Earthquake Geotechnical Engineering Aspects of the 2012 Emilia-Romagna Earthquake (Italy)

On May 20, 2012 an earthquake of magnitude ML=5.9 struck the Emilia Romagna Region of Italy and a little portion of Lombardia Region. Successive earthquakes occurred on May 29, 2012 with ML=5.8 and ML=5.3. The earthquakes caused 27 deaths, of which 13 on industrial buildings. The damage was considerable. 12,000 buildings were severely damaged; big damages occurred also to monuments and cultural heritage of Italy, causing the collapse of 147 campaniles. The damage is estimated in about 5-6 billions of euro. To the damage caused to people and buildings, must be summed the indirect damage due to loss of industrial production and to the impossibility to operate for several months. The indirect damage could be bigger than the direct damage caused by the earthquake. The resilience of the damaged cities to the damage to the industrial buildings and the lifelines was good enough, because some industries built a smart campus to start again to operate in less of one month and structural and geotechnical guidelines were edited to start with the recovering the damage industrial buildings. In the paper a damage survey is presented and linked with the ground effects. Among these, soil amplification and liquefaction phenomena are analyzed, basing on the soil properties evaluation by field and laboratory tests. Particular emphasis is devoted to the damaged suffered by the industrial buildings and to the aspects of the remedial work linked with the shallow foundation inadequacy and to the liquefaction mitigation effects

FEM Modelling of the Seismic Behavior of a Tunnel-soil-Aboveground Building System: A Case History in Catania (Italy)

Abstract In the design of tunnels it is extremely important to assess the possible damage to the tunnel and to the aboveground structures in order to provide adequate mitigation measures, above all in high seismic hazard areas. Great attention has been devoted to separated tunnel-soil interaction analysis and soil-aboveground structure interaction analysis. Unfortunately, studies involving tunnel plus soil plus aboveground structures (full-coupled analysis) are still very rare. The present paper deals with the seismic response of a tunnel-soil-aboveground building system. The effects of the tunnel on the response of the soil and/or of the building and vice versa have been analysed by means of a full-coupled FEM modelling. A cross-section of the recently-built underground underground in Catania (Italy), including an aboveground building has been analysed and considering the expected scenario earthquake. Results are reported in terms of amplification ratios, frequency ratios, as well as dynamic bending moments in the tunnel. The main goal of the paper is to highlight the combined effect of tunnel and aboveground structure

Finite Element Analysis of DSSI Effects for a Building of Strategic Importance in Catania (Italy)

Abstract Structural response to earthquakes has to be definitely considered a multidisciplinary subject, depending on many factors among which local site effects and dynamic interaction between soil, foundations and structures. The present paper deals with the multidisciplinary Dynamic Soil Structure Interaction (DSSI) analysis concerning the INGV building in Catania (Italy) by means of FEM 2D modelling. The building is a masonry structure situated in an area characterized by a high seismic hazard. The dynamic analysis was performed by adopting seven different accelerograms, scaled at the same PHA with reference to the estimated seismicity of the investigated area. Linear visco-elastic constitutive models were adopted for both the soil and the structure; nevertheless, soil non-linearity is taken into account according to EC8, adopting degraded shear modulus and increased damping ratio. The dynamic response of the system was analysed in the time and frequency domains. The main goals of the paper are: i) to investigate the amplification input effects, considering and not considering the DSSI; ii) to highlight the influence of soil layer variation in the coupled system response; iii) to compare the obtained results with the ones given by simpler 1D free-field soil analyses; iv) to compare the acceleration spectra obtained by 1D and 2D analyses with those provided by Italian technical code, NTC08. The performed analyses show the influence of DSSI in the seismic response of the system in terms of PHA and frequency contents

The Role of Shear Wave Velocity and Non-Linearity of Soil in the Seismic Response of a Coupled Tunnel-Soil-Above Ground Building System

The presence of tunnels close to aboveground structures may modify the response of these structures, while the contrary is also true, the presence of aboveground structures may modify the dynamic response of tunnels. In this context, the dynamic properties of the soil through which the aboveground and underground structures are “connected” could play an important role. The paper reports dynamic FEM (Finite Element Method) analyses of a coupled tunnel-soil-above ground structure system (TSS system), which differ in regards to the soil shear wave velocity and in turns for the damping ratio, in order to investigate the role of these parameters in the full-coupled TSS system response. The analyses were performed using three different seismic inputs. Moreover, the soil non-linearity was taken into account adopting two different constitutive models: i) an equivalent linear visco-elastic model, characterized by degraded soil shear moduli and damping ratios, according to suggestions given by EC8 in 2003; and ii) a visco-elasto-plastic constitutive model, characterized by isotropic and kinematic hardening and a non-associated flow rule. The seismic response of the system was investigated in the time and frequency domains, in terms of: acceleration ratios; amplification ratios and response spectra; and bending moments in the tunnel

An Early-Warning System to Validate the Soil Profile during TBM Tunnelling

Identification of soil condition at the working face of a tunnel boring machine (TBM) is a key factor for the efficiency and safety of TBM tunneling. The paper presents the first application of the Horizontal-to-Vertical Spectral Ratio (HVSR) method on microtremors induced by a TBM during tunnelling. The innovative application is based on the development of an easy-to-use and economical early-warning system, which aims to confirm, or otherwise, the soil profile established in the design phase of tunnels by comparing the soil natural frequencies obtained from the soil profile carried out during the design phase and the soil natural frequencies coming from the HVSR analysis of the microtremors induced by the TBM during tunnelling. Just one or two geophones are necessary to use the proposed procedure. It can be applied to an area up to about 20 m ahead of the TBM excavation front and constitutes a powerful early warning system. Due to the great heterogeneity of the subsoil, dual-mode TBMs are often used, frequently changing from Open-Face (OF) mode for rock formations to Earth Pressure Balance (EPB) mode for cohesive and incoherent soil. Any “additional” information on the soil, which will be dug in the next days or hours is extremely useful for subsoil with great heterogeneity. The new procedure offers a reasonable time interval in which to modify the excavation method. This, in turn, can avoid damage to the TBM and existing structures and infrastructures. It allows us also to have a valuable geotechnical database for future works on the infrastructural networks. The proposed procedure has been successfully applied during the construction of the new underground lines in Catania (Italy)

An Early-Warning System to Validate the Soil Profile during TBM Tunnelling

Identification of soil condition at the working face of a tunnel boring machine (TBM) is a key factor for the efficiency and safety of TBM tunneling. The paper presents the first application of the Horizontal-to-Vertical Spectral Ratio (HVSR) method on microtremors induced by a TBM during tunnelling. The innovative application is based on the development of an easy-to-use and economical early-warning system, which aims to confirm, or otherwise, the soil profile established in the design phase of tunnels by comparing the soil natural frequencies obtained from the soil profile carried out during the design phase and the soil natural frequencies coming from the HVSR analysis of the microtremors induced by the TBM during tunnelling. Just one or two geophones are necessary to use the proposed procedure. It can be applied to an area up to about 20 m ahead of the TBM excavation front and constitutes a powerful early warning system. Due to the great heterogeneity of the subsoil, dual-mode TBMs are often used, frequently changing from Open-Face (OF) mode for rock formations to Earth Pressure Balance (EPB) mode for cohesive and incoherent soil. Any “additional” information on the soil, which will be dug in the next days or hours is extremely useful for subsoil with great heterogeneity. The new procedure offers a reasonable time interval in which to modify the excavation method. This, in turn, can avoid damage to the TBM and existing structures and infrastructures. It allows us also to have a valuable geotechnical database for future works on the infrastructural networks. The proposed procedure has been successfully applied during the construction of the new underground lines in Catania (Italy)

Dynamic behaviour of coupled soil-structure systems by means of FEM analysis for the seismic risk mitigation of INGV building in Catania (Italy)

Seismic design of new structures, as well as retrofitting and/or improving of existing ones should be definitely considered a multidisciplinary subject, which depends on many factors, such as: local site effects and the dynamic interaction between the foundation soil and the structure. The accurate investigation on the structure and the surrounding soil is the first fundamental step for a realistic evaluation of the structure seismic performance. The present paper deals with the Dynamic Soil Structure Interaction (DSSI) analysis concerning the INGV (National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology) building in Catania, by means of a FEM 2D modeling. The building is a prestigious masonry structure situated in an area characterized by a high seismic hazard. Several accelerograms scaled at the same PHA, with reference to the estimated seismicity of Catania, have been adopted. Soil properties were carefully investigated by means of static and dynamic in-situ and laboratory tests. Many investigations were also performed on the structure. Equivalent linear visco-elastic constitutive models have been adopted both for the soil and the structure. For considering soil nonlinearity, degraded shear modula (G) and increased soil damping ratios (D) have been evaluated for all the involved soil layers, according to two different approaches.Firstly,soil nonlinearity has been modeled basing on the EC8 [2003] suggestions; secondly, it has been modeled choosingthe values of Gand Daccording to the effective strain levels obtained for each soil layer and for each different input, by means ofan iterative sub-routine. The dynamic response of the system has been analyzed in the time and frequency domains. Results are presented in terms of: acceleration amplification factors, Fourier and response spectra, amplification functions and shear forces per floor.The main goals of the paper are: i) to investigate the acceleration profiles along the soil and the structure considering and not considering the DSSI; ii) to investigate the soil filtering effect in terms of predominant frequency considering and not considering the DSSI; iii) to compare the obtained results with the ones given by a simpler 1D free-field soil analysis; iv) to compare the soil amplification factors and the response spectra obtained by 1D and 2D models with that by the Italian technical code [NTC, 2008]; v) to highlight the influence of DSSI in the seismic response of the structure; vi) to evaluate the influence of different modeling of soil nonlinearity on the dynamic response of the soil and structure.