Engineering Commons^™

Robust Earthquake Site Classification Assessment At Ontario Bridge Sites., Alex Bilson Darko

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Canadian seismic design guidelines classify subsurface ground conditions based on the average shear-wave velocity (V_S) of the upper 30 meters (V_S30). We seek to optimize a robust earthquake site classification procedure for Ontario bridge sites, assessed primarily from blind comparison of non-invasive V_S depth profiling techniques. Non-invasive seismic testing is performed at 10 bridge sites in southern Ontario co-located with invasive penetration and/or borehole V_S measurements. Non-invasive surface wave dispersion and site amplification functions are jointly inverted to retrieve V_S profiles at each site. A general correlation between corrected V_S and cone …

Static And Dynamic Properties Of Controlled Low-Strength Materials Incorporating Treated Oil Sands Waste, Ahmed Mneina

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Controlled Low-Strength Materials (CLSM) is a self-compacted self-leveling cementitious material with compressive strength of 8.3 MPa or less. It is used as an alternative of soil backfill materials in geotechnical and infrastructure applications. This study investigates the effects of incorporating treated oil sand wastes (TOSW) as a partial replacement of sand or fly ash on fresh and hardened properties of CLSM. In addition, the environmental impact of the proposed new mixtures was evaluated. The results show that CLSM mixtures incorporating TOSW had satisfied the limits and requirements of ACI committee 229 for CLSM with no environmental hazards. The incorporation of …

Liquefaction Susceptibility Analysis Of Fraser River Sand In Miniature Cone Penetration Tests And Cyclic Direct Simple Shear Tests, Stephen Jones

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The cone penetration test (CPT) and, its geophone-equipped form, the seismic cone penetration test (SCPT) are increasingly used site investigation techniques to determine in-situ geotechnical properties of soil profiles as well as liquefaction susceptibility in seismically active locations. The use of experimental techniques, most notably miniature cone penetration testing (MCPT), can be used to recreate these in-situ tests in a controlled laboratory setting.

In this study, MCPT tests are completed using Fraser River sand to determine cone tip and sleeve frictional resistances as well as shear wave velocity measurements and are validated using in-situ SCPT tests and existing soil classification …

Characterization Of A Carbonate Sand Based On Shear Wave Velocity Measurement, Abouzar Sadrekarimi, Keyvan Mirbaha

Civil and Environmental Engineering Presentations

Numerous studies have been carried out on the dynamic behavior of sands. However, few studies have investigated the dynamic characteristics of carbonate sands. This paper presents series of laboratory simple shear tests on specimens of a local carbonate sand from London (ON). Besides monotonic and cyclic shearing, the dynamic behavior of the sand is also characterized by measuring the velocity of shear waves travelling through the specimens. Drained and undrained shearing behavior of specimens with a wide range of relative density and consolidation stresses are tested. Shear wave velocity is found to vary with effective overburden stresses by an average …

Liquefaction Assessment Of Carbonate-Silica Silty Sands Using Energy, State Parameter And Shear Wave Velocity, Naemeh Naghavi

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The liquefaction behaviour and dynamic properties of reconstituted natural carbonate-silica silty sand samples were investigated in a series of monotonic and cyclic triaxial tests. The critical state parameters of the mixtures with different levels of fines were obtained through monotonic triaxial compression tests. Bender element tests were performed at the consolidation stage to characterize soil’s initial state and small strain properties. The results demonstrated that soil contraction capacity, liquefaction potential and undrained brittleness increase by increasing the state parameter. A general correlation between shear wave velocity and state parameter was established. The susceptibility and triggering of liquefaction under cyclic loading …

Cyclic And Post-Cyclic Response Of Silt And Sandy Silt Soils, Ali El Takch

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

A series of cyclic and monotonic constant-volume ring shear tests were carried out to determine the cyclic and post-cyclic response of silts and sandy silts with 25% and 50% sand. The elastic soil behavior at very small shear strain (γ < 10^-4%) was investigated through shear wave velocity (Vs) measurements using bender elements at vertical stresses ranging from 50 to 300 kPa, while strain-controlled constant volume cyclic ring shear tests were conducted to establish shear modulus (G) and damping ratio (D) at larger shear strain amplitudes (γ > 0.01%). Liquefaction and strain-softening occurred at excess pore water pressure ratios (r_{u …}