Journal of Engineering Geology

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Unpredicted and excessive tool wear is a major challenge in some tunnel projects. Due to more need for maintenance, abrasivity problems increese time and cost of excavation activity. A new laboratory test machine has been built in Engineering Geological Laboratory of Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, to obtain a proper view about relation between performance parameters of a TBM and the soil abrasion. In this paper the results of abrasion tests carried out on silica samples, as an abundant hard mineral, by the machin, are presented. Hence 36 tests have been performed on coarse silica sand samples, with various amount of deadweight and rotation speed at different times. The results prove direct relation between time, surcharge and rotation speed versus tool wear. For example a linear relation between tool wear and surcharge or rotation speed was observed. Besides a logarithmic relation was achieved for time effect

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Ground-Penetrating Radar (GPR) is a non-destructive and high-resolution geophysical method which uses high-frequency electromagnetic (EM) wave reflection off buried objects to detect them. In current research this method has been used to identify geometrical parameters of buried cylindrical targets such as tunnel structures. To achieve this aim, relationships between the geometrical parameters of cylindrical targets with the parameters of GPR hyperbolic response have been determined using two intelligent pattern recognition methods known as artificial neural network and template matching. To this goal GPR responses of synthetic cylindrical objects produced by 2D finite-difference method have been used as templates in the neural network and template matching algorithms. The structure of applied neural network has been designed based on extracting discriminant and unique features (eigenvalues and the norm of eigenvalues) from the GPR images and predicting all geometrical parameters of the targets, simultaneously. Also the template matching operation carried out using two diverse similarity approaches, spatial domain convolution and normalized cross correlation in 2D wave number domain. The results of the research show that both two employed intelligent methods can be applied for in situ, real-time, accurate and automatic interpretation of real GPR radargrams, however in general the neural network method has led to less error and better estimation than template matching to predict the geometrical parameters of the cylindrical tar

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Stability and safety of the dam is one of the most important challenges during construction and operation. The aim of this study is to make accurate water table and piezometric heads through embankment and its foundation of the Shahghasem dam which is located near Yasouj city. Applying geostatistical, Simple Kriging, Ordinary Kriging and Weighted Moving Average, interpolation was done using Gaussian, exponential and spherical models. For comprising the results, we use the statistical index including MAE, MBE, RMSE and GSD. Results indicate that Simple Kriging with Gaussian model is the best one, while Ordinary Kriging with Gaussian model and Ordinary Kriging with spherical model are in the next order. The Weighted Moving Average method with different exponents shows a significant error comparing to other methods. As a result, the depicted maps display a cavity through foundation near right abutment of the dam. Finally, existence of probable cavity in foundation may cause piping and internal erosion

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The use of heavy concrete as a protective shield against high-energy gamma rays is very common. It is also an effective, versatile and economical material. The heavy concrete production can use lead slag as raw materials. The use of lead slag in the production of concrete blocks saves natural resources and reduces the environmental problems caused by the accumulation of industrial waste. However, concrete production, due to the presence of heavy metals with high atomic number can be used as an effective shield against gamma radiation. This study examines the use of lead slag produced in the battery recycling process as concrete aggregates. For this purpose, strength and gamma-ray attenuation coefficient for concrete samples prepared by replacing 40 to 60 percent lead slag instead of natural aggregate. The effect of 1 to 5 percent lead powder in setting time of concrete was measured. The results showed that by increasing the amount of lead slag, density, mechanical strength and gamma-ray attenuation coefficient for concrete samples increased significantly, but lead powder delays setting time of cement paste. In general, appropriate lead slag concrete construction with minimal thickness, reduce the cost of protection and provides the highest level of attenuation

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 The average of shear wave velocity of the upper 30 m has so far been one of the reliable parameters in seismic site classification in different building codes, despite the numerous weaknesses in the exact explanation of site dynamic characteristics. In this study, an empirical relationship is obtained between the average of the shear wave velocity of the upper 30 m and the average of the shear wave velocity of shallower depths, based on 79 shear wave velocity profiles, in Mashhad. This is followed by the recommendation of proper depths for the dynamic analysis of the site effect based on the information of shear wave velocity profiles and resonance period distribution in the investigated area. The depth of the S-wave velocity profile investigation, required for the analysis of deposit effects has been estimated more than 30 m. whith exception of the southern and western parts of Mashhad (adjacent hillsides). Such depth is estimated as about 80 m for central, eastern, and north-eastern areas, where the resonance period is more than 0.7 s. Therefore, investigation depth of 30 m is only adequate for site classification based on the building codes, and for theoretical analysis deeper studies is needed, in Mashhad

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Kerman city and its surrounding towns in terms of morphology, consist of a flat alluvial plain of fine silt and clay materials. These sediments have very gentle slope, and constitute the city's main infrastructure. Natural soils generally are structured by passing times due to the influence of environmental factors. Geological factors in Kerman alluviums have caused fine structure after deposition. This paper studies briefly sedimentary basin Kerman, mineralogical and geotechnical properties of the sediments of these areas.semi-qualitative analysis of samples has shown that the mineral deposits in Kerman are mainly illite, chlorite, smectite and calcite. then In order to evaluate the effect of depositional environments and geological history of the engineering properties of the sediments of the Kerman city, A large number of triaxial tests on reconstituted soil moisture greater than LL and different confining pressures, consolidated drained and consolidated undrained is done . In order to evaluate the applicability of soil behavior in normal conditions and the reconstructed curves and stress - strain sensitive soils and soil structure compared with standard sensitivity and then their resistance have been investigated. The results of triaxial tests can be used to interpret the depositional environments and geological history. Comparing the curves of stress - strain in natural and reconstituted samples indicates that in many cases the behavior of intact and reconstituted soils were similar and cementation and soil structure have not been much development. Also Comparison of electron microscopy images of reconstituted and intact samples, not random arrangement of particular structure and soil compaction within the city limits have confirmed. therefore, soils of Kerman are relatively similar by the influence of depositional environments and geological history. these soils have a lot of structure and cementation and are generally compact and strengthening.

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In tunnelling in soil mass, in groundwater existing mode, liquefaction, elastic displacements and settlement in soils upon the tunnel, are the risks may attack the excavated underground space stability. In this case study that were performed on second line of Mashhad city subway route, information catched from Standard Penetration Test, in situ and laboratorial tests, were used to optimum numerical values search for soil engineering parameters that could optimize the TBM stationing level. In order to this goal attaining, intelligent, numerical and probabilistic methods were used and the reliability of intelligent and numerical methods with the Safety Factors of tunnel stability, investigated simultaneously. The results were denoting the accordance of intelligent models such as Genetic Algorithm (GA) and Multi objective Genetic Algorithm with Finite Element model's output. So these models could be complement of each others in planning and designing of tunnels and using of them advised in tunneling and excavations.

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Strength and durability of sandstones and their influences from natural conditions, are the most important factors which should be considered as engineering materials. In this study, the effect of freeze-thaw and salt crystallization phenomena on strength and durability of upper red formation sandstones collected from southern part of Qazvin province was investigated. Nine specimens of sandstones (specified by A, B, C, CG, S, S1, Tr, Min and Sh) were collected from different part of studied area, then their physical and mechanical characteristics were determined. In order to assessing the effect of freeze-thaw on physical and mechanical characteristics of sandstones, 60 cycles of freeze-thaw test was performed. Also in order to investigate the effect of salt crystallization on strength of studied sandstone, sodium sulphate crystallization test (100% weight solution of Na2SO4) was carried out in 20 cycles. Physical and mechanical characteristics of sandstones such as point load index, Brazilian tensile strength, wave velocity (Vp) and weight loss were computed after different cycles. To evaluate the effect of freeze-thaw and salt crystallization phenomena on durability of sandstones, slake durability test was conducted on specimens subjected to mentioned processes and changes occurred in slake durability index in 15 cycles were investigated. Based on results obtained from current study, it could be concluded that in comparison to freeze-thaw, salt crystallization can considerably reduce the strength and durability of sandstones and deteriorate them. Also it was found that index tests such as point load index, Brazilian tensile strength, wave velocity (Vp) and weight loss can predict the behavior of sandstones in different cycles of freeze-thaw and salt crystallization tests.

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The Sharbyan river is located in the Sharbyan village, Sarab, East Azarbaijan province. This river alluvials are supplied from rock units belonging to Oligo-miocene and Miocene, including conglomerate, sandy lime, limestone, marl and shale. These deposits are used as raw materials of producing hot asphalt in two asphalt plants that have been built in the vicinity of this river, and the produced asphalt is used mainly in the neighbor provinces that have rather cold climate. Combined analysis of the sediments indicate high level of silica, around 60 percent, for which  the prepared asphalt  is prone to stripping phenomenon in the cold seasons. During this process, the moisture penetration in aggregates and asphalt mixtures, causes weakening bitumen-asphalt materials bounding and finally asphalt demolition.  The role of sediments and its impact on the quality of asphalt has not been studied in this area, therefore, the solutions for dealing with this phenomenon is also examined and presented. This study is based on the conventional sedimentology methods, different standards of ASTM, AASHTO and Ministry of Roads and Urban Development guidelines. In this study, the combined effects of hydrated lime (lime filler) and natural filter materials with different proportions was used to deal with the stripping phenomenon, and  the parameters of strength, softness, indirect tensile strength, asphalt quality and durability criteria, have been appraised. The results show that these parameters are improved using additives in various proportions and the produced asphalt quality and durability is better. The results illustrate, when the lime is used in its maximum ratio of 3%, stripping score is 1 and is disappeared by other parameters improvement

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Soil nailing is a prevalent method for temporary or permanent stabilization of excavations which, if it is used for permanent purposes, the seismic study of these structures is important. There are a few physical models, with limited information available, for the study of behavior of soil nailed walls under earthquake loading. Numerical methods may be used for the study of effects of various parameters on the performance of soil nailed walls, and this technique has been used in the current paper. In this research, the effects of various parameters such as the spacing, configuration, and lengths of nails, and the height of wall on seismic displacement of soil nailed walls under the various earthquake excitations were studied. To investigate the effects of the configuration and the lengths of nails on the performance of these structures, two configurations of uniform and variable lengths of nails have been used. To study the effects of the spacing between nails and the height of the wall the spacings of 2 and 1.5 meters and the heights of 14, 20, and 26 meters have been considered. The seismic analysis has been carried out using the finite element software Plaxis 2D. To analyze the lengths' of nails, it was assumed that the safety factors of stability of different models are constant, and the limit equilibrium software GeoSlope was used. After specification of the lengths of nails based on constant safety factor of stability, the deformations of the models under several earthquakes records were analyzed, and recommendations were made on minimizing the deformations of soil nailed walls under seismic loading.

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Because most part of Iran country is located in a dry climate, construction of water conveyance tunnels is inevitable. One of the major challenges in the construction of these tunnels is inflow of water into the tunnel during the construction and operation phase. The Rozieh water conveyance tunnel whose length is 3200 meters is a part of water conveyance project to the Semnan city and it is located 30 k NE of Semnan city. In accordance with the drilled boreholes, the tunnel route has been classified into eight zones from the geotechnical view. Then the permeability coefficients of host rock were calculated using back analysis approach on the basis of numerical simulation results and water inflow quantity during the construction phase. A parametric study was done on the lining and cement injection zone permeability and the thickness of cement injection zone. According to this study, the effect of injection zone thickness variation on the water inflow quantity is negligible. So with the assumption of 3 meters thickness for the injection zone, the permeability coefficient of host rock after injection were evaluated. Dependent on the initial rock permeability, cement injection could reduce the rock permeability 10 to 1000 times. In addition, the water inflow into the tunnel was calculated using hydro-mechanical coupling analysis. According to this analysis, the water inflow calculated by the hydro-mechanical coupling analysis is 50 to 70 percent less than the hydraulic analysis.

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Ground settlement due to tunneling and the effects of the engineering geological factors on its dimensions and extensions, is a very important problem in shallow tunnel excavation projects in urban areas. Empirical method is one of the usual methods to study this subject. The empirical and dimension-less parameters of VL and k are the most important parameters in relation to this method that are estimated according to engineering geological factors. In this research, the values of these parameters were initially estimated based on preceding studies and the ground settlement was predicted using these estimated values of VL and k. In next stage, the results of predictions were compared with the real (measured) settlements happened due to Abuzar tunnel excavation. As the real settlements are less than the predicted ones, it was concluded that the real VL must be lower than the predicted values or the real k must be higher than the predicted values. With regard to the high dependency of these parameters to the soil cohesion, it seems natural cementation of Tehran alluvia has acted as a factor to increase the soil cohesion and has caused to decrease ground settlement due to excavation of Abuzar tunnel. For validation of this hypothesis, preceding findings about alluvia cementation were reviewed and the results of in-situ and laboratory shear and triaxial tests were compared with together. Then it is concluded that the higher cohesions of in-situ shear tests are occurred due to natural cementation of materials existing in Abuzar tunnel route

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Landslides are natural hazards that make a lot of economical and life losses every year. Landslide hazard zonation maps can help to reduce these damages. Taleghan watershed is one the susceptible basin to landslide that has been studied. In this paper, landslide hazard zonation of the study area is performed at a scale of 1:50,000. To achieve this aim, layers information such as landslides distribution, slope, aspect, geology (lithology), distance from the faults and distance from rivers using artificial neural network-based Radial Basis Function (RBF) and perceptron neural network (MLP), has been studied. Principal of RBF method is similar to perceptron neural network (MLP), which its ability somewhat has been identified up to now and there are several structural differences between these two neural networks. The final results showed that the maps obtained from both methods are acceptable but the MLP method has a higher accuracy than the RBF method.

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Consolidated-drained triaxial compression tests were conducted to compare the stress-strain and volume change response of sands and clayey sands reinforced with discrete randomly distributed poly-propylene fibers. The influence of various test parameters such as fiber content (0.0%, 0.5% and 1.0% by weight), clay content (0%, 10% and 20% by weight), relative density (50% and 90%) and confining pressure (100 kPa, 200 kPa and 300 kPa) were investigated. It has been observed that addition of clay particles to the sands decreased the shear strength of samples. Also, increase in clay content reduced dilation and increased compressibility of the mixed soil. Addition of the fiber to both sands and clayey sands samples improved the shear strength and increased ductility and axial strain at failure point. 

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Free vibration of soil often occurs during earthquakes. Since the vibration caused by earthquake does not have (steady state harmonic vibration) continuity, the alluvium vibrates with its natural frequency between two natural seismic waves. This study evaluates the effect of piles on the period of free vibration of a soil layer using numerical method. In the first stage, using analytical equations for calculation of vibration period of a soil layer and a column with continuous mass, the results were analyzed by the software. In the second step, piles with the same dimensions and distance were added step by step, and the vibration period for the soil layer with piles was calculated. The friction or floating effects of the piles on alluvial soil vibration period was also examined. The results show that as the number of piles increases, the differences between the results of one dimensional analysis of alluvium soil and the results of the software become different, and this creates the need for specific arrangements for seismic analysis of this kind of alluvium (with inserted piles). The results also suggest that end-bearing piles have a greater effect on alluvial soil vibration period, and with increased amount of the floating of these piles, these effects decline.

 

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Durability is a significant parameter in engineering geology and it shows the extent of the degradability of rocks as the result of mechanical and chemical breakdowns. This phenomenon is closely linked to the composition, porosity and texture of rocks. To understand the relationship between the chemical composition of rocks and their durability the mineralogical properties of the rocks along with durability tests under both acidic and alkaline pH environments were determined. Five samples of limestone and three samples of marl were analyzed. The results revealed that rocks containing high levels of CaCo3 were affected in the acidic conditions while rocks containing high levels of SiO2 were not affected by variance in the pH of the environment. These second groups of rocks were more dependent on the texture of their constituent minerals.

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Tanks are structures for storing fluids that are made in different sizes, shapes and genera. Today using of tanks for water, petroleum products storage, and industrial wastes, has been developed significantly. The buried rectangular concrete tanks are used for water supply in most cities in our country. Soil-structure interaction is one of the most important issues in seismic behavior of buried tanks. With respects to code 123 that has suggested Mononobe-Okabe equation for dynamic pressure of earthquake excitation, the purpose of this research is to achieve the dynamic pressure of soil during earthquake. The obtained results have been compared to analytical and other experimental researches. Therefore, a series of small-scale experimental tests were conducted using 1g shaking table testing in the laboratory of physical modeling at University of Tehran. The results illustrate that dynamic force and pressure from Mononobe-Okabe and Wood equation are greater than experimental testing results. However Seed-Whitman equation is closer to experimental results.

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Previous earthquakes have shown that topographic irregularities have significant impacts on the site seismic response and increasing structural damage by amplifying seismic responses. Studies on seismic behavior of slope topographic have shown that dynamic response of free field and soil-structure system is severely on the influence of topography shape and soil properties. Angle and height of slope, frequency of excitation, nonlinear behavior of soil and depth of bedrock are other parameters that affect on the response of the entire system. Furthermore the studies have shown that presence of structure adjacent to slope is very effective on variation of seismic behavior pattern of this topography but these studies are very limited. In this study the effect of existing structure adjacent to slope to seismic behavior pattern of slope topography have been investigated. The parameters that have studied in this article comprise slope angle and frequency content of excitation. The results show that the presence of structure adjacent to the slope, causes an increase to the response of free field and transmitting maximum response to distance away from structure position.

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Due to increasing speed and mass of trains and vehicles, the errors arising from utilizing moving force method to obtain dynamic response of bridges cannot be neglected. In this paper, dynamic response of bridges under moving loads is studied. The bridge is modeled as simply-supported Euler-Bernoulli beam. Since in modeling moving loads by moving force method, inertial forces are neglected, this method is valid for a limited range of influential parameters (speed and mass). By considering inertial forces between the moving load and supporting structure, moving mass method can be utilized to extract dynamic governing equations. Numerical results reveal that by increasing speed and mass of the moving load, midpoint dynamic deflection of bridge obtained by two distinct methods differ considerably.  For example, for mass ratio of 0.15 and speed ratio of 0.8, 11 percent difference is observed in midpoint dynamic deflection calculated by two aforementioned methods.

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./files/site1/files/6Extended_Abstract.pdfExtended Abstract
(Paper pages 115-134)
Introduction
Different factors should be considered in investigating soil- structure interaction for which we can refer to underground layers material properties, site shape and topography and entry motion. It has been showed that seismic waves will be reflected and makes more strange seismic waves in comparison with the state of without slope. To investigate the topography effects the various assumptions such as considering the rigid and compliant bedrock, half space, stimulations with different frequencies, slopes with different angles, different heights of slopes, and soil type were evaluated.  In this study topography effects on interstory drift of three structures with steel moment resistant frame system is considered, for this aim 6 combined model of soil- structure and topography is investigated. Three structures of 6, 9 and 12 story placed in near and far from of crest of a slope and 10 earthquake on bedrock has been applied to models. Interstory drift is considered as a criteria for investigating topography effect.
Material and Methods
This paper examines 3 planar steel moment resistant frame (SMRF) which have been previously designed by Karavasilis et al (2007) according to EC3 and EC8. These structures have 3 bays, and 6, 9, 12 stories. The length of each bay and the height of each story are 5 and 3 m, respectively. Furthermore, the amount of dead and live loads are considered in accordance with the current study (Minasidis et al 2014). The study frames were modeled in ABAQUS software in the form of two-dimensional (Figure 2). A36 steel is used in the models and the yield strength of steel is 235 MPa. Modeling of the behavior of steel was implemented using the yield criterion of VON MISES and taking into account the non-linear behavior of materials and Poisson's ratio of 0.3. A kinematic material hardening of 3% is assumed for the nonlinear elements and a Rayleigh damping of 5% is assumed for the first two modes of each frame.
In this study,   a slope with α=20 is considered. The characteristics of the slope and the soil of the region are obtained by borehole in different point based on Ghanbari et al 2011 study.




Figure1. Growth percentage in average amount of interstory drift
The desired slope has a height of 30 m. The depth of the bedrock is considered equal to 60 m. The numerical analyses were performed with the Finite element method, for nonlinear soil with VS=238 m/s, Poisson’s ratio v=0.35 and mass density ρ=1800 kg/m3. Moreover, to estimate the distribution of response, 10 records located on the bedrock (shear wave velocity is more than 650 m/s) have been used. To reduce the near source effect records are selected in such a way that they have no pulse in velocity time history and Distance from source to site greater than 10 km considered
Result
Result showed that interstory drift of structures increases due to topography effects, but this increase varies for different structures and earthquakes. Growth percentage in average amount of interstory drift are 25, 15 and 6 percent for structures with 6, 9 and 12 story respectively. Also for structure 9 and 12 story, interstory drift was decrease in some stories.