Floatation of Tunnel in Liquefiable Soil

Underground structures such as tunnels have a lower unit weight than the surrounding soil and are commonly deemed to be susceptible to floatation in liquefiable soil. In the process of floatation, the tunnel has to possess ample buoyancy force to shear and carry the overlying soil upwards. This is aided by soil liquefaction resulting from the increase in water pressure with number of earthquake loading cycles. With onset of liquefaction, effective stress decreases which lead to a reduction in the shear strength of soil, hence assisting the floatation of tunnel. Conversely, the total stress exerted by the overburden soil suppresses the process. A series of centrifuge tests were conducted to investigate the floatation of tunnels in liquefiable sand deposits. This paper discusses the initiation and cessation of the floatation as well as the floatation susceptibility of varying depths of tunnels

Effect of Liquefaction on Pile Shaft Friction Capacity

Piled foundations are commonly used worldwide, and observed failures of these foundations during earthquakes has led to active research in this area. However, the way in which piles support axial loads during earthquakes is still not fully understood. In this paper, the results from centrifuge tests are presented which consider how axial loads are carried by piles during earthquake loading. It will be shown that the piles in dry soils mobilise additional shaft friction to carry the seismically induced axial loading. However, in the case of a pile group passing through a liquefiable soil layer and founded in a dense sand layer, the pile group suffered large settlements as it loses the shaft friction in the liquefied layer and attempted to mobilise additional end bearing capacity. Further, with the post-seismic dissipation of pore pressures and the consequent settlement of the soil, the piles register significant down drag forces. This resulted in a reduction of the loads being supported as shaft friction and required further end bearing capacity to be mobilised

Centrifuge modelling of the behaviour of pile groups under vertical eccentric load

Annular shaped pile groups are a very common foundation layout for onshore wind turbines and other slender structures. In this study, their performance under vertical loads of moderate to high eccentricity, including moment rotation response and bearing capacity, was investigated by centrifuge testing on small scale physical models embedded in kaolin clay. To identify experimentally the capacity of the examined pile groups under different load paths, the model foundations were loaded monotonically until a clear collapse mechanism was achieved. The testing procedure and the proposed interpretation methodology can be easily adapted to load paths or pile layouts other than those considered in the current study. The experimental data can be adopted as a useful benchmark for mathematical models aimed at predicting the response of pile groups to complex load paths. The results of this testing program can also be used to assess the degree of conservatism of current methods adopted by industry for the design of piled foundations subjected to eccentric loads

Laboratory measurement of strength mobilisation in kaolin: link to stress history

This letter presents data from triaxial tests conducted as part of a research programme into the stress–strain behaviour of clays and silts at Cambridge University. To support findings from earlier research using databases of soil tests, eighteen CIU triaxial tests on speswhite kaolin were performed to confirm an assumed link between mobilisation strain (γM = 2) and overconsolidation ratio (OCR). In the moderate shear stress range (0·2cu to 0·8cu) the test data are essentially linear on log–log plots. Both the slopes and intercepts of these lines are simple functions of OCR. </jats:p

Hybrid EEFIT mission to february 2023 Kahramanmaraş earthquake sequence

The southwestern part of Türkiye was hit on 6 February 2023 by an Mw 7.8 (epicentre:Pazarcık) and then an Mw 7.5 earthquake (epicentre: Elbistan). The event was followed by tensof thousands of aftershocks including the Mw 6.3 event on 20 February (epicentre: Uzunbağ).This paper reports on the preliminary findings of the mission organised by the UK’s EarthquakeEngineering Field Investigation Team (EEFIT) to the Kahramanmaraş Earthquake sequence ofFebruary 2023. This mission followed a hybrid model, combining field and remote investigationtechniques, to investigate the characteristics of the earthquake sequence, its impact on buildingsand infrastructure, as well as the efficacy of relief, response and recovery operations. The keymessages include that the building stock is hard to categorise which brings along difficulties withdamage assessment, that the recovery and reconstruction require multi-sectoral engagement ofkey stakeholders, and that the auditing and quality control mechanisms within the constructionindustry need revisiting in the way forward for better disaster resilience in Türkiye

Altered Neurocircuitry in the Dopamine Transporter Knockout Mouse Brain

The plasma membrane transporters for the monoamine neurotransmitters dopamine, serotonin, and norepinephrine modulate the dynamics of these monoamine neurotransmitters. Thus, activity of these transporters has significant consequences for monoamine activity throughout the brain and for a number of neurological and psychiatric disorders. Gene knockout (KO) mice that reduce or eliminate expression of each of these monoamine transporters have provided a wealth of new information about the function of these proteins at molecular, physiological and behavioral levels. In the present work we use the unique properties of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to probe the effects of altered dopaminergic dynamics on meso-scale neuronal circuitry and overall brain morphology, since changes at these levels of organization might help to account for some of the extensive pharmacological and behavioral differences observed in dopamine transporter (DAT) KO mice. Despite the smaller size of these animals, voxel-wise statistical comparison of high resolution structural MR images indicated little morphological change as a consequence of DAT KO. Likewise, proton magnetic resonance spectra recorded in the striatum indicated no significant changes in detectable metabolite concentrations between DAT KO and wild-type (WT) mice. In contrast, alterations in the circuitry from the prefrontal cortex to the mesocortical limbic system, an important brain component intimately tied to function of mesolimbic/mesocortical dopamine reward pathways, were revealed by manganese-enhanced MRI (MEMRI). Analysis of co-registered MEMRI images taken over the 26 hours after introduction of Mn^(2+) into the prefrontal cortex indicated that DAT KO mice have a truncated Mn^(2+) distribution within this circuitry with little accumulation beyond the thalamus or contralateral to the injection site. By contrast, WT littermates exhibit Mn^(2+) transport into more posterior midbrain nuclei and contralateral mesolimbic structures at 26 hr post-injection. Thus, DAT KO mice appear, at this level of anatomic resolution, to have preserved cortico-striatal-thalamic connectivity but diminished robustness of reward-modulating circuitry distal to the thalamus. This is in contradistinction to the state of this circuitry in serotonin transporter KO mice where we observed more robust connectivity in more posterior brain regions using methods identical to those employed here