Impact of Soil Type Used in Tunneling on Land Subsidence and Mobility Effective Time under Different Earthquake Records

During recent decades, tunnels construction in urban environments has been recognized as a useful factor in improving transportation situation in cities. Construction of underground structures like tunnels has a direct impact on the above-ground structures. The most important impacts are soil crust movement of the structure movement), acceleration change of the earthquake on structures, and land subsidence. The present research aims at seismic evaluation of the effect of soil type in land subsidence and effective mobility time in tunneling projects. For this purpose, two different soil types are chosen to model and assess factors using numerical methods. The outcome of this research concludes that tunneling changes in the dominant frequency record if these changes reach to the extent that structure frequency equals to record frequency, resonance phenomenon happens.

Alteration of Ground Motion Acceleration at Ground Level Due To Tunnel Excavation

Underground tunneling is one of the alternative solutions to diminish traffic congestion in large cities. One of the most important effects of tunneling is the displacement of the ground surface, the settlement around the tunnel, and the variation in earthquake acceleration. The performance and behavior of underground structures have been studied by several researchers, but the impact of tunnel excavation on earthquake records and its effects on structures above the ground level have received less attention. This research emphasizes changes of earthquake acceleration at the ground level, structural response and Fourier spectrum by excavating a horseshoe tunnel. Results show that digging a horseshoe tunnel will change the characteristics of the earthquake record at ground level.

Bearing Capacity Assessment of Collapsible Soils Improved by Deep Soil Mixing Using Finite Element Method

Problematic soils usually cause considerable problems to engineering projects. As an example, soil structure collapse caused by moisture increment or rising underground water level results in huge settlements. This type of problematic soil, named collapsible soil, can cause dramatic problems and should be amended where exists. Today, the use of different techniques for soil reinforcement and soil improvement is widely used to treat soil properties. One of these methods is Deep Soil Mixing (DSM) method. This method becomes more important in the cases of studying and examining collapsible soils. In this research, the settlement of amended collapsible soils, applying deep soil mixing method, is examined. The experiments show that soil amendment using this method, well prevents the settlement of collapsible soils giving rise to bearing capacity.

b-value and fractal dimension variations in Iran

Iran sits on a region with a high intrinsic level of seismic activity due to its tectonic setting.Through statistical examination of the earthquakes listed in the catalogue from International Institute of Earthquake Engineering and Seismology(IIEES),this research attempted to calculate some seismicity factors and find correlation between them.A preliminary analysis indicated changes in theb-value of the Gutenberg-Richter relationship over the study region.Thus,the study area was divided into five zones(Alborz,Zagros,Azerbaijan,Central and East)andb-value was computed for each zone.Considering faulting mechanism styles and theb-values in the region,it was found that the lowestb-values belong to the thrust events and strike-slip faulting earthquakes have intermediate values.These findings support previous studies.Furthermore,results ofb-value calculation were used for the estimation of accumulated differential stresses(σ1–σ2)over each zone.Overall,theb-value for Iran is averagely low which signifies the high stress tectonic regime in this region.Also,by having calculated fractal dimension(D)in each zone,a correlation obtained showing that in Iran region,theb-value correlates to fractal dimension byD=4.2b–2 relation which does not support Aki's(1981)speculation ofD=3b/c.