http://ssu.ac.ir/cms/fileadmin/user_upload/Moavenatha/Mposhtibani/Mdaftar_fani/KhadamatKarkonan/Articles/EN/Tust_Vol_16_4_247-293.pdf

Seismic design and analysis of underground structures

The Daikai Station, a cut and cover structure in the subway system in Kobe, collapsed during the Hyogoken-Nambu earthquake of January 17, 1995 in Japan. The Daikai Station is the first well-documented underground structure not crossing an active fault that has completely collapsed during an earthquake without liquefaction of the surrounding soil. What makes this case even more interesting is that tunnel sections adjacent to the station, with similar structural characteristics and analogous soil conditions, did not collapse. Dynamic numerical analyses have been conducted to investigate the load transfer mechanisms between the underground structure and the surrounding soil and to identify the causes for different behavior of similar sections of the station subjected to the same seismic loading. A hysteretic nonlinear soil model has been used for the analysis. The model captures well the soil's shear modulus degradation and the increase of damping with strain. The results from the analyses show that, for a given earthquake, there are two key factors that determine the response of an underground structure: the relative stiffness between the structure and the degraded surrounding ground, and the frictional characteristics of the interface. A stiff structure has small deformations; because the adjacent soil movement is restricted by the structure, the shear modulus degradation of the soil is limited which contributes to reduce further deformation of the soil and thus decreases the displacement demand on the structure. A strong interface is capable of transmitting larger shear to the structure but in turn increases the confinement of the soil surrounding the structure which limits the soil's shear modulus degradation. The model predicts larger deformations in the section that collapsed because this section had a smaller stiffness, and thus triggered drifts in critical structural elements which were larger than at other sections of the station which remained stable.

Load Transfer Mechanisms between Underground Structure and Surrounding Ground: Evaluation of the Failure of the Daikai Station

The purpose of this paper is to provide a comprehensive state of the art of fatigue and cyclic loading of natural rock materials. Papers published in the literature are classified and listed in order to ease bibliographical review, to gather data (sometimes contradictory) on classical experimental results and to analyse the main interpretation concepts. Their advantages and limitations are discussed, and perspectives for further work are highlighted. The first section summarises and defines the different experimental set-ups (type of loading, type of experiment) already applied to cyclic/fatigue investigation of rock materials. The papers are then listed based on these different definitions. Typical results are highlighted in next section. Fatigue/cyclic loading mainly results in accumulation of plastic deformation and/or damage cycle after cycle. A sample cyclically loaded at constant amplitude finally leads to failure even if the peak load is lower than its monotonic strength. This subcritical crack is due to a diffuse microfracturing and decohesion of the rock structure. The third section reviews and comments the concepts used to interpret the results. The fatigue limit and S–N curves are the most common concepts used to describe fatigue experiments. Results published from all papers are gathered into a single figure to highlight the tendency. Predicting the monotonic peak strength of a sample is found to be critical in order to compute accurate S–N curves. Finally, open questions are listed to provide a state of the art of grey areas in the understanding of fatigue mechanisms and challenges for the future.

/pdf/cyclic-and-fatigue-behaviour-of-rock-materials-review-1wp1rdhrth.pdf

Cyclic and Fatigue Behaviour of Rock Materials: Review, Interpretation and Research Perspectives

Underground openings and excavations are increasingly being used for civilian and strategic purposes all over the world. Recent earthquakes and resulting damage have brought into focus and raised the awareness for aseismic design and construction. In addition, underground tunnels, particularly, have distinct seismic behaviour due to their complete enclosure in soil or rock and their significant length. Therefore, seismic response of tunnel support systems warrant closer attention. The geological settings in which they are placed are often difficult to describe due to limited site investigation data and vast spatial variability. Therefore, the parameters which govern the design are many and their variabilities cannot be ignored. A solution to this issue is reliability based analysis and design. These real conditions of variability can only be addressed through a reliability based design. The problem addressed here is one of reliability-based analysis of the support system of an underground tunnel in soil. Issues like the description of the interaction between the tunnel lining and the surrounding medium, the type of limit state that would be appropriate, the nonavailability of a closed form performance function and the advantages of response surface method [RSM] are looked into. Both static and seismic environment with random variability in the material properties are studied here. Support seismic response is studied in terms of thrust, moment and shear forces in the lining. Interactive analysis using finite element method [FEM], combined with RSM and Hasofer-Lind reliability concept to assess the performance of the tunnel support, has proven useful under real field situations.

/pdf/uncertainty-modelling-and-limit-state-reliability-of-tunnel-5ape6q04cm.pdf

Birger Schmidt

Papers

Thermomechanical interactions in repository design