Engineering Commons^™

Effect Of Smear Due To Vertical Drains On The Behaviour Of Two Embankments Constructed On Soft Clays, B. Indraratna, I. W. Redana

International Conference on Case Histories in Geotechnical Engineering

This paper describes the methodology to include the effect of smear in the prediction of settlements beneath two embankments stabilized with vertical drains. The extent of smearing around the drains was studied using a detailed analytical formulation developed by the authors and used in conjunction with the finite clement code, CRISP. The smear zone propagation around vertical drains was studied in the laboratory using a large radial drainage consolidometer. The case histories selected in this study include (a) embankment stabilized with vertical sand drains at a Naval Dockyard, Thailand, and (b) embankment stabilized with vertical band drains in soft Muar …

Groundwater Conditions And Drainage Of A Large Slide, E. Sotiropoulos, B. Dendrou, P. Papanikolaou

International Conference on Case Histories in Geotechnical Engineering

A large slide of great complexity, occurred on February 18, 1995 near the village of Malakasa, 36 km North of Athens, and disrupted road and rail traffic between Athens and Thessaloniki. The material in which the slide occurred can be described as a chaotic mixture of schists and breccias which have been highly disturbed by tectonic events, by ancient landslide activity and the prevailing high groundwater pressures. An understanding of the groundwater conditions in the Malakasa landslide was essential in designing remedial measures to stabilize the slide. The presence of a permanent spring and high water levels measured near the …

Grouting In Consideration Of Predominant Direction Of Joints In Rock Masses, Masaki Kawasaki, Hitoshi Yoshida, Yoshikazu Yamaguchi

International Conference on Case Histories in Geotechnical Engineering

We conducted a grouting test in rock mass having steep joints with predominant direction, assuming blanket grouting for embankment dams. Vertical holes and inclined holes designed in consideration of the predominant direction of the joints were used as grouting holes, and the hole spacing was determined such that the number of grouting holes per unit area on a joint was the same for both cases. As a result, both tests saw a similar improvement despite the fact that the test using inclined holes had wider hole spacing than the test using vertical holes on the ground surface. We can also …

Instrumentation, Monitoring And Analysis Of A Landslide − A Case Study, Kishor Kumar, R. K. Panigrahi

International Conference on Case Histories in Geotechnical Engineering

Powari Landslide which is situated at Km.367 on National Highway-22, on the right bank of river Sutlej in Kinnaur District of Himachal region of North-Western Himalaya has been active since 1987 and recurring every year in the months of July-Sept and March-May. The traffic interruption due to this slide was estimated in one year as 25 full days. 60 half days and 55 less than half days. Money spent each year only to clean the slided debris was estimated approximately from 70,000 to 2,00,000 in Indian rupees. Geological and geotechnical investigations followed by instrumentation and monitoring of this typical landslide …

An Investigation Of An Embankment Failure In Soft Clay, Bujang B. K. Huat

International Conference on Case Histories in Geotechnical Engineering

A number of embankment founded on soft clays have become unstable during construction of a major highway project in Malaysia. One of the embankment was back analysed based on its geometry before the failure. Measured in-situ vane shear strength was used in total stress analysis to determine the factor of safety at failure. Performance of the soft clay subsoil with regards to vertical and horizontal displacements, and piezometric response, when the failure was imminent is also described.

Landslides On Shale In Southern Illinois, Kenneth M. Berry, Thomas L. Cooling

International Conference on Case Histories in Geotechnical Engineering

This paper presents the case histories of two landslides in southern Illinois. The first landslide presented occurred along a highway cut at Ford's Hill on Illinois Route 3 near Chester, Illinois. The second landslide occurred in the embankment of a large retention pond in southern Illinois. Both failure planes were along the surface of the weathered shale bedrock in response to excess pore pressures. Backfigured strength at the time of failure was low and at the residual strength of the weathered shale.

Major Landslides In Sikkim − Analysis, Correction And Protective Measures: A Case Study, A. K. Gupta, D. S. Tolia

International Conference on Case Histories in Geotechnical Engineering

The paper presents the case history of two major landslides in Sikkim which had proved to be a source of continual trouble for many years since 1973, causing considerable recurring financial strain on the Border Roads Organisation in order to keep the communications through Highway cuttings in the Sikkim Himalaya are exposed to hazardous landslides of a bewildering variety. Geotechnical investigations have often revealed their complex and violent nature usually associated with high and steep cuttings in immature geological settings, severe river-erosion of toe slopes particularly due to flash floods, deforestation and faulty subsurface and surface drainage conditions during heavy …

Natural Slope Failure On Weathered Andesitic Breccia In Samigaluh Area, Indonesia, Dwikorita Karnawati

International Conference on Case Histories in Geotechnical Engineering

Six events of landslides occurred simultaneously on weathered Andesitic Breccia in Samigaluh Area, following the heavy rainfall. Field investigation, laboratory works and slope stability analysis were carried out to assess the mechanism of the failures, their controlling factor and identify the triggering rainfall characteristics. It was found that the rainfall was the key factor inducing the failure. However, further investigation which incorporates slope hydrodynamic numerical modeling is still required, in order to find the triggering rainfall characteristics. In addition, the role of slope inclination was less significant than the soil and vegetation types covering the slopes. Finally, the landslide susceptibility …

The Performance Of Turlough Hill Upper Reservoir, Michael Long, John Godden

International Conference on Case Histories in Geotechnical Engineering

The upper reservoir of the Turlough Hill pumped storage station was commissioned by the Irish Electricity Supply Board in 1974. This upper reservoir comprises a rockfill embankment within which there is a useful capacity of 2.3 million cubic metres. It was constructed in difficult conditions on a very isolated and exposed site at the top of a mountain, using rockfill derived from the local granitic bedrock. The reservoir is lined with asphaltic concrete.

The paper describes briefly the design and construction of the embankment. It then summarises the results of monitoring and inspecting, with particular emphasis on movement, seepage and …

Procedure For In-Situ Evaluation Of Geotechnical Parameters Of High Dams, Zbigniew Mlynarek, Wojciech Tschuschke, Jędrzej Wiersbicki

International Conference on Case Histories in Geotechnical Engineering

An essential problem in constructing dams which are continually built and their height exceeds 30 m, is current checking of strength parameters of the dam and subsoil. The paper presents several modem procedures for evaluating strength parameters of a dam and subsoil on the example of constructing post-flotation wastes from copper ore mine in Rudna, Poland. Results and interpretation of tests with dilatocone, conductivity cone are given .as well as those for routine CPT, CPTU penetration techniques. The paper also contains some information on the unique dump - Żelazny Most Reservoir.

Remediation Of River Des Peres Slope Failure − A Case History, Khaldoun Fahoum, Philip A. Jozwiak

International Conference on Case Histories in Geotechnical Engineering

This paper describes the remediation of a 300-foot long slope failure on the north bank of River Des Peres along Ellendale Avenue near the intersection with Wellington Avenue in St. Louis, Missouri. The slope failure threatened the cast bound driving lane of Ellendale Avenue and a 24-inch high pressure gas line under a concrete swale along the south shoulder, and damaged the concrete channel side and bottom lining and a foulwater interceptor sewer in the River Des Peres channel. The failure occurred within a soil stratum that consists of soft to very soft, gray silt, clayey silt, silty clay and …

A Slope Instability Case History Involving Swelling Clay In Southern Brazil, L. A. Bressani, A. V. D. Bica, W. Y. Y. Gehling, M. R. Bianchini

International Conference on Case Histories in Geotechnical Engineering

This paper describes a slope instability case history involving swelling clay. A 9-m high slope was cut in 3 sedimentary layers during the construction of a single-carriage road. A complex slope failure mechanism was identified during site investigation, consisting of: (a) a progressive surficial degradation, particularly of the lower swelling clay layer. (b) a deep-seated slope failure, and (c) the toppling failure of the upper stronger layers. Site investigation included SPT testing, undisturbed sampling and in situ suction measurement. Laboratory testing consisted of: (a) soil characterization by X-ray diffraction analysis, particle-size analysis and Atterberg limits tests; (b) evaluation of effective …

Stabilization Of An Existing Slope Supporting Underground Storage Tanks At The Top, Sanjeev Kumar

International Conference on Case Histories in Geotechnical Engineering

A case history of evaluation and remediation of an existing slope supporting two 15,000-gallon underground storage tanks at the top of the slope is presented. The slope was constructed more than 20 years ago by placing fill on the side slope of a valley formed by a creek, without properly benching and clearing the slope prior to placement of the fill. The slope stability analysis showed that the slope in its existing condition was potentially unstable. The selection of the remediation technique was relatively complicated because of the presence of underground storage tanks at the top of the slope, the …

A Study On Prediction Of Improvement Of Watertightness Of Rock Mass By Grouting, Isao Nagayama, Yosuke Niitaka, Michio Ota, Masahiko Yamashita

International Conference on Case Histories in Geotechnical Engineering

Grouting is a principal technique to improve watertightness of the foundation of dams. But it is not easy to predict the amount of grouting work until attaining the required improvement of watertightness of rock mass, since the improvement mechanism of watertightness by grouting is not understood comprehensively. Therefore, the grouting work is conducted with the split spacing method until attaining the required improvement. In this paper, the method to predict the effects of grouting is discussed analyzing grouting data obtained from the Hattabara Dam construction site. As the result or the analysis, it is understood that the logarithm of the …

Survey Of Seepage Through Heightened Earthfill Dam With High-Density Electrical Prospecting Method, Yoshikazu Yamaguchi, Hitoshi Yoshida, Yutaka Imabayashi, Tadahiko Sakamoto

International Conference on Case Histories in Geotechnical Engineering

High-density electrical prospecting was conducted on a heightened earthfill darn during the first filling of the reservoir to study the possibility of applying this prospecting method to examination of zoned structures inside an embankment darn and monitoring of seepage through the dam body. Visual Inspection and measurement with the measuring devices were also conducted to control the safety of the dam. As a result, it was found that zoned structures inside the dam such as a newly built embankment, an existing embankment, and drain are zones each having a different resistivity value. In addition, since the area where the resistivity …

The Tale Of Two Slides, W. Ken Beck

International Conference on Case Histories in Geotechnical Engineering

Why do some residential structures slide downhill? This paper illustrates how a residential developer and home builder did not appreciate the geotechnical aspects of developing on a steep hillside, even when the site is within about ¼ mile of a known slide, and previous problems occurred at the site. Due to this indifference, the house in this study was constructed over an apparent previous slide, and destroyed by renewed slope movement. Our study was performed on behalf of the city who maintains both sanitary and storm sewers adjacent to the house. The purpose of our investigation was to determine the …

Use Of Geofabrics For Controlling Landslides − Case Histories, Dipak Mukherjee, Satish Kumar

International Conference on Case Histories in Geotechnical Engineering

Four case histories on erosion and rock fall control by the use of natural and synthetic geogrids are described. Each of the affected area was analysed and treated adopting different techniques of installation of geofabrics mantle as control measures which resulted in significant improvement of slope stability. Treatment also helped in maintaining ecological balance of the hills.

Investigation Of Ground Cracking At The Van Gogh Street School, Granada Hills, California, Gerald Kasman, Marshall Lew, Paul Elliott

International Conference on Case Histories in Geotechnical Engineering

The Van Gogh Street School, located in the northern portion of the San Fernando Valley in the City of Los Angeles, suffered damage from the January 17, 1994 Northridge earthquake having a moment magnitude of 6.7. The school experienced significant cracking in some of the building walls and asphalt paving. The school, located approximately 7 miles from the epicenter, was within a zone of surface cracking coincident with the east-northeast to northeast trending Mission Hills syncline. There was speculation that either fault rupture, liquefaction and/or seismic settlement may have occurred at the school site.

A geotechnical investigation was performed to …

Lateral Loading Tests In The Pit For A Large-Diameter Deep Pile, Takahiro Sakata, Kenji Matsui, Yoshito Maeda, Hidetoshi Ochiai

International Conference on Case Histories in Geotechnical Engineering

Although the ground supporting the foundation can be regarded as three-dimensional nonlinear continuous body, in design, grounds are modeled as linear elastic springs. However, in reality, grounds exhibit nonlinear load-displacement (ρ-δ) characteristics. In Specifications for Highway Bridges (Japan Road Association, 1994), ground reaction coefficient is defined as the secant slope of noticeable displacement and load intensity on ρ-δ curve corrected according to width of foundation. For the purpose of examining the scale effect of large-diameter pile, this paper presents a study on scale effect of lateral ground reaction coefficient based on results of lateral loading tests performed using large loading …

Morphoseismic Features In The New Madrid Seismic Zone (Central Usa) And Their Implications For Geotechnical Engineering, Ray Knox, David Stewart

International Conference on Case Histories in Geotechnical Engineering

Morphoseismic features arc new landforms produced by earthquakes or pre-existing landforms modified by them. The New Madrid Seismic Zone (NMSZ) contains thousands of earthquake-related surface features distributed over 13,000 square kilometers. They are attributable to some combination of (1) seismically-induced liquefaction, (2) secondary deformation, and (3) seismically-induced slope failures. Most were produced by the series of great earthquakes that occurred in 1811-12, but some predate and some postdate those events. They are being modified by ongoing activities such a fluvial processes, mass wasting, eolian processes, hydrologically-induced liquefaction (HIL), mechanically-induced liquefaction (MJL), and human activities.

Dynamic responses to ground motion include …

Results Of Dynamic Testing On Friction H-Piles, Carlos M. Sevilla, Joseph M. Gilroy, John Jenkins

International Conference on Case Histories in Geotechnical Engineering

A case history on the design and installation of pile foundations for support two taxiway bridges at the MidAmerica Airport is presented. The pile foundations included the use of heavy HP steel piles designed as friction piles embedded in a stiff clayey silt till. Typical pile foundations in the area consist of H-piles or closed-ended pipe piles driven to bedrock. The use of slightly shorter friction piles allowed substantial savings due to the large number of piles required to support the heavily-loaded bridges. An extensive dynamic testing program was performed to measure allowable pile capacities and soil setup. The taxiway …

Soil Dilation And Shear Deformations During Liquefaction, Ahmed-W. Elgamal, Ricardo Dobry, Ender Parra, Zhaohui Yang

International Conference on Case Histories in Geotechnical Engineering

Recent records of seismic site response have documented a salient liquefaction-induced cyclic shear-deformation mechanism. During liquefaction, these ground acceleration records have suggested a possible strong influence of soil-skeleton dilation at large cyclic shear strain excursions. Such phases of dilation can result in significant regain in shear stiffness and strength, leading to: i) associated instances of pore-pressure reduction. ii) appearance of spikes in lateral acceleration records (as a direct consequence of the increased shear resistance), and iii) a strong restraining effect on the magnitude of cyclic and accumulated permanent shear strains. As presented in this study, these response effects are also …

Soil Liquefaction In Nepal-Bihar Earthquake Of August 21, 1988, Shyamal Mukarjee, Bhagwat V. K. Lavania

International Conference on Case Histories in Geotechnical Engineering

Liquefaction of the soil occurred at many places in the Nepal-Bihar earthquake. In the great earthquake of 1934 in this region, there had also been wide spread liquefaction of soil. Analysis for determining the influence of acceleration level, relative density, particle size and depth of soil on liquefiability of soil has been carried out, using the three most commonly used approaches and the difference in the results brought out.

Case Histories And Vibratory Characteristics Of Vibro-Driven Piles, Hideo Tsuboi, Tamotsu Matsui

International Conference on Case Histories in Geotechnical Engineering

The vibratory characteristics of vibro-driven piles into the ground have not so far been discussed systematically in detail. This paper concerns the results of monitoring vibro-driven piles in various types of ground. In order to assess the monitoring of vibration performance, time-series monitoring data on the reaction force at the pile tip and the vibratory acceleration of the pile top are analyzed in relation with the soil profiles of four monitoring sites. As the result, it has been elucidated that the pile tip reaction force and vibratory acceleration are systematically presented by the dynamic force and the mass weight of …

Ground Vibrations Isolation By Pc Wall-Piles, Kiyoshi Hayakawa, Yukihiko Kani, Noriyuki Matsubara, Tamotsu Matsui, Richard Woods

International Conference on Case Histories in Geotechnical Engineering

This paper presents the results of a series of experiments conducted on a PC wall-piles barrier. That barrier was built alongside a road passing through some sensitive sites, to assess its effectiveness in isolating vibration caused by running trains and dropping a weight. Then the effectiveness of PC wall-piles for controlling ground vibrations is discussed. Field measurements were performed for 5 cases having different types of PC wall-piles. The simultaneous measurement of vibration was performed at several selected points on the ground. Finally, a method for estimation of vibration reduction by PC wall-piles was developed, being based on wave penetration …

On Prediction Of Dynamic Response Of Horizontal Vibrations, Shamsher Prakash, Damodaran Nampoothiri

International Conference on Case Histories in Geotechnical Engineering

The coupled horizontal sliding and rocking response of block foundations, subjected to a ham1onic horizontal force or a moment or both has been determined. Computed response have been compared with that from an experimental study carried out by Kovak and Beredugo (1971, 1972). The computed values do not match the measured response. The computed stiffness and damping were modified to match the measured response. More analysis of experimental data is needed to determine necessary correction factors.

Predictions Of Vertically Vibrating Foundation Response With Modified Radiation Damping, Shamsher Prakash, Y. Tseng

International Conference on Case Histories in Geotechnical Engineering

A simple solution technique for evaluating the response of a surface or embedded foundation under vertical vibrations in a homogeneous soil has been developed. The effects of soil nonlinearity on shear modulus and material damping, frequency on stiffness and radiation damping, and embedment of foundation on stiffness and radiation damping have been considered. A computer program has been developed based on the Elastic Half Space (EHS) analog technique (Lysmer and Richart, 1966), to compute the response amplitude of both surface and embedded footings. The computed response has been verified by comparing it with measured data from Novak (1970). The predicted …

Test Track Low Frequency Vibrations Reducing Measure Near Oosthuizen, Herke G. Stuit

International Conference on Case Histories in Geotechnical Engineering

At the railway line north of Amsterdam the substructure of the track has been reconstructed to reduce vibrations at lower frequencies. Such a measure is sought for in the western Holland area where people are annoyed by railway traffic vibrations. Over a length of 300 m a 0.45 m thick concrete slab has been installed directly under the ballast layer. The thickness of the concrete plate has been determined by numerical calculations. To be able to compare the effect of the concrete slap a existing track with heavy passenger train traffic a representative weak soil profile has been chosen for …

Vibration Mitigation For Brewery Stockhouse Demolition, William J. Prosser, Thomas J. Mottin, George M. S. Manyando, Gary M. Andruska

International Conference on Case Histories in Geotechnical Engineering

Nineteen thirty's vintage reinforced concrete brewery stockhouses, collectively known as Borsari Cellars, were demolished to make space for the construction of a new stockhouse. (A brewery stockhouse is a refrigerated building containing beer storage or aging tanks.) The stockhouses to be demolished shared three common walls with two other stockhouses which were to remain intact during the demolition. It was necessary that the three shared walls remain attached to the remaining stockhouses and that the demolition take place without causing vibration damage to glass-lined tanks in the remaining stockhouse, adjacent stockhouscs, and to several underground tunnels present below the demolition …

Behavior Of Double-Row Pile Retaining Structure For Deep Excavation In Soft Clay, Yuanqiang Cai, Shiming Wu, Yunmin Chen, Changjie Xu

International Conference on Case Histories in Geotechnical Engineering

An excavation of 10.5m deep and 110m x 70m in plane with double-row pile retaining structure in soft clay has been completed, which is of severa1 advantages, such as elimination of lateral deflection and ground surface settlement, low cost and short duration of excavation. This paper presents tile design considerations, procedure of construction and excavation, behavior of this type of retaining structure. The FEM analysis has been carried for prediction of lateral deflection and stress, the results from FEM method conformed well with field measurement, some conclusions drawn from the design and construction Mil be valuable for future construction in …