perspective

For Anatolian earthquakes, there are insufficient strong motion data from rock sites to model an attenuation relationship for Turkey. This necessitates the use of records from soil sites, which are significantly affected by amplification. In order to include soil site data in the attenuation analyses, boreholes were drilled at 64 recording stations on soil sites. After removing the effects of soil amplification, rock site and soil site data were combined to establish an attenuation relationship. Various models were tested through regression analyses using moment magnitude, epicentral distance and threshold peak horizontal ground acceleration. A new attenuation relationship is modeled for Turkey

Integrated use of hydrochemistry and resistivity methods in groundwater contamination caused by a recently closed solid waste site

In order to investigate the groundwater ies aimed at defining the spatial contamination by solid waste disposal using both ies aimed at defining the spatial hydrochemical and geophysical methods, the Halkali (Istanbul) solid waste disposal site which was closed in 1994 was investigated. The disposal site lies on a ridge between two valleys filed with alluvium. A total of six boreholes were drilled on two lines across the Menekse valley adjacent to the Halkali site. Groundwater samples collected from these boreholes were analyzed for various contaminant parameters. The results indicate that TDS and chloride concentrations decrease horizontally away from the waste site whereas they increase with depth. Electrical soundings carried out at 12 locations yielded high resistivity values at the upstream part of Menekse valley while lower values were obtained from the locations near the leachate seepage points

The effect of the pH of the testing liquid on the slake durability of gypsum

It is known that foundation problems are caused by the dissolution of gypsum due to both chemical and mechanical processes. In order to investigate the combined effect of physico-chemical agents on the erodability of gypsum, a series of slake durability tests were carried out on eight different types of gypsum using testing solutions with different pH values. XRD, chemical and petrographical analyses, and basic strength tests such as unconfined compression, Brazilian tensile, and point load were performed on the eight rock types. The slake durability results ranged from medium to very high under the different pH conditions but it was concluded that the slake durability of gypsum is independent of the pH of the testing solution. Mineralogical composition and fabric are considered to have a greater influence on the slake durability of gypsum. © Springer-Verlag 2005

An approach for the application of energy-based liquefaction procedure using field case history data

This paper presents an overview to the applicability of the “energy-based liquefaction approach” with regards to the new developments in the subject. The method involves comparing the strain energy for the soil liquefaction (capacity) with the strain energy imparted to the soil layer during an earthquake (demand). The performance of the method was evaluated by using a large database of SPT-based liquefaction case history. The energy-based method and the more commonly used stress-based method were compared in their capability to assess liquefaction potential under the same damaging historic earthquakes and geotechnical site conditions. In the procedure, the predictive strain energy equations were used to estimate the capacity energy values. These empirical equations have been developed based on the initial effective soil parameters. As for the energy of any given strong ground motion, it was computed from a velocity-time history of the ground motion and the unit mass of soil through utilization of kinetic energy concepts. The proposed energy-based method has effective way in evaluating the liquefaction potential based on the seismological parameters, contrary to the stress-based approach, where only peak ground acceleration (PGA) is considered. Keywords: Soil liquefaction; energy-based liquefaction method; field case histories; earthquake UNCORRECTED. © 2020 General Directorate of Mineral Research and Exploration (MTA). All rights reserved

Experimental investigation of the effect of grading characteristics on the liquefaction resistance of various graded sands

Yilmaz, Yuksel/0000-0001-7630-7357WOS: 000260042500001The liquefaction susceptibility of various graded fine to medium saturated sands are evaluated by stress controlled cyclic triaxial laboratory tests. Cyclic triaxial tests are performed on reconstituted specimens having global relative density of 60%. In all cyclic triaxial tests; loading pattern is selected as a sinusoidal wave form with 1.0 Hz frequency, and effective consolidation pressure is chosen to be 100 kPa. Liquefaction resistance is defined as the required cyclic stress ratio which caused initial liquefaction in 10 cycles during the cyclic triaxial test. The results are used to draw relationship between grading characteristics (e.g. coefficient of uniformity and coefficient of curvature) and the liquefaction resistance of various graded sands. It is found that a relationship between cyclic resistance and any of the size (i.e. D-10, D-30 or D-60) would be more realistic than to build a relation between grading characteristics and the cyclic resistance. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

A nondestructive testing technique: Nail penetration test

This study presents a practical nondestructive testing (NDT) method: the nail penetration test (NPT). The major tools of the test technique are a gas nailer with 130 J (95.88 ft-lbf) power, concrete nails, and a gas nailer cell. The study covers three different limestone aggregate types. Six concrete mixtures were prepared from each aggregate type. Five nail shots were performed on each concrete mixture (or grade) and the average value was obtained. The average nail penetration depths were correlated with the compressive strength of concrete. Other NDT techniques, such as the Schmidt rebound hammer (SRH), ultrasonic pulse velocity (UPV), and Windsor probe (WP), were also applied to concrete samples. The measured compressive strength values were compared with those obtained from the empirical relationships using the data from the NPT, SRH, UPV, and WP. It was found that the reliability of the NPT to estimate the compressive strength of concrete is very high. The tool employed in the investigation covers a relatively wide range of compressive strength of concrete. This testing tool is proposed to estimate the compressive strength of in-place concrete. © 2012, American Concrete Institute