Seismic Reduction and Isolation Design Strategies for Bridges in High-Intensity Earthquake Areas

High-intensity earthquakes can cause severe damage to bridges,buildings,and ground surfaces,as well as disrupt human activities.Such earthquakes can create long-distance,high-intensity surface movements that negatively impact bridge structures.This article delves into the seismic reduction and isolation design strategies for bridges in high-intensity earthquake areas.It analyzes various seismic reduction and isolation technologies and provides case studies to help relevant units understand the design strategies of these technologies.The results of this article can be used as a guideline to effectively enhance the seismic performance of bridges in high-intensity earthquake areas.

3-D structural reconstruction of Moho in the Tangshan earthquake area by using inversion of curved interface

A method for inverting 3 D curved interface and layer velocity by using travel time of reflected waves is studied. Each interface is described with sectional, incomplete cubic polynomial. A fast 3 D ray tracing method is used in forward problem, and a least squares method with variable damping is adopted in the inverse problem. Result from numerical modelling shows that the solution can converge fast on the true model. Observational data from the Tangshan earthquake area are processed, 3 D Moho discontinuity in the area is rebuilt, and finally, the relationship between the regional structure and seismicity is revealed.

Basement interface structural characteristics beneath Jiashi strong earthquake swarm area in Xinjiang, China

The seismic data obtained from high resolution seismic refraction profile in Jiashi strong earthquake swarm area in Xinjiang, China were further processed with ray hit analysis method and more complete basement interface structural characteristics beneath Jiashi strong earthquake swarm area were determined. The results show that there are two clear basement interfaces at the upper crust in Jiashi strong earthquake swarm area. The first one with buried depth ranging from 2.6 km to 3.3 km presents integral and continuous structure, and it appears an inclined plane interface and smoothly rises up toward Tianshan Mountain. The second basement interface with buried depth from 8.5 km to 11.8 km, is the antiquated crystalline basement of Tarim basin. Near the post number of 37 km, the buried depth of the crystalline basement changed abruptly by 2.5 km, which maybe result from an ultra crystalline basement fault. If taking this fault as a boundary, the crystalline basement could be divided into two parts, i.e. the southwestern segment with buried depth about 11.5 km, and the northeastern segment with buried depth approxi-mately from 8.5 km to 9.0 km. That is to say, in each segment, the buried depth changes not too much. The northeast segment rises up as a whole and upheaves slightly from southwest to northeast, which reflects the upper crustal deformation characteristics under the special tectonic background at the northwestern edge of Tarim basin.

Moment tensor inversion and source rupture process of the September 27, 2003 M_S=7.9 earthquake occurred in the border area of China, Russia and Mongolia

plane with the strike of 127°, the dip of 79° and the rake of 171°. The rupture process inversion result of MS=7.9 earthquake shows that the total rupture duration is about 37 s, the scalar moment tensor is M0=0.97 × 1020 N·m. Rupture mainly occurred on the shallow area with 110 km long and 30 km wide, the location in which the rupture initiated is not where the main rupture took place, and the area with slip greater than 0.5 m basically lies within 35 km deep middle-crust under the earth surface. The maximum static slip is 3.6 m. There are two distinct areas with slip larger than 2.0 m. We noticed that when the rupture propagated towards northwest and closed to the area around the MS=7.3 hypocenter, the slip decreased rapidly, which may indicate that the rupture process was stopped by barriers. The consistence of spatial distribution of slip on the fault plane with the distribution of aftershocks also supports that the rupture is a heterogeneous process owing to the presence of barriers.

Historical Earthquakes in the Yellow Sea and Its Adjacent Area

As a result of sorting out, estimating and cataloging of historical earthquakes, from the year of 2 A.D. to Aug., 1949, we found that there were 2187 earthquakes with M≥3.0 in the area of the Yellow Sea and its adjacent area. Among the earthquakes, the number of earthquakes with M≥5.0 is 209, and at least 43 of the earthquakes caused serious losses, 20 of the earthquakes caused human causalities. It is demonstrated that there were 3 areas of historical earthquake concentration and the earthquake activity was higher in the 16th century and the first half if the 20th century.

Analysis on Characteristics of Seismic Damage of the Nepal M_S8.1 Earthquake in the Tibet Area of China

On April 25,2015,a M_S8. 1 earthquake occurred in Nepal. In the Tibet area of China,this earthquake caused heavy casualties and damage to housing,roads,communications,other lifeline engineering, water conservancy and other infrastructure. This paper introduces the basic situation of the earthquake,and based on the investigation and assessment of seismic intensity,the damage of the disaster area is analyzed,and building types and damage to the lifeline systems and various industries are given. Through the analysis of the characteristics of the earthquake disaster,this paper points out the existing problems in seismic fortification,and finally puts forward proposals for the prevention and control of earthquake geological disasters, scientific planning for the restoration and reconstruction,strengthening earthquake prevention and disaster reduction propaganda,improving the awareness of earthquake preparedness in the agricultural and pastoral areas,strengthening the guidance and supervision of housing construction in rural areas to reduce the casualties and losses,and promoting the harmonious development of economy in Tibet.

Paterns and regularity of ring distribution of seismic activity before great earthquakes in China

A systematic study on ″ring phenomena″ frequently occurring before great earthquakes has made in this paper, which has analyzed the features of ring distributions before 16 great earthquakes and part of large earthquakes in China and its boundary areas, and discussed their features of generality, regularity and predictive meaning. The results have showed that moderate earthquakes or larger earthquakes distribute around the epicenter like a ring from decades to hundred years before the great earthquakes of magnitude more than 7, which is a general phenomenon of great earthquakes without an exception. The active ring generally occurs in the areas from hundreds to thousands of kilometers from the epicenter(according to the magnitude). The seismicity in the ring has three basic stages with different features. in the first stage, seismicity remains at low level and the earthquakes distribute scatteredly, while the source area of the future great earthquake remains quiet; in the second stage, the seismicity strengthens, whose frequency, intensity, concentrated degree, released rate of strain and ratio of distributed area etc. increase, while the quiet area decreases or disappears; in the third stage, the seismicity is weaker than in the former stage, and the quiet area appears again. The source area surrounded by the active ring might have three periods of activity(called as early term, medium term and late term foreshocks activity). The length of the quiet area undergoes the process from large to small, then to large. Therefore, we can estimate the occurring place, magnitude and seismogenic stage of great earthquake according to the area,length and the seismicity in the active ring, which is valuable to make a long term prediction of great earthquakes. At last, we had a preliminary discussion on the mechanism of active ring formation.

Three-dimensional crustal deformation before and after the Wenchuan earthquake in Guanzhong and adjacent regions

The recent plethora of GPS observations compensates for the 20-year-old lack in vertical displacement data for the Guanzhong region. The 2001—2007 three-dimensional（3D） crustal deformation data suggest regional movement with a horizontal velocity of 3—7 mm/a,predominantly from SSE in the west to SE in the east, and vertical inherited movement with velocity of -7 mm/a to 4 mm/a. After the Wenchuan earthquake, the GPS data suggest that the effect of the earthquake on the regional deformation is greater in the west than the east.The horizontal displacement increased during 2007—2008; however, the reverse was observed in 2008—2009. The vertical displacement in the western part of the region increased in 2008 and has been gradually returning to normal since 2009; however, in the eastern part,the effect of the earthquake remains.

An analysis of anomalous weather and climate around the M_S=6.2 earthquake of Zhangbei region

Through analysis we found that some mesoscale anomalous regions (10 1～10 2 km) of meteorological parameters such as the special drought areas, unusual warm areas, the largest snowfall center, low pressure area together with the epicenter area of M S=6.2 Zhangbei earthquake on January 10, 1998 are located at the same area, i.e. there appears the ″Five areas corresponding″ phenomenon. Meanwhile, three times of low pressure evolution are generated and develop in the earthquake area in five days after the occurrence of the earthquake. The abnormal variation of the lower limit of frozen soil layer shows indirectly that unusual warm in earthquake areas are related to the upward thermal conduction from the deeper layer of earth surface.

Retrospection on the Conclusions of Earthquake Tendency Forecast before the Wenchuan M_S8.0 Earthquake

The reason for the failure to forecast the Wenchuan Ms 8.0 earthquake is under study, based on the systematically collection of the seismicity anomalies and their analysis results from annual earthquake tendency forecasts between the 2001 Western Kunlun Mountains Pass Ms8. 1 earthquake and the 2008 Wenchuan Ms8.0 earthquake. The results show that the earthquake tendency estimation of Chinese Mainland is for strong earthquakes to occur in the active stage, and that there is still potential for the occurrence of a Ms8.0 large earthquake in Chinese Mainland after the 2001 Western Kuulun Mountains Pass earthquake. However the phenomena that many large earthquakes occurred around Chinese Mainland, and the 6-year long quietude of Ms7.0 earthquake and an obvious quietude of Ms5.0 and Ms6.0 earthquakes during 2002- 2007 led to the distinctly lower forecast estimation of earthquake tendency in Chinese Mainland after 2006. The middle part in the north-south seismic belt has been designated a seismic risk area of strong earthquake in recent years, but, the estimation of the risk degree in Southwestern China is insufficient after the Ning＇er Ms6.4 earthquake in Yunnan in 2007. There are no records of earthquakes with Ms ≥ 7.0 in the Longmenshan fault, which is one of reasons that this fault was not considered a seismic risk area of strong earthquakes in recent years.

Study of Finite Element Modeling of Strong Earthquake Activities and Its Preliminary Application—Taking Southwest China as an Example

Based on research result concerning the preparation and activity of strong earthquakes in groups and using the finite element method, a finite element dynamic model for Southwest China is established in this paper. Using this model, the stress adjustment in the whole of the Southwest China region in response to the stress change due to strong earthquake occurrence is studied. The preliminary result shows that many strong earthquakes occurred in areas where the stress heightened after the last strong earthquake. So, the finite element model set up in this paper is useful for judging the regions where strong earthquakes are likely to occur in future.

System of Combined Foundation for Tall Buildings

Location of the heavily loaded building on the ground of the small load capacity requires application of the appropriate foundation structure. The required foundation system is most often deep, it is expensive and its cost increases significantly when the building is located in earthquake area or in mining damage sector. The proposed structural system of the combined foundation makes possible to design and to construct a very stable and relative inexpensive foundation structure, which can obtain an extremely large horizontal surface and which can be placed not deeply beneath the terrain level. It can be a very solid support structure for a tall building placed on very weak subsoil and at the same time located in seismic area. This system can be applied not only for new buildings but it can be used for the existing buildings and moreover for straighten of the inclined objects. Due to special arrangement of component parts the combined foundation possesses inherent features of a vibration damper, what is highly desirable if buildings have to be located in earthquake areas. When the aboveground storeys structure has some similar patterns with structural form of the combined foundation then the structural system of the whole building obtains coherent structural characteristics and it is called the combined structural system of the tall building. Suitable application of this system makes possible to design high-rise buildings having interesting and unique architectonic forms, what is presented on a selected example.

The formation of the Wulipo landslide and the resulting debris flow in Dujiangyan City, China

The Wulipo landslide, triggered by heavy rainfall on July 10, 2013, transformed into debris flow,resulted in the destruction of 12 houses, 44 deaths, and 117 missing. Our systematic investigation has led to the following results and to a new understanding about the formation and evolution process of this hazard. The fundamental factors of the formation of the landslide are a high-steep free surface at the front of the slide mass and the sandstone-mudstone mixed stratum structure of the slope. The inducing factor of the landslide is hydrostatic and hydrodynamic pressure change caused by heavy continuous rainfall. The geological mechanical model of the landslide can be summarized as "instability-translational slide-tension fracture-collapse" and the formation mechanism as "translational landslide induced by heavy rainfall". The total volume of the landslide is 124.6×104 m3, and 16.3% of the sliding mass was dropped down from the cliff and transformed into debris flow during the sliding process, which enlarged 46.7% of the original sliding deposit area. The final accumulation area is found to be 9.2×104 m2. The hazard is a typical example of a disaster chain involving landslide and its induced debris flow. The concealment and disaster chain effect is the main reason for the heavy damage. In future risk assessment, it is suggested to enhance the research onpotential landslide identification for weakly intercalated slopes. By considering the influence of the behaviors of landslide-induced debris flow, the disaster area could be determined more reasonably.

Disastrous Rains Downpours and flooding cause more problems for the area hie hard by last year’s earthquake

At least six people were killed on July 25 when a rockslide smashed into a bridge in Wenchuan County,ithe epicenter of last