Sharif Digital Repository

Using appropriate box as an artificial boundary condition is one of the critical tasks in geotechnical physical modeling of the soil mass especially under cyclic loading such as earthquakes. In general there are two types of boxes which can simulate boundary conditions of scaled models as rigid or flexible conditions. Main purpose of this study is design and construction of a flexible box in a way that effects of boundary condition have been minimized during tests. Construction of this box is the first step of an investigation project which concern to evaluate the effect of lateral spreading as a result of liquefaction on deep foundations of bridges, piers, harbors by using shake table test... 

Liquefaction induced lateral spreading is defined as the lateral displacement of mildly sloping grounds or those ending in free faces as a result of liquefaction in subsurface soil layers. Damages imposed by lateral spreading on pile foundations supporting different types of structures such as ports, bridges and buildings are usually observed in large earthquakes. These potential damages are of high degree of importance in southern and northern coastal areas of Iran where several ports and critical facilities are located. River banks all over the country where bridge piers exist are also among the areas prone to potential damages. Evaluation of the effects of lateral spreading on existing... 

Liquefaction-induced lateral spreading has imposed severe damages to many important structures supported on pile foundations during past earthquakes. As a result, evaluation of pile response to lateral spreading is an important step towards safe and resistant design of pile foundations against this destructive phenomenon. The boundary conditions for physical modeling in problems of earthquake geotechnical engineering have significant influence on the test results. In order to reduce the undesirable effects of boundaries on the model responses, the flexible containers are used. The flexible containers are those in which the shear stiffness of the walls is proportional to the soil inside. A... 

The phenomenon of lateral spreading occurs as a consequence of earthquakes induced liquefaction in grounds with mild slopes or ending to an opening. This phenomenon has caused many damages to deep foundations and associated structures. Therefore, it is necessary to study and estimate the forces which may be induced by lateral spreading to these structures. Due to the complex mechanism of the effect of lateral spreading on the piles, various tests have been carried out in the form of shaking table as well as centrifuge tests. According to the results of these tests, the forces applied to the piles are significant and can cause crucial damages to deep foundations. On the other hand, because... 

During the past earthquakes in all over the world, the piles have had serious damages in soils with liquefaction potential. During an earthquake, liquefaction occurs in some parts of ground with mild slope and saturated and soft granular soil. Afterwards lateral spreading induced by liquefaction incurs irreparable damages on structures and piles particularly. Observing these damages, the researchers and engineers have conducted more surveys and investigations to studying the behavior of piles in granular soils with liquefaction potential and also interactions between  soil  and pile.  In  these  researches,  they have  modeled  the  interactions between  soil  and pile.  However  there are ... 

The phenomenon of soil liquefaction has caused significant damage to deep foundations of engineering structures such as bridges and buildings in past earthquakes. In recent years, many researchers have studied the effects of soil liquefaction on the pile response, but there are still many unknowns that require further research and study. The present study is part of a comprehensive research that involves several Ph.D. and master students at Sharif University of Technology (SUT). In this study, the effects of soil liquefaction on two pile 2×2 groups (one with a lumped mass and another without) in a level ground with a sloping bed were investigated. A surface non-liquefied layer was also... 

The lateral movement of a liquefiable layer on gently slopes is the most visible and devastating type of liquefaction-induced ground failure. Occurrence of liquefaction in sloping ground causes large deformations on ground surface, which may lead to several meters in some cases. Recent earthquakes have shown that this phenomenon causes severe damages to coastal structures, piers of bridges and life-lines, by exerting large lateral forces. In this research, a fully coupled two-dimensional dynamic analysis has been used to simulate the lateral spreading phenomenon and to evaluate the magnitude of deformations occurred in liquefiable soils. The critical state bounding surface elastic-plastic... 

Lateral spreading due to liquefaction and resulting destruction of buildings is important in Iran because of high seismicity and important infrastructure near south and north coasts of Iran. Lateral spreading is vast lateral movement of sloping ground or level ground ending in an opening like river which is caused by earthquake inducedliquefaction. For considering the effects of lateral spreading during design of deep foundations of structures in a susceptible area, one needs to determine the lateral loads on piles under lateral spreading. Present study investigates the behavior of a 3x3 pile group against lateral loads due to lateral spreading with numerical methods using OpenSees software.... 

In recent earthquakes piles have been severely damaged due to liquefaction-induced lateral spreading. Liquefaction causes lateral spreading in gently sloped saturated soft granular soils, leading to significant damage in structures and deep foundations. Although in recent years many studies have focused on different aspects of this phenomenon, the complex nature of the dynamic interaction between piles and liquefied soil is not yet fully understood. This potential damages are of high degree of importance in southern and northern coastal areas of Iran where several ports and critical facilities are located. The present study focuses on the behavior of a 2x2 pile group against lateral loads... 

Lateral spreading is a common mode of earthquake-induced failure that usually occurs as a result of liquefaction in gently sloped sandy layers. Numerical simulation of this phenomenon requires fully coupled analysis of displacement of solid sand particles and pore water pressure under seismic loading. Predicting occurrence of initial liquefaction and sub-sequent ground movement requires employing an efficient and robust constitutive model that can predict the undrained behavior of saturated sand under different conditions. In this study, a fully coupled finite element code “PISA” utilizing a critical state two-surface plasticity constitutive model, proposed by Manzari and Dafalias (1997),... 

Lateral spreading is defined as finite lateral displacement of mildly sloping grounds or those ending in free faces induced by liquefaction. Severe damages of pile groups due to lateral spreading in past earthquakes has been reported. Since earthquake is unavoidable, it is necessary to study the response of piles, especially pile groups, to liquefaction induced lateral spreading. Until now, a number of methods have been developed by researchers for design of deep foundations against lateral spreading, but reported failure of piles in last earthquakes indicates that these methods are associated with high uncertainties. This is due to the lack of laboratory and experimental data to evaluate... 

Lateral spreading is the downstream movement of mild slopes or free fronts occurring due to soil liquefaction during a dynamic loading such as an earthquake. The magnitude of this movement can be from a few centimeters to tens of meters depending on parameters such as slope length, soil type, cyclic loading intensity, etc. Large displacements caused by this phenomenon can cause severe damage to some structures and infrastructures located in the direction of their movement. Numerous articles and reports of damage caused by the lateral spreading of soil have been presented during several earthquakes. Understanding this phenomenon and observing and testing its effective parameters can help... 

Liquefaction-induced lateral spreading is one of the most challenging problems in geotechnical earthquake engineering. This phenomenon may impose severe damages on deep foundations in large earthquakes. In this study, six physical modeling are designed, built and tested to investigate the effects of lateral spreading on deep foundations and also assess one mitigation method. The experiments were conducted using 1g shake table of Sharif university of technology. In this respect, a large laminar shear box with outer dimensions of 420, 240 and 180 cm was designed and constructed. The laminar shear box consisted of 23 steel laminates with inner dimensions of 306×172 cm. Four experiments were... 

Liquefaction-induced lateral spreading is a known cause of severe damages to deep foundations during past earthquakes. Lateral spreading often takes place in gently sloping grounds which consisted of saturated loose cohesionless soil deposits. Several researchers during recent years have been studying the behavior of piles and soil-pile interaction under lateral spreading but there are still many unknowns in this regard. Also with observing catastrophic damages during past earthquakes caused by lateral spreading, developing proper mitigation measures for existing vulnerable piles against this phenomenon is a necessary act. In the present research, the behavior of a 3x3 flexible pile group... 

The behavior of pile foundations under earthquake loading is an important issue that affects the performance of structures. Design procedures have been developed for evaluating pile behavior under earthquake loading; however, the application of these procedures to cases involving liquefiable ground is uncertain. The performance of piles in liquefied soil layers is much more complex than that of non-liquefying soil layers because not only the superstructure and the surrounding soil exert different dynamic loads on pile, but also the stiffness and shear strength of surrounding soil diminishes over time due to both non-linear behavior of soil and pore water pressure generation. In this... 

Lateral spreading is defined as finite lateral displacement of mildly sloping grounds or those ending in free faces induced by liquefaction. The phenomenon of lateral spreading caused by liquefaction in coastal areas and mildly sloping grounds has caused significant damage to deep foundations of engineering structures such as bridge and buildings in severe earthquakes. Since earthquake is unavoidable, therefore, it is necessary to provide appropriate solution to reduce the effects of liquefaction induced lateral spreading. Despite conducting various laboratory and field studies by previous researchers, there is still no comprehensive approach to evaluate the effects of lateral spreading on... 

Lateral Spreading, which usually occurs as a consequence of liquefaction in gently sloped loose saturated sand layers, is known to be a major source of earthquake-induced damages to structures such as bridge piers, quay walls, pipelines and highway/railway. Therefore, evaluation of liquefaction potential and using appropriate methods for prediction of the adverse events of lateral spreading is of great importance. In this study, numerical modeling has been used to study of lateral spreading phenomenon behind rigid waterfront structures. In order to perform a numerical modeling of lateral spreading and also designing the structures exposed to its effects, the interaction of the soil solid... 

Pile foundations suffered severe damages during the past earthquakes in all around the world. These damages were more severe in laterally spreading grounds and they mostly have been observed in gently sloping grounds and coastal areas. In these cases, Pile foundations not only are subjected to structures inertial loads and kinematic loads of liquefied soil but also lateral spreading intensifies damages. Thus, in the recent decade, several researches have been conducted to investigate the behavior of pile foundations in liquefiable and laterally spreading grounds, however, some uncertainties still remain in modeling of soil-pile interaction. In this study, the effects of liquefaction- induced... 

Loads from laterally spreading ground have been a major cause of damages to pile foundations in past earthquakes. Analysis of case histories have shown that damages are particularly intense when a nonliquefiable surface crust layer spreads laterally over underling liquefied layers. In this research the effect of lateral spreading due to liquefaction on single piles embede in a gently sloping ground has been investigated. Finite element method using OpenSees is used to model the pile and embedded soil. The soil profile for all models consisted of a nonliquefiable crust layer overlying loose sand with Dr = 30-35% overlying dense sand with Dr = 70-80%. The effect of geometric properties such as... 

Liquefaction is an important phenomenon in geotechnical engineering which can cause severe damages to structures. Liquefaction-induced lateral spreading is defined as the lateral displacement in mild slopes or level grounds ending in free faces (such as quay walls) triggered by liquefaction in subsurface soil layers. During recent years, extensive studies have been conducted around the world documenting liquefaction induced lateral spreading and its effects on deep foundations. In the present study, a series of shaking table experiments which were previously conducted at Sharif University of Technology are numerically simulated using the three dimensional finite difference based program,...