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CONTENTS
Volume 34, Number 6, September25 2023
 

Abstract
One of the applicable methods for the stabilization of soil walls is the nailing system which consists of tensile struts. The stability and safety of soil nail wall systems are influenced by the geometrical parameters of the nailing system. Generally, the determination of nailing parameters in order to achieve optimal performance of the nailing system for the safety of soil walls is defined in the framework of optimization problems. Also, according to the various uncertainty in the mechanical parameters of soil structures, it is necessary to evaluate the reliability of the system as a probabilistic problem. In this paper, the optimal design of the nailing system is carried out in deterministic and probabilistic cases using meta-heuristic and reliability-based design optimization methods. The colliding body optimization algorithm and first-order reliability method are used for optimization and reliability analysis problems, respectively. The objective function is defined based on the total cost of nails and safety factors and reliability index are selected as constraints. The mechanical properties of the nailing system are selected as design variables and the mechanical properties of the soil are selected as random variables. The results show that the reliability of the optimally designed soil nail system is very sensitive to uncertainty in soil mechanical parameters. Also, the design results are affected by uncertainties in soil mechanical parameters due to the values of safety factors. Reliability-based design optimization results show that a nailing system can be designed for the expected level of reliability and failure probability.

Key Words
nailing system; optimization; reliability; uncertainty

Address
Mitra Jafarbeglou: Department of civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Centeral Tehran Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran
Farzin Kalantary: Faculty of Civil Engineering, K.N.Toosi University of Technology, Tehran, Iran

Abstract
This paper presents the results of a numerical investigation of the effect of geotextile reinforcement on underlying buried pipe behavior using PLAXIS 3D. In this study, variable parameters such as the in-plane stiffness of the geotextile, the pipe stiffness, the soil stiffness, the footing width, the geotextile width, and the location of the geotextile reinforcement layer are investigated. Deflections and bending moments acting on the pipe are evaluated for different combinations of variables and are presented graphically. It is observed that with an increase in the in-plane stiffness of the geotextile reinforcement, there is a tendency for a decrease in both deflections in the pipe and bending moments acting on the pipe. Conversely, with an increase in the pipe stiffness, geotextile reinforcement efficiency decreases. In the investigated region of soil stiffness, for the given pipe and geotextile stiffness, an optimum efficiency of geotextile is observed in medium dense soils. Further, it is shown that relative lengths of geotextile and footing has an important role on geotextile efficiency. Lastly, it is also demonstrated that relative location of geotextile layer with respect to the buried pipe plays an important role on the geotextile efficiency in reducing the bending moments acting on the pipe and deflections in the pipe. In general, geotextiles are more efficient in reducing the bending moments as opposed to reducing deflections of the pipe. Numerical validation is done with an experimental study from the literature to observe the applicability of the numerical model used.

Key Words
bending moment; buried pipes; deflection; finite element; geotextile

Address
Candas Oner and J. David Frost: School of Civil Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 790 Atlantic Drive, Atlanta, GA, USA
Selcuk Bildik: Department of Civil Engineering, Nisantasi University, Tasyoncasi Street No:1V-1Y, Maslak, Istanbul, Turkey

Abstract
This study utilized small-scale physical model tests to investigate the impact of different types of geosynthetics, including geocell, planar geotextile, and wraparound geotextile, on the behaviour of strip footings placed on 0.8 m thick soil fills and backfills with a slope angle of 70. Bearing capacity and settlement of the footing and failure mechanisms are discussed and evaluated. The results revealed that the bearing capacity of footings situated on both unreinforced and reinforced slopes increased with a greater embedment depth of the footing. For settlement ratios below 4%, the geocell reinforcement exhibited significantly higher stiffness, carrying greater loads and experiencing less settlement compared to the planar and wraparound geotextile reinforcements. However, the performance of geocell reinforcement was influenced by the number and length of the geocell layers. Increasing the geocell back length ratio from 0.44 to 0.84 significantly improved the bearing capacity of the footing located at the crest of the reinforced slope. Adequate reinforcement length, particularly for geocell, enhanced the bearing pressure of the footing and increased the stiffness of the slope, resulting in reduced deflections. Increasing the length of reinforcement also led to improved performance of the footing located on wraparound geotextile reinforced slopes. In all reinforcement cases, reducing the vertical spacing between reinforcement layers from 100 mm to 75 mm allowed the slope to withstand much greater loads.

Key Words
geocell; model tests; planar geotextile; slope-stabilization; wraparound geotextile

Address
Hamed Yazdani and Mehdi Ashtiani: Faculty of Civil Engineering, Babol Noshirvani University of Technology, Babol, Iran

Abstract
When an earth pressure balance (EPB) shield machine bores a tunnel in gravelly sand stratum, the excavated natural soil is normally transformed using foam and water to reduce cutter wear and the risk of direct muck squeezing out of the screw conveyor (i.e., muck spewing). Understanding the undrained shear behavior of conditioned soils under pressure is a potential perspective for optimizing the earth pressure balance shield tunnelling strategies. Owing to the unconventional properties of conditioned soil, a pressurized vane shear apparatus was utilized to investigate the undrained shear behavior of foam-conditioned gravelly sands under normal pressure. The results showed that the shear stress-displacement curves exhibited strain-softening behavior only when the initial void ratio (e0) of the foam-conditioned sand was less than the maximum void ratio (emax) of the unconditioned sand. The peak and residual strength increased with an increase in normal pressure and a decrease in foam injection ratio. A unique relation between the void ratio and the shear strength in the residual stage was observed in the e-ln e-ln(t) space. When e0 was greater than emax, the fluid-like specimens had quite low strengths. Besides, the stick-slip behavior, characterized by the variation coefficient of measured shear stress in the residual stage, was more evident under lower pressure but it appeared to be independent of the foam injection. A comparison between the results of pressurized vane shear tests and those of slump tests indicated that the slump test has its limitations to characterize the chamber muck fluidity and build the optimal conditioning parameters.

Key Words
foam mechanism; pressurized vane shear test; soil conditioning; stick-slip behaviour; undrained shear behaviour

Address
Shuying Wang: School of Civil Engineering, Central South University, Changsha, 410075, China;
Tunnel and Underground Engineering Research Center, Central South University, Changsha, 410075, China;
MOE Key Laboratory of Engineering Structure of Heavy Haul Railway, Central South University, Changsha, 410075, PR China
Jiazheng Zhong, Qiujing Pan and Fanlin Ling: School of Civil Engineering, Central South University, Changsha, 410075, China;
Tunnel and Underground Engineering Research Center, Central South University, Changsha, 410075, China
Tongming Qu: Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Clearwater Bay, HKSAR, China

Abstract
Structural inertial interaction is a representative the effect of dynamic soil–foundation–structure interaction (SFSI), which leads to a relative displacement between soil and foundation, period lengthening, and damping increasing phenomena. However, for a system with a significantly heavy foundation, the dynamic inertia of the foundation influences and interacts with the structural seismic response. The structure-to-foundation mass ratio (MR) quantifies the distribution of mass between the structure and foundation for a structure on a shallow foundation. Although both systems exhibit the same vertical factor of safety (FSv), the MR and corresponding seismic responses attributed to the structure and foundation masses may differ. This study explored the influence of MR on the permanent deformation and seismic response of soil-foundation-structure system considering SFSI via numerical simulations. Given that numerous dimensionless parameters of SFSI described its influence on the structural seismic response, the parameters, except for MR and FSv, were fixed for the sensitivity analysis. The results demonstrated that the foundation inertia of heavier foundations induced more settlement due to sliding behavior of heavily-loaded systems. Moreover, the structural inertia of heavier structures evidently exhibited foundation rocking behavior, which results in a more elongated natural period of the structure for lightly-loaded systems.

Key Words
dynamic soil-foundation-structure interaction; foundation settlement; inertial behavior; mass ratio; numerical modeling

Address
Kil-Wan Ko: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Southern California,
Kaprielian Hall, 3620 South Vermont Avenue, Los Angeles, USA
Jeong-Gon Ha: Advanced Structures and Seismic Safety Research Division, Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute,
111 Daedeok Daero 989 beon gil, Yuseong gu, Daejeon, Republic of Korea
Jinsun Lee: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Wonkwang University,
460 Iksan-daero, Iksan-si, Jeollabuk-do, Republic of Korea
Gye-Chun Cho: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Korean Advanced Institute for Science and Technology,
291 Daehak-ro, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon, Republic of Korea

Abstract
Liquefaction is one of the most devastating geotechnical phenomena that severely damage vital structures and lifelines. Before constructing structures on problematic ground, it is necessary to improve the site and solve the geotechnical problem. Among ground improvement methods dealing with liquefaction, gravel drain (GD) columns and deep soil mixing (DSM) columns are popular. In this study, the results of a series of seismic experiments in a 1g environment on a structure located over liquefiable ground with different thicknesses reinforced with GD and DSM techniques were presented. The dynamic response of the reinforced ground system was investigated based on the parameters of subsidence rate, excess pore water pressure ratio, and maximum acceleration. The time history of the input acceleration was applied harmonically with an acceleration range of 0.2g and at frequencies of 1, 2, and 3 Hz. The results show that the thickness of the liquefiable layer and the frequency of the input motion have a significant impact on the effectiveness of the improvement method and all responses. Among the two techniques used, DSM in thick liquefied layers was much more efficient than GD in controlling the subsidence and rupture of the soil under the foundation. Maximum settlement values, settlement rate, and foundation rotation in the thicker liquefied layer at the 1-Hz input frequency were higher than at other frequencies. At low thicknesses, the dynamic behavior of the GD was closer to that of the DSM.

Key Words
deep soil mixing; gravel drain; liquefaction; settlement; shaking table; soil improvement

Address
Gholi Asadzadeh Khoshemehr and Hadi Bahadori: Department of Civil Engineering, Urmia University, Urmia, Iran

Abstract
The destruction and fracture of rock masses are crucial components in engineering and there is an increasing demand for the study of the influence of rock mass heterogeneity on the safety of engineering projects. The numerical manifold method (NMM) has a unified solution format for continuous and discontinuous problems. In most NMM studies, material homogeneity has been assumed and despite this simplification, fracture mechanics remain complex and simulations are inefficient because of the complicated topology updating operations that are needed after crack propagation. These operations become computationally expensive especially in the cases of heterogeneous materials. In this study, a heterogeneous model algorithm based on stochastic theory was developed and introduced into the NMM. A new fracture algorithm was developed to simulate the rupture zone. The algorithm was validated for the examples of the four-point shear beam and semi-circular bend. Results show that the algorithm can efficiently simulate the rupture zone of heterogeneous rock masses. Heterogeneity has a powerful effect on the macroscopic failure characteristics and uniaxial compressive strength of rock masses. The peak strength of homogeneous material (with heterogeneity or standard deviation of 0) is 2.4 times that of heterogeneous material (with heterogeneity of 11.0). Moreover, the local distribution of parameter values can affect the configuration of rupture zones in rock masses. The local distribution also influences the peak value on the stress–strain curve and the residual strength. The post-peak stress–strain curve envelope from 60 random calculations can be used as an estimate of the strength of engineering rock masses.

Key Words
heterogeneous; numerical manifold method; rock masses; rupture zone

Address
Yuan Wang and Qi Dong: College of Water Conservancy and Hydropower Engineering, Hohai University, Nanjing, Jiangsu 210024, China
Xinyu Liu and Lingfeng Zhou: College of Civil and Transportation Engineering, Hohai University, Nanjing, Jiangsu 210024, China

Abstract
Brittleness as an important property of rock plays a crucial role both in the failure process of intact rock and rock mass response to excavation in engineering geological and geotechnical projects. Generally, rock brittleness indices are calculated from the mechanical properties of rocks such as uniaxial compressive strength, tensile strength and modulus of elasticity. These properties are generally determined from complicated, expensive and time-consuming tests in laboratory. For this reason, in the present research, an attempt has been made to predict the rock brittleness indices from simple, inexpensive, and quick laboratory test results namely dry unit weight, porosity, slake-durability index, P-wave velocity, Schmidt rebound hardness, and point load strength index using multiple linear regression, exponential regression, support vector machine (SVM) with various kernels, generating fuzzy inference system, and regression tree ensemble (RTE) with boosting framework. So, this could be considered as an innovation for the present research. For this purpose, the number of 39 rock samples including five igneous, twenty-six sedimentary, and eight metamorphic were collected from different regions of Iran. Mineralogical, physical and mechanical properties as well as five well known rock brittleness indices (i.e., B1, B2, B3, B4, and B5) were measured for the selected rock samples before application of the above-mentioned machine learning techniques. The performance of the developed models was evaluated based on several statistical metrics such as mean square error, relative absolute error, root relative absolute error, determination coefficients, variance account for, mean absolute percentage error and standard deviation of the error. The comparison of the obtained results revealed that among the studied methods, SVM is the most suitable one for predicting B1, B2 and B5, while RTE predicts B3 and B4 better than other methods.

Key Words
boosting regression trees; fuzzy inference; rock brittleness; rock sample; simple tests; support vector machin

Address
Davood Fereidooni: School of Earth Sciences, Damghan University, Damghan, Iran
Zohre Karimi: School of Engineering, Damghan University, Damghan, Iran

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