Sharif Digital Repository

Early efforts in soil dynamics have shown that the analysis of soil behavior under cyclic or random loading conditions is highly dependent on some representative material properties, the dynamic shear modulus, the Poisson’s ratio, and the damping ratio. Of particular interest is the value of dynamic shear modulus for strains less than 10-6 defined as the maximum or small strain shear modulus Gmax. Improvements in experimental unsaturated soil mechanics have led to the definition of trends between Gmax with different parameters most notably unsaturated stress state, degree of saturation and void ratio. However, the tests in these studies were mostly conducted on specimens experiencing... 

The shear modulus of soils is a key material quantity which is frequently used in the evaluation of wave propagation through soil layers in dynamic response analyses for many geotechnical systems. The shear modulus, G, is defined as the slope of the shear stress-strain hysteresis loop and is significantly influenced by the shear strain amplitude induced in a soil specimen. Of particular interest in geotechnical engineering, the value of shear modulus for strains less than 10-6 defined as the small strain shear modulus, Gmax. The early experimental studies on the shear modulus of water-saturated or dry soil showed that shear modulus is highly dependent on mean effective sress, p´, and void... 

Recent studies have shown that comprehensive characterization of the behavior of infilled rock fractures under saturated and unsaturated conditions requires knowledge of morphological details of fracture surface, as well as state of stress of infill materials and their initial innate conditions (e.g., void ratio, water content, degree of saturation and dry density). This study presents the details and typical results from a new testing approach to study the hydro-mechanical behavior of the infilled rock fractures under different stress states and saturation conditions. The new testing approach incorporates the axis translation technique for suction control, a flow pump for the measurement of... 

Considering the importance of studying dynamic characteristics of soils in the analysis of wave propagation and the design of earth constructions or soil-related structures, as well as the role of Resonant Column-Torsional Shear in determining the dynamic parameters, including shear modulus, damping ratio and wave velocity in soil, this device was designed and developed in this research. The apparatus developed is able to conduct both resonant column and torsional shear tests and also measure dynamic parameters in large ranges of strain. The unsaturated pressure panel built alongside this device and the especial design of the device components have made the above-mentioned experiments... 

Theoretical and experimental studies have shown that natural fractures may exhibit capillary behavior because of either their wall-roughed nature or presence of partially saturated fine materials within the fractures. Different factors are expected to affect the capillary behavior and consequently the hydraulic and mechanical properties of fractures including topology of void spaces in fractures, and state of stress of infill materials and their initial innate conditions (e.g., void ratio, water content, degree of saturation and dry density). Therefore, comprehensive characterization of their hydro-mechanical behavior requires knowledge of morphological details of fracture surface, as well... 

Regarding the issue that significant amount of energy consumption in the world is dedicated to heating and cooling of the buildings, by using traditional methods of heating and cooling, the environment is facing serious problems like green house gases. There were various techniques for decreasing the amount of contaminants stem from this process. Heat-exchanger energy piles are one of the most common methods that will result in economic usage of energy resources. Assessing the long-term behavior of the energy piles requires comprehensive understanding of the complex interaction between soil and pile subjected to mechanical and thermal loadings. Several numerical and analytical methods have... 

The subsidence phenomenon in the past years has caused many problems and issues for the agricultural lands, roads, power transmission lines, energy etc., due to different reasons including over use of groundwater resources and changes in climate. This phenomenon has been observed in different plains of the country including the Khorasan, Kerman, Hamedan, Ghazvin and Isfahan plains and has caused many damages to infrastructure and agricultural products in the mentioned regions. In this research the main factors which have affected the subsidence phenomenon especially reduced ground water table and climate changes in Ardebil plain, are taken into account and some studies which comprise... 

Evaluation of the seismic-induced settlement of an unsaturated soil layer depends on several variables, among which the small strain shear modulus, Gmax, and soil’s state of stress have been demonstrated to be of particular significance. Recent interpretation of trends in Gmax revealed considerable effects of the degree of saturation and hydraulic hysteresis on the shear stiffness of soils in unsaturated states. Accordingly, the soil layer is expected to experience different settlement behaviors depending on the soil saturation and seasonal weathering conditions. In this study, a semi-empirical formulation was adapted to extend an existing Gmax model to infer hysteretic effects along... 

The seismic behavior of pile-supported systems has been an active area of research over the past decades. However, focus has mostly been on evaluating the seismic response of structures embedded in either dry or fully saturated, especially liquefying soil conditions. In this study, a series of dynamic centrifuge tests have been conducted to investigate the effects of soil’s degree of saturation on the seismic behavior of pile-supported superstructures. The scaled physical model tests were carried out on two distinct pile-mass systems embedded in uniform sand layers. A steady state infiltration technique was used to control matric suction profiles in the sand layer prior to shaking. The... 

Results of an advanced suction controlled triaxial test device in an attempt to define the constitutive relationship between suction stress and matric suction (Suction Stress Characteristic Curve, SSCC) for unsaturated sand was presented. The suction stress is a macroscopic stress that incorporates the effects of capillary van der Waals forces cementation, and electrical double-layer repulsion into the definition of effective stress for unsaturated soils. Results of previous studies on silt and clay indicated that variations in the suction stress, during drying path had a non-linear increasing trend with matric suction with greater values upon wetting. However, due to different material... 

Shear modulus and damping ratio are of the most important parameters for geotechnical structures during dynamic and seismic loading. Secant shear modulus is the slope of hysteresis shear stress-shear strain loop, and damping ratio is indicative of dissipation of waves energy during propagation in the soil. These parameters mainly depend on void ratio, stress state, and shear strain of the soil. Climate changes cause some drying and wetting process which changes the soil state from saturated to unsaturated form. Previous researches indicated that the shear modulus and damping ratio change with the amount of matric suction. During the drying process, the matric suction increases,therefore,... 

Small strain shear modulus, Gmax, is one of the most important parameters for characterization of the behavior of earth structures subjected to static or dynamic loading conditions. This research presents an experimental laboratory study on the effect of non-plastic fines content and hydraulic hysteresis on the maximum shear modulus of unsaturated sand-silt mixtures. In this regard, clean Firoozkuh No. 161 silica sand which is classified as poorly graded uniform sand was mixed with different percentages of silica non-plastic silt. A set of bender element tests were planned to carry out implementing two modified triaxial devices. The modifications on these two apparatus were to add HAV... 

Results of previous studies on silt and clay indicated that variations in the small strain shear modulus, Gmax, during drying had a non-linear increasing trend with matric suction with greater values upon wetting. However, due to different material properties and inter-particle forces, different behaviour in Gmax is expected for sand. Although considerable research has been devoted in recent years to characterize the behaviour of Gmax of sand during drying, rather less attention has been paid to the effect of hydraulic hysteresis on Gmax and its variations during wetting. In the study presented herein, an effort was made to characterize the variation of Gmax for specimens of sand during... 

In this research, soil-pile-structure in dry and wet soil conition will be investigated.Specifically the goal of the research is to study the effect of soil-pile-structure interaction on the collapse capacity of the offshore structures. To that end, initially soil-pile interaction in three soil types in dry and wet condition, has been studied. To investigate soil-pile interaction methods of FEM and Winkler springs have been implemented and in the following stages Winkler method was used for seismic soil-pile-structure interaction. Also, 2D FEM was used for soil-column analysis. Finally, an offshore jacket structure was modeled and verified using experimental data to capture collapse limit... 

Land subsidence is a gradual settling or sudden sinking of the land surface from changes that take place underground. There are different causes of land subsidence; most notably, groundwater overdraft and severe weather conditions. Subsidence of the land surface due to ground water overdraft is caused by an increase in the intergranular pressure in unconsolidated aquifers, which results in a loss of buoyancy of solid particles in the zone dewatered by the falling water table and accordingly compaction of the aquifer. In this study, an experimental approach was developed to examine applicability of Microbially induced carbonate precipitation (MICP) for land subsidence control under... 

Microbially-induced calcium carbonate precipitation is a low-cost, environmentally friendly, novel ground improvement technique that has received much attention in recent years. Most studies on biological soil stabilization have investigated the mechanical and hydraulic behavior of soils in dry and saturated conditions. However, the behavior of soils stabilized by this method in the unsaturated state should be of immense concern through the extent of unsaturated soils in nature. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the effects of microbially-induced calcium carbonate precipitation on the soil-water retention curve and changes of small strain shear modulus of unsaturated cemented and...