Sharif Digital Repository

The unsaturated small strain shear modulus, Gmax, is a key reference value in predicting relationships between dynamic shear modulus and shear strain amplitude and is thus a key quantity to properly model the behavior of dynamically-loaded geotechnical systems such as pavements, rail beds, and machine foundations. From the interpretation of the experimental Gmax results for unsaturated soils, different definitions of trends between Gmax and the stress state of the unsaturated soils and material properties are proposed. However, in most of trends, the relationship between the stress state and void ratio is considered and the effect of void ratio on the unsaturated small strain shear modulus... 

This paper presents a method to determine the denominator and numerator polynomials of a closed-loop transfer function in order to obtain desired transient and steady-state responses in terms of the overshoot, speed (time needed for the relative error to become less than a specific amount) and the steady-state error when the desired output is a ramp signal. Meanwhile, a controller is designed with the same characteristic equation for the closed-loop system to eliminate step and ramp disturbances  

The paper deals with an experimental study of the undrained cyclic behavior of a natural coarse sand and gravel deposit located in Tehran, a megacity situated on the continental side of the Alborz Mountain in Iran. Membrane compliance that plays a significant role in inhibiting redistribution of pore pressure and liquefaction in undrained cyclic triaxial tests performed on coarse granular soils is studied in this paper. Currently there is no or little satisfactory method for accounting for this phenomenon for gravelly soils, and thus the non-compliant cyclic loading resistanceof granular soils and the evaluation of the behavior of such material in natural and in situ state are not easily... 

This paper proposes a novel representation of uncertain LTI fractional order systems based on the state-space model which contains both interval and polytopic uncertainties. First, a set of linear matrix inequalities, which are sufficient conditions, are presented for analyzing the robust stability of the mentioned systems. Then, some sufficient conditions are obtained for designing a feedback gain matrix to tackle the robust stabilization of the considered systems. Note that the concluded conditions of this paper are valid for fractional systems with a given constant derivative order α in 1 ≤ α < 2 and also, can be employed conservatively for α in 0 < α < 1. Finally, through two numerical... 

We apply the active sliding mode controller to synchronize two uncertain chaotic systems. Uncertainties are considered both in linear and nonlinear parts of the system dynamics. We have also studied the case that the signals are contaminated by measuring channel noise. It is shown that having some conditions on the uncertainties and noise magnitude, the closed loop stability can be guaranteed. The synchronization errors are shown to be confined into some bounded value. Numerical simulations are presented to evaluate the analysis and effectiveness of the controller. © 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved  

Understanding of the effect of cementation on dynamic behaviour of cemented soil in an earthquake prone area could be crucial for earthquake resistance design. The major section of the city of Tehran has been developed on cemented coarse-grained alluvium. In order to understand the dynamic behaviour of this soil, a series of undrained cyclic triaxial tests were performed on uncemented and artificially calcite-cemented samples. In this paper, two dynamic parameters including dynamic shear modulus and damping ratio based on different definitions are investigated. In this regard the effects of cement content, confining pressure and cyclic deviatoric stress were studied as well. In general by... 

In this study, the nonlinear seismic analysis of a typical three-dimensional concrete faced rockfill dam is reported. Three components of the Loma Prieta (Gilroy 1 station) earthquake acceleration time history are used as input excitation. The dam under study is considered as if it were located in a prismatic canyon with a trapezoidal cross-section. A nonlinear model for the rockfill material is used, and contact elements with Coulomb friction law are utilized at the slab-rockfill interface. Vertical joints in the face slab are also considered in the finite element model. A substructure method, in which the unbounded soil is modelled by the scaled boundary finite element method (SBFEM), is... 

The major section of the city of Tehran, Iran has been developed on cemented coarse-grained alluvium. This deposit consists of gravely sand to sandy gravel with some cobbles and is dominantly cemented by carbonaceous materials. In order to understand the mechanical behaviour of this soil, a series of undrained triaxial compression tests and unconfined compression tests were performed on uncemented and artificially cemented samples. Portland cement type I was used as the cementation agent for preparing artificially cemented samples. Uncemented samples and lightly cemented samples (1.5% cement) tested at high confining pressure showed contractive behaviour accompanied with positive excess pore... 

Collapsible soils such as loess are particular types of problematic soils, whose collapse potential have caused severe damages to the buildings and structures. Loess is susceptible to large and sudden volume reduction upon wetting in constant normal stress or upon increasing normal stress in constant water content or a combination of these two stress paths. In this research both of these collapse induced paths: wetting and stress paths are investigated on undisturbed specimens of a Loess to observe the effect of various parameters on the collapse behavior of the tested soil., Seven controlled matric suction unsaturated oedometer tests have been conducted on undisturbed specimens taken from... 

Geotechnical engineering is a fundamental subject in civil and environmental engineering that engineers are required to refer to when any type of retrofitting, design or construction of projects and developments are encountered in a city or in a rural area. Indeed in many projects like geotechnical structures, such as earth dams, geotechnical engineering is the main subject. In this paper, the role of geotechnical engineering in sustainable and resilient cities is elaborated mainly through a series of questions and answers. Also, some related geotechnical engineering research, that is in hands in Civil Engineering Department of Sharif University, is discussed in this paper. A unique... 

During recent years, extensive studies have been conducted around the world documenting liquefaction induced lateral spreading and its effects on deep foundations. This study is aimed to numerically model a shaking table experiment, to investigate the effect of lateral spreading on piles and also to assess the capability of an advanced critical state two-surface plasticity model in predicting soil and pile responses to lateral spreading. Changes in permeability of the soil layers during the shaking are also accounted for using the software's built-in programming language, FISH. Numerical results showed that the onset of liquefaction occurs after just a few cycles from the beginning of the... 

Integrated guidance and control of an elastic flight vehicle based on constrained robust model predictive control is proposed. The design is based on a partial state feedback control law that minimizes a cost function within the framework of linear matrix inequalities. It is shown that the solution of the defined optimization problem stabilizes the nonlinear plant. Nonlinear kinematics and dynamics are taken into account, and internal stability of the closed-loop nonlinear system is guaranteed. The performance and effectiveness of the proposed integrated guidance and control against non-maneuvering and weaving targets are evaluated using computer simulations  

Integrated guidance and control of an elastic flight vehicle based on constrained robust model predictive control is proposed. The design is based on a partial state feedback control law that minimizes a cost function within the framework of linear matrix inequalities. It is shown that the solution of the defined optimization problem stabilizes the nonlinear plant. Nonlinear kinematics and dynamics are taken into account, and internal stability of the closed-loop nonlinear system is guaranteed. The performance and effectiveness of the proposed integrated guidance and control against non-maneuvering and weaving targets are evaluated using computer simulations  

Cemented coarse-grained alluvium is present in a vast area of Tehran city. Iran including its suburbs. This deposit consists of gravely sand to sandy gravel with some cobbles and is dominantly cemented by carbonaceous materials. In order to understand the mechanical behaviour of this soil, a series of triaxial compression tests were performed on uncemented, artificially cemented and destructured samples. Hydrated lime was used as the cementation agent for sample preparation to model the Tehran deposit. The tests were performed on cemented samples after an appropriate time for curing. The tests on cemented samples show that a shear zone appears as the shear stress approaches the peak shear... 

Laboratory triaxial compression tests were carried out in order to determine the stress-strain and dilation characteristics of geotextile-reinforced dry beach sand. The mechanical behavior of the composite material was investigated through varying the number of geotextile layers, type of geotextile, confining pressure, and geotextile arrangement. In order to study the effect of sample-size on the results, tests were performed on samples with two different diameters. The results demonstrated that geotextile inclusion increases the peak strength, axial strain at failure, and ductility. However, it reduces dilation. Such improvements in the behavior of reinforced sand are more pronounced for... 

The volume change that occurs due to membrane penetration into peripheral voids of gravelly specimens during hydrostatic compression test in a conventional triaxial apparatus is studied by performing a set of hydrostatic compression tests on gravelly specimens with different initial relative densities. During the isotropic loading on the specimens, the total volume changes of the specimens were determined by measuring the amount of water seeping out of the specimens at different loading steps. Image processing technique was implemented simultaneously to determine the skeletal volume changes of the specimens. In this regard specimens were compressed to isotopic pressures from 10 to 500 kPa... 

In this paper, a unified finite element formulation associated with saturated and unsaturated soils is presented. The finite element method is applied to the governing equations for the spatial discretization, followed by a generalized Newmark scheme used for the time domain discretization. Time stepping scheme is used in the fully implicit coupled method and a direct solution procedure is used for the coupled equation system. The framework of generalized plasticity is presented and the numerical results of three saturated-unsaturated earth and rockfill dams are demonstrated. A comparison is performed between the Pastor-Zienkiewicz and cap plasticity models through the dynamic analysis of... 

The behavior of a cemented gravely sand was studied using triaxial compression tests. Gypsum, Portland cement and lime were used as the cementing agents in sample preparation. The samples with different cement types were compared in equal cement contents. Three cement contents of 1.5%, 3.0% and 4.5% were selected for sample preparation. Drained and undrained triaxial compression tests were conducted in a range of confining pressures from 25 kPa to 500 kPa. Failure modes, shear strength, stress-strain behavior, volume and pore pressure changes were considered. The gypsum cement induced the highest brittleness in soil among three cement types while the Portland cement was found to be the most... 

The construction of 103 m high Taleghan rockfill dam in Iran has recently been completed and reservoir impounding has also recently been started. The behavior of different sections of the dam have been monitored during construction using various devices such as settlement gauges, earth pressure cells and pore pressure piezometers. A comprehensive finite element study has been implemented in this regard as well to study the behavior of Taleghan rockfill dam during construction with consideration of unsaturated behavior of the materials of the dam. A 2D coupled analysis was performed using ABAQUS software. The behavior of the materials of the core and rockfill were assumed to follow Modified...