Engineering Commons^™

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 …

Excavation Behaviour Of Soft Marine Clay Deposit In South Korea, Young-Nam Lee, Seung-Won Lee

International Conference on Case Histories in Geotechnical Engineering

In this paper, it is demonstrated that the shear strength of soil around jet grouting pile may be increased with the elapsed curing time of grouting cement. Because soil around pile initially experiences the disturbance due to the jet grouting work process, the soil gains the strength as grouting cement is cured and the soil is stabilized. In addition, excavation behaviour of marine clay at sheet pile wall and strut excavation site is analyzed using measured data from inclinometers, load cells, and strain gauges. The time to install supporting system and not only depth to but also area of excavation …

Passive Earth Pressure Tests On An Integral Bridge Abutment, Theodore A. Thomas Jr., Alan J. Lutenegger

International Conference on Case Histories in Geotechnical Engineering

Passive loading tests were conducted on a rigid concrete retaining wall to study the effect of wingwall orientation on lateral earth pressure development. Loads were applied at the top of the wall to produce a rotational wall movement. Six tests were conducted (three of which are described herein), two with the wingwalls oriented parallel (0°) to the main wall, and two with the wingwalls oriented at an angle of 45° to the main wall, and two with the wingwalls oriented at an angle of 90° to the main wall. Based on these tests the distribution of passive earth pressure at …

Prediction And Performances Of Short Embedded Cast In-Situ Diaphragm Wall For Deep Excavation In Bangkok Subsoil, Wanchai Teparaksa, Narong Thasnanipan, Aung Win Maung, Wei Shixin

International Conference on Case Histories in Geotechnical Engineering

This paper presents a case history of performances and predictions of a diaphragm wall which is subject to serve differently from its initial purpose for which the wall was constructed. The updated requirements associated with the additional excavation created a situation whereby the wall would become short embedded and behave like free-end supported wall. As the wall had been already constructed during the time of modification it was only possible to modify the excavation method and bracing system. Accordingly, the wall stability and possible toe movement were analyzed, to accommodate the updated requirements, by using finite element methods. Continuous inclinometer …

Shoring Analysis, Design And Construction At The Seattle Symphony's Benaroya Hall, Carole L.B. Mitchell, Monique A. Nykamp

International Conference on Case Histories in Geotechnical Engineering

Complex loading and geometry conditions controlled the design of the shoring wall system at Benaroya Hall, the new home of the Seattle Symphony. A combined system, including three soldier pile and tieback walls and one soil nail wall, was used to shore an excavation that ranged from 15 to 50 feet deep. A 25-foot-wide block of soil remained between the soil nail wall face and an existing, underground bus station. Prior to designing the soil nail wall, a finite difference analysis was performed to determine potential movements of the station due to the excavation. The deflection estimates from the finite …

Soil Nailing: The Modot Experience, Kevin W. Mclain

International Conference on Case Histories in Geotechnical Engineering

Soil nailing is a construction technique that is used to strengthen existing ground by installing grouted steel bars into the ground at closely spaced intervals. This increases the shear strength of the in-situ soil so that successive excavation lifts from top down can be made. The Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT) has overseen the construction of two temporary soil nail walls in the St. Louis metro area and one permanent wall in the Kansas City metro area. All three projects involved roadway widening under existing overpasses, which required the removal of the soil berm and construction of a soil nail …

Analysis And Performance Of The Natm Excavation Of An Underground Station For The Athens Metro, Michael Kavvadas

International Conference on Case Histories in Geotechnical Engineering

The paper describes the design methods and summarises the results of the analyses for the recent NA TM excavation of an underground station of the Athens Metro. The non-linear finite element calculations show that for the excavation method used (twin side-wall galleries and a central pillar), the settlements at ground surface are very sensitive to the assumed values of the ground properties as well as the excavation sequence and construction details; it is shown that the settlements can be reduced significantly by increasing the number of the excavation stages and the density of the temporary support measures.

Case Histories Of Designing Tunnel Linings In Seismic Regions, Nina N. Fotieva, Nikolay S. Bulychev

International Conference on Case Histories in Geotechnical Engineering

The original approach to the problem of designing tunnel linings upon the seismic effects consisting in the determination of the most unfavourable stress state in the every lining normal section at different combinations and any directions of long longitudinal and shear waves propagating in the plane of the lining cross-section is described in the paper presented. The analytical methods and corresponding computer programs based on that approach have been developed for the design of tunnel linings of an arbitrary cross-section shape, circular linings inducting the multi-layer ones of the complex of parallel mutually influencing tunnels etc. Two case histories of …

Design, Construction And Monitoring For The Excavation Of Shanghai World Plaza, B. Huang, L. Mohammad, Jianming Zhu, Xiaoping Zhu

International Conference on Case Histories in Geotechnical Engineering

The Shanghai World Plaza is a multi-function building located in Shanghai Pudong New Development Area. It is a steel structure with thirty eight stories (199m) above the ground and three stories of basement. The excavation area of this building is 75m by 100m. The depth of the excavation is 16m to 18m (kernel part). The construction site is covered with soft soils up to a depth of 25m. Main streets, pipelines and existing buildings surround the site. The retaining structure employs a diaphragm with 1m in thickness, 30m in depth and 340m in total length. Three levels of H shaped …