Relationship between critical seismic acceleration coefficient and static factor of safety of 3D slopes

Many analytical methods have been adopted to estimate the slope stability by providing various stability numbers,e.g.static safety of factor(static FoS)or the critical seismic acceleration coefficient,while little attention has been given to the relationship between the slope stability numbers and the critical seismic acceleration coefficient.This study aims to investigate the relationship between the static FoS and the critical seismic acceleration coefficient of soil slopes in the framework of the upper-bound limit analysis.Based on the 3D rotational failure mechanism,the critical seismic acceleration coefficient using the pseudo-static method and the static FoS using the strength reduction technique are first determined.Then,the relationship between the static FoS and the critical seismic acceleration coefficient is presented under considering the slope angleβ,the frictional angleφ,and the dimensionless coefficients B/H and c/γH.Finally,a fitting formula between the static FoS and the critical seismic acceleration coefficient is proposed and validated by analytical and numerical results.

Seismicity acceleration model and its application to several earthquake regions in China

With the theory of subcritical crack growth, we can deduce the fundamental equation of regional seismicity acceleration model. Applying this model to intraplate earthquake regions, we select three earthquake subplates: North China Subplate, Chuan Dian Block and Xinjiang Subplate, and divide the three subplates into seven researched regions by the difference of seismicity and tectonic conditions. With the modified equation given by Sornette and Sammis (1995), we analysis the seismicity of each region. To those strong earthquakes already occurred in these region, the model can give close fitting of magnitude and occurrence time, and the result in this article indicates that the seismicity acceleration model can also be used for describing the seismicity of intraplate. In the article, we give the magnitude and occurrence time of possible strong earthquakes in Shanxi, Ordos, Bole Tuokexun, Ayinke Wuqia earthquake regions. In the same subplate or block, the earthquake periods for each earthquake region are similar in time interval. The constant α in model can be used to describe the intensity of regional seismicity, and for the Chinese Mainland, α is 0.4 generally. To the seismicity in Taiwan and other regions with complex tectonic conditions, the model does not fit well at present.

Time difference correlation between earthquake lights and seismic ground accelerations

Although earthquake lights have been known since ancient times,it has not been easy to study them.It was not until the 60s that the first photographs of them were taken.During the Peruvian earthquake in 2007,it was possible to obtain the fi rst fi lm recording on earthquake lights.Likewise,during the earthquakes in Ecuador in 2016 and in Mexico in 2017,two fi lms of the earthquake lights were recorded.These fi lm recordings have helped in the study of earthquake lights,both for their objectivity and for their informational content.Several causal mechanisms have been proposed to explain earthquake lights:piezoelectricity,radon emanation,fluid diffusion,friction-vaporization,positive holes and dipole currents,among others.In this work a time difference correlation between earthquake lights and seismic ground accelerations was found and we use both seismic data and fi lm recordings of earthquake lights to explain its origin.In the discussion section it is suggested that fracturing of rocks manifest itself to some extent in the form of static electricity producing earthquake lights through induction The induction model proposed is new and it can explain the formation of EQL,even if the earth’s crust has layers of large electrical resistivity.The model also explains the formation of seismic lights without the need for special conditions on the earth’s surface or in the atmosphere.A better understanding of the earthquake lights generation process can improve our understanding of seismicity and help in the prediction of earthquakes.

Stochastic seismic response of multi-layered soil with random layer heights

This paper deals with the effect of layer height randomness on the seismic response of a layered soil. These parameters are assumed to be lognormal random variables. The analysis is carried out via Monte Carlo simulations coupled with the stiffness matrix method. A parametric study is conducted to derive the stochastic behavior of the peak ground acceleration and its response spectrum,the transfer function and the amplification factors. The input soil characteristics correspond to a site in Mexico City and the input seismic accelerations correspond to the Loma Prieta earthquake. It is found that the layer height heterogeneity causes a widening of the frequency content and a slight increase in the fundamental frequency of the soil profile,indicating that the resonance phenomenon is a concern for a large number of structures. Variation of the layer height randomness acts as a variation of the incident angle,i.e.,a decrease of the amplitude and a shift of the resonant frequencies.

Modelling spiky acceleration response of dilative sand deposits during earthquakes with emphasis on large post-liquefaction deformation

The acceleration records at some liquefied sand deposits exhibit a distinctive spiky waveform, characterized by strong amplification and high-frequency components. A comprehensive constitutive model was used to analyze the mechanism of such spiky acceleration responses. An idealized single-degree-of-freedom（SDF） system was constructed, in which the force-displacement relation of the spring follows the stress-strain behavior of saturated sand during undrained shearing. The SDF system demonstrated that the spikes are directly related to the strain-hardening behavior of sand during post-liquefaction cyclic shearing. Furthermore, there exists a threshold shear strain length, which is in accordance with the limited amplitude of the fluid-like shear strain generated at instantaneous zero effective stress state during the post-liquefaction stage. The spiky acceleration can only occur when the cyclic shear strain exceeds the threshold shear strain length. It is also revealed that the time intervals between the acceleration spikes increase gradually along with the continuation of shaking because the threshold shear strain length increases gradually and then more time is needed to generate larger shear strain to cause strain hardening. Records at the Kushiro Port site and Port Island site during past earthquakes are simulated through the fully coupled method to validate the presented mechanism.

Dynamic Behavior of Double-Row Pre-stressed Anchor Piles under Earthquake Conditions

To investigate the seismic performance of the double-row pre-stressed anchor piles （DRPAPs） on the Yuxi-Mengzi railway, FLAC3D was used to construct a three-dimensional model. Using Koyna earthquake records as input motions, dynamic time-history analyses were carried out. In the analyses, we compared earth pressure on the front and back of the piles and deformation of the piles under different seismic forces with or without anchor cables. With the anchor cable present, the earth pressure on the back of the pile＇s free section increases, but that on the back of the pile＇s anchorage section decreases. Also, with anchor cables, the earth pressure on the front of the upper pile decreases, and that on the back of the lower pile decreases.

Practical seismic analysis of large underground structures: Theory and application

Due to the conceptual clarity and calculational simplicity, practical methods for seismic analysis have been widely used in seismic design and calculation of underground structures. All of the commonly adopted practical methods assume that the earthquake inertia force of the analysis model equals that of free-field. However, this assumption neglects the influence of underground structures on their surrounding soil layers, and may lead to significant errors in both conceptual and computational terms when the size of a structure increases. This article focuses on the practical seismic analysis of large underground structures.Theoretical derivation is demonstrated on the basis of the establishment of mechanical models of the soil-structure system and free-field, and consequently, the quantitative relation between the seismic acceleration response of the soil-structure system and that of free-field is obtained. This relation can be used to revise the earthquake inertia force applied to the analysis model so that the calculation accuracy is effectively improved. By doing so, a revised pushover analysis method, which combines the traditional pushover analysis and theoretical derivation, is proposed in order to be appropriate to seismic analysis of large underground structures. Moreover, an example of application of the proposed method is given, in which a selected large underground structure is analyzed. The results show that this revised method has higher efficiency than the traditional method thanks to the revision of the earthquake inertia force.