Search results for "Geotechnical engineering"
showing 10 items of 489 documents
Origin of Blue Sapphire in Newly Discovered Spinel–Chlorite–Muscovite Rocks within Meta-Ultramafites of Ilmen Mountains, South Urals of Russia: Evide…
2019
Blue sapphire of gem quality was recently discovered in spinel&ndash
Recycled aggregates derived from excavation materials — mechanical performance and identification of weak minerals
2022
AbstractThe present study investigates the mechanical performance of recycled aggregates derived from excavation materials (REM). REM is blended with different quantities of recycled phyllite materials (RPM) and is investigated by Los Angeles (LA) and micro-Deval (MD) tests. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and acid solubility test are performed on the pulverized fractions < 1.6 mm obtained from the LA and MD tests to assess the respective degree of fragmentation and wear of mineral components. The results of the materials in unblended conditions showed considerable difference between MD performance while similar performance was found for LA. Furthermore, about 40% of RPM was sufficient to blend …
Cluster analysis to support microzonation studies
2015
In recent times the use of microtremor techniques for subsoil investigation increased significantly. The use of HVSR (Horizontal to Vertical Spectral Ratio)technique for seismic microzoning studies allows in many case to obtain detailed reconstruction of the roof of the seismic bedrock and to identify areas with similar seismic behaviour. Two different algorithms of clusteringhave been tested on a HVSR datasets acquired for studies of seismic microzoning in various Sicilian urban centers. HVSR data were previously properly processed to extract frequency and amplitude of peaks by a code based on clustering of HVSR curves determined in sliding time windows.To select an optimal set of time win…
Assessment of the Reliability of the SPAC Method in Urban Areas
2015
We have carried out several long-term measures of seismic noise with triangular arrays of broad-band seismic sensors, to investigate the reliability of the SPAC method in urban areas. We investigate the stationary and anisotropy of the microtremor wave field. We have found that the anisotropy of the microtremor wave field can be evaluated analyzing the HVNSR as function the azimuth. Furthermore, we showed as strong anisotropies in the microtremors are often observable in particular at high frequencies (> 1 Hz). We have verified as microtremors can be difficult to considered as ergodic processes, and for this reason time averaging, also even over a long periods of time, cannot replace an app…
On the stationarity of the horizontal to vertical noise spectral ratio
2015
The Horizontal to Vertical Noise Spectral Ratio (HVNSR) method is nowadays widely used to estimate the resonance frequencies of geological structures. In the HVNSR method, seismic noise is considered as a stationary stochastic process. However, especially in industrialized/urbanized area, this is a very strict assumption seldom occurred. Several sources of noise can generate non stationary and anisotropic microtremor fields. To investigate the stationarity of microtremor, we have carried out several long-term measures of seismic noise with broad-band seismic sensors, in areas where the main source of anthropogenic noise is well known. The signals acquired have been analyzed both in frequenc…
Comparison of different acquisition patterns for 2D tomographic resistivity surveys
2015
A systematic comparison is presented between some 2D resistivity models and their images by the inversion of synthetic datasets relating to three different arrays, suitable for multichannel data acquisitions (dipole-dipole (DD), Wenner-Schlumberger (WS) and multiple gradient (MG)). The goal is to study how the measurement errors affects the resolution of the tomographic models and the ability to retrieve correct information on buried targets. We considered different data acquisition patterns, gradually increasing the complexity of the combinations of potential spacing and dipolar distance. To this end we increased the number of current dipoles to obtain approximately the same amount of meas…
Seismic investigation for the characterization of a gravity concrete dam
2016
Monitoring of large-scale infrastructures plays an important role for public safety and prevention. The control of the safety assessment of a dam is largely dependent on knowledge of the mechanical parameters of the actual construction, as well as its geological substratum. The application of geophysical methods can considerably contribute to the examination indicating the less consolidated material and the degradation of mechanical parameters. A seismic tomographic approach has been used in a typical gravity concrete dam without reinforcement to detect mechanical properties of the body of the dam and its geological setting. Three seismic travel time tomographies in the dam body as well as …
Parameters affecting the fundamental period of infilled RC frame structures
2015
Despite the fact that the fundamental period appears to be one of the most critical parameters for the seismic design of structures according to the modal superposition method, the so far available in the literature proposals for its estimation are often conflicting with each other making their use uncertain. Furthermore, the majority of these proposals do not take into account the presence of infills walls into the structure despite the fact that infill walls increase the stiffness and mass of structure leading to significant changes in the fundamental period numerical value. Toward this end, this paper presents a detailed and in-depth analytical investigation on the parameters that affect…
Multivariate statistical analysis for water demand modelling: implementation, performance analysis, and comparison with the PRP model
2015
Water demand is the driving force behind hydraulic dynamics in water distribution systems. Consequently, it is crucial to accurately estimate the actual water use to develop reliable simulation models. In this study, copula-based multivariate analysis was proposed and used for demand prediction for a given return period. The analysis was applied to water consumption data collected in the water distribution network of Palermo (Italy). The approach produced consistent demand patterns and could be a powerful tool when coupled with water distribution network models for design or analysis problems. The results were compared with those obtained using a classical water demand model, the Poisson re…
Rockburst induced ground motion—a comparative study
2004
Abstract While rockbursts from underground copper mining in Western Poland normally produce surface peak ground accelerations (PGA) and velocities of 0.05–0.1 g and 1–3 cm/s, occasionally these peak motions may exceed 0.15 g and 10 cm/s, respectively. These larger motions are of considerable concern and an investigation has been undertaken to define the nature of these larger induced ground motions. This paper compares these rockburst motions with low intensity earthquakes. Various strong motion parameters such as PGA, peak ground velocity (PGV) and displacements as well as strong motion duration, Arias intensity, Fourier and response spectra are compared with those from earthquakes. It is …