performance of geotechnical processes, especially when engineers lack relevant field experience. © 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London.

Use of automatic sand pourers for loose sand models

The consistency of laboratory sand model preparation for physical testing is a fundamental criterion in representing identical geotechnical issues at prototype scale. This objective led to the development of robotic apparatus to eliminate the non-uniformity in manual pouring. Previous studies have shown consistent sand models with high relative density between 50 to 90% produced by the automatic moving-hopper sand pourer at the University of Cambridge, based primarily on a linear correlation to flow rate. However, in the case of loose samples, the influence of other parameters, particularly the drop height, becomes more apparent. In this paper, findings on the effect of flow rate and drop height are discussed in relation to the layer thickness and relative density of loose sand samples. Design charts are presented to illustrate their relationships. The effect of these factors on different sand types is also covered to extend the use of the equipment. © 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London.

Development of teaching resources for physical modelling community

Physical modelling of interesting geotechnical problems has helped clarify behaviours and failure mechanisms of many civil engineering systems. Interesting visual information from physical modelling can also be used in teaching to foster interest in geotechnical engineering and recruit young researchers to our field. With this intention, the Teaching Committee of TC2 developed a web-based teaching resources centre. In this paper, the development and organisation of the resource centre using Wordpress. Wordpress is an open-source content management system which allows user content to be edited and site administration to be controlled remotely via a built-in interface. Example data from a centrifuge test on shallow foundations which could be used for undergraduate or graduate level courses is presented and its use illustrated. A discussion on the development of wiki-style addition to the resource centre for commonly used physical model terms is also presented. © 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London.