A computer generator for randomly layered structures

An algorithm is introduced in this paper for the synthesis of randomly layered earth models. Under the assumption that the layering and the physical parameters for a layer are random variables with truncated normal distributions, random numbers sampled from the distributions can be used to construct the layered structure and determine physical parameters for the layers. To demonstrate its application, random models were synthesized for the modelling of seismic ground motion amplification of a site with uncertainties in its model parameters.

Safety Aspects of Sustainable Storage Dams and Earthquake Safety of Existing Dams

The basic element in any sustainable dam project is safety, which includes the following safety elements： O structural safety, dam safety monitoring, operational safety and maintenance, and emergency planning. Long-term safety primarily includes the analysis of all hazards affecting the project; that is, hazards from the natural environment, hazards from the man-made environment, and project-specific and site-specific hazards. The special features of the seismic safety of dams are discussed. Large dams were the first structures to be systematically designed against earthquakes, starting in the 1930s. How- ever, the seismic safety of older dams is unknown, as most were designed using seismic design criteria and methods of dynamic analysis that are considered obsolete today. Therefore, we need to reevaluate the seismic safety of existing dams based on current state-of-the-art practices and rehabilitate deficient dams. For large dams, a site-specific seismic hazard analysis is usually recommended. Today, large dams and the safety-relevant elements used for controlling the reservoir after a strong earthquake must be able to withstand the ground motions of a safety evaluation earthquake. The ground motion parameters can be determined either by a probabilistic or a deterministic seismic hazard analysis. During strong earthquakes, inelastic deformations may occur in a dam; therefore, the seismic analysis has to be car- ried out in the time domain. Furthermore, earthquakes create multiple seismic hazards for dams such as ground shaking, fault movements, mass movements, and others. The ground motions needed by the dam engineer are not real earthquake ground motions but models of the ground motion, which allow the safe design of dams. It must also be kept in mind that darn safety evaluations must be carried out several times during the long life of large storage dams. These features are discussed in this paper.

Analyses of Crustal Deformation, Strain Field and Risk of Moderate and Strong Earthquakes in the Shanxi Seismic Belt

Using the four phases (1996～1999) of re-surveying data from the GPS network along the Shanxi fault zone, the recent state of horizontal movement of the fault zone and its relation with the Datong-Yanggao M5.6 earthquake (November 1, 1999), which took place on the north end of the monitored area, are analyzed. In the focal region, three areas with relatively higher strain (1×10 -6) appeared in Xinzhou and to the northeast of Jiexiu. The Shanxi fault zone is mainly controlled by the WNW-ESE-trending compressive stress field and the NNE-SSW-trending tensile stress field, and it does not have strike-slip movement. When examined for long-term tendency, attention should be paid to the junctures between the three moving elements.

The Statistical Analysis of Migration of Strong Earthquakes─Taking the North China Region as an Example

The migration of strong earthquakes is an important research topic because the migration phenomena reflect partly the seismic mechanism and involve the prediction of tendency of seismic activity. Research on migration of strong earthquakes has mostly focused on finding the phenomena. Some attempts on getting regularity were comparatively subjective. This paper suggests that there should be indices of migration in earthquake dataset and the indexes should have statistical meaning if there is regularity in the migration of strong earthquakes. In this study, three derivative attributes of migration, i.e., migration orientation, migration distance and migration time interval, were statistically analyzed. Results in the North China region show that the migration of strong earthquakes has statistical meaning. There is a dominant migration orientation (W by S to E by N), a dominant distance (≤100km and on the confines of 300～700km), and a dominant time interval (≤1a and on the confines of 3～4a). The results also show that the migration will differ slightly with different magnitude range or earthquake activity phase.

Crustal Stress Measurement for Significant Project Construction and Its Application in Design

The hydrofracturing technique has developed into a reliable and practical method for determining the original three-dimensional crustal stress state of underground caverns,the load-bearing capacity of a high pressure cavern itself,and the high pressure hydraulic permeability of rock masses,and has also been extensively used in disposal of nuclear waste,long and deeply-buried traffic channels and high-pressure cavern engineering for hydraulic power plants.The practice shows that the comprehensive measurement of the physical parameters of the rock mass and taking full use of the wall rock load-bearing capacity to optimize the engineering design hold are very useful in ensuring the engineering safety and improving the design level.

Simulation of Sliding Failure Occurred at Highway Embankment in 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake

In the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake, the highway embankments were almost less damaged comparing with the past earthquakes in Japan. But the only one embankment close to the Naka Interchange at Joban Highway was damaged a little severely and remarkably because of two interesting phenomena. One phenomenon is the toe-sliding failure observed at the shallow soft base ground and the other one is one-side slope sliding failure. It can be seen that the increase in the degree of saturation at embankment body or the direction of the ground motion or the interaction between the strength of the base ground and the embankment body are involved in the stability of the embankment by modifying the phenomenon by analytical approach such as circular sliding method and dynamic response analysis. Through this research, some important lessons can be obtained for future seismic countermeasure of embankments.