Seismic Performance of Underground Reservoir Structures: Insight from Centrifuge Modeling on the Influence of Backfill Soil Type and Geometry
Publication: Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 142, Issue 11
Abstract
The seismic response of underground reservoir structures is a complex soil–structure interaction problem that depends on the properties of the earthquake motion, surrounding soil, and structure. More experimental and field data of the response of these structures under different boundary conditions are needed to validate analytical and numerical tools. This paper presents the results of four centrifuge experiments that investigate the seismic performance of reservoir structures, restrained from rotational movement at their roof and floor, buried in dry, medium-dense sand and compacted, partially saturated, silty sand. This study focuses on the influence of backfill soil properties, cover, and slope on accelerations, strains, lateral distortions, and lateral earth pressures experienced by the buried structure. The structure to far-field acceleration spectral ratios were observed to approach unity with added soil confinement, density, and stiffness. Both dynamic thrust and accelerations on the structure showed a peak near the effective fundamental frequency of the backfill soil. The addition of a shallow soil cover and stiffness slightly increased seismic earth pressures and moved their centroid upward, hence slightly amplifying seismic moments near the base. The added stiffness, density, and apparent cohesion of the compacted site-specific soil did not influence the magnitude of dynamic earth pressures significantly but often moved their centroid upward. A sloping backfill reduced the earth pressures and bending moments near the top of the wall because of the reduced soil mass. The trends in the experimental results indicate that new analytical procedures and design guidelines are needed to account for the backfill soil conditions and ground motions for which these underground structures must be designed.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) for financial support of this research. They would also like to thank Drs. Min Zhang and Majid Ghayoomi for their support in the planning and execution of the centrifuge experiments.
References
Ancheta, T. D., et al. (2013). “PEER NGA-West 2 database.”, Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research Center, Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA.
Anderson, D. G., Martin, G. R., Lam, I. P., and Wang, J. N. (2008). “Seismic design and analysis of retaining walls, buried structures, slopes and embankments.”, Transportation Research Board, National Cooperative Highway Research Program, Washington, DC.
ASTM. (2007a). “Standard test method for particle-size analysis of soils.” ASTM D422, West Conshohocken, PA.
ASTM. (2007b). “Standard test methods for laboratory compaction characteristics of soil using modified effort.” ASTM D1557, West Conshohocken, PA.
ASTM. (2011). “Standard test method for direct shear test of soils under consolidated drained conditions.” ASTM D3080, West Conshohocken, PA.
Brandenberg, S. J., Mylonakis, G., and Stewart, J. P. (2015). “Kinematic framework for evaluating seismic earth pressures on retaining walls.” J. Geotech. Geoenviron. Eng., 04015031.
Candia, G., and Sitar, N. (2013). “Seismic earth pressures on retaining structures in cohesive soils.” California Dept. of Transportation, Univ. of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA.
Chen, W. F., and Liu, X. L. (1990). Limit analysis in soil mechanics, Elsevier, Amsterdam, Netherlands.
Cilingir, U., and Madabhushi, S. G. (2011). “Effect of depth on the seismic response of square tunnels.” Soils Found., 51(3), 449–457.
Das, B. M., and Puri, V. K. (1996). “Static and dynamic active earth pressure.” Geotech. Geol. Eng., 14(4), 353–366.
Dashti, S., Gillis, K., Ghayoomi, M., and Hashash, Y. (2012). “Sensing of lateral seismic earth pressures in geotechnical centrifuge modeling.” Proc., 15th World Conf. on Earthquake Engineering, Sociedade Portuguesa de Engenharia Sísmica (SPES), Lisbon, Portugal, 1–10.
Davis, C. A. (2003). “Lateral seismic pressures for design of rigid underground lifeline structures.” Proc., 6th U.S. Conf. on Lifeline Earthquake Engineering, ASCE, Reston, VA, 1001–1010.
El Ganainy, H., Tessari, A., Abdoun, T., and Sasanakul, I. (2014). “Tactile pressure sensors in centrifuge testing.” Geotech. Test. J., 37(1), 1–13.
Gazetas, G., Psarropoulos, P. N., Anastasopoulos, I., and Gerolymos, N. (2004). “Seismic behavior of flexible retaining systems subjected to short-duration moderately strong excitation.” Soil Dyn. Earthquake Eng., 24(7), 537–550.
Ghayoomi, M., Dashti, S., and McCartney, J. S. (2013). “Performance of a transparent flexible shear beam container for geotechnical centrifuge modeling of dynamic problems.” Soil Dyn. Earthquake Eng., 53(10), 230–239.
Gillis, K., Dashti, S., and Hashash, Y. (2015). “Dynamic calibration of tactile sensors for measurement of soil pressures in centrifuge.” ASTM Geotech. Test. J., 38(3), 261–274.
Harounian, A., Davis, C. A., Lew, M., and Hudson, M. B. (2014). “Beyond code-based design: Use of advanced numerical modeling to support design of Los Angeles’s headworks reservoir.” Proc., 2014 Geo-Congress, ASCE, Reston, VA, 3044–3053.
Hushmand, A., et al. (2014). “Seismic soil-structure interaction and lateral earth pressures on buried reservoir structure.” Proc., GeoCongress 2014 (GSP 234), ASCE, Reston, VA, 1215–1224.
Hushmand, A., et al. (2016). “Seismic performance of underground reservoir structures: Insight from centrifuge modeling on the influence of structure stiffness.” J. Geotech. Geoenviron. Eng., 04016020.
Ketcham, S. A., Ko, H. Y., and Sture, S. (1991). “Performance of an earthquake motion simulator for a small geotechnical centrifuge.” Centrifuge 91, H. Y. Ko and F. G. McLean, eds., Balkema, Rotterdam, Netherlands, 361–368.
Ko, H. Y. (1988). “The Colorado centrifuge facility.” Centrifuge 88, J. F. Corte, ed., Balkema, Rotterdam, Netherlands, 73–75.
Lu, N., and Likos, W. J. (2006). “Suction stress characteristic curve for unsaturated soil.” J. Geotech. Geoenviron. Eng., 131–142.
Mikola, R. (2012). “Seismic earth pressures on retaining structures and basement walls in cohesionless soils.” Ph.D. thesis, Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA.
Mononobe, N., and Matsuo, M. (1929). “On the determination of earth pressures during earthquakes.” Proc., World Engineering Congress, Vol. 9, Engineering Society of Japan, Tokyo, 179–187.
Okabe, S. (1926). “General theory of earth pressure.” J. Jpn. Soc. Civ. Eng., 12(1), 311.
Psarropoulos, P. N., Klonaris, G., and Gazetas, G. (2005). “Seismic earth pressures on rigid and flexible retaining walls.” Int. J. Soil Dyn. Earthquake Eng., 25(7), 795–809.
Richards, R., Huang, C., and Fishman, K. L. (1999). “Seismic earth pressure on retaining structures.” J. Geotech. Geoenviron. Eng., 125(9), 771–778.
Roth, W. H., Mehrain, M., Su, B., and Davis, C. A. (2010). “The meaning of seismic earth pressure.” Annual SEAOC Convention, Association of California, Structural Engineers Association of California, Sacramento, CA, 511–522.
Seed, H. B., and Whitman, R. V. (1970). “Design of earth retaining structures for dynamic loads.” ASCE Specialty Conf., Lateral Stresses in the Ground and Design of Earth Retaining Structures, ASCE, New York, 103–147.
Tekscan. (2003). “Tekscan I-scan equilibration and calibration practical suggestions.” South Boston.
Veletsos, A. S., and Younan, A. H. (1994). “Dynamic modeling and response of soil-wall systems.” J. Geogr. Eng., 120(12), 2155–2179.
Wang, J. N. (1993). Seismic design of tunnels: A state-of-the-art approach, Parsons Brinckerhoff Quade & Douglas, Inc, New York.
Wilson, P. (2009). “Large scale passive force-displacement and dynamic earth pressure experiments and simulations.” Ph.D. thesis, Univ. of California, San Diego.
Wilson, P., and Elgamal, A. (2015). “Shake table lateral earth pressure testing with dense c-ϕ backfill.” Soil Dyn. Earthquake Eng., 71, 13–26.
Wood, J. H. (1973). “Earthquake induced soil pressures on structures.” Ph.D. thesis, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA.
Youd, T. L., and Beckman, C. J. (1996). “Highway culvert performance during past earthquakes.”, National Center for Earthquake Engineering Research, Buffalo, NY.
Zhai, E., Davis, C. A., Yan, L., and Hu, J. (2014). “Numerical simulations of geotechnical centrifuge modeling of seismic earth pressures on an underground restrained structure.” Int. Efforts in Lifeline Earthquake Engineering, ASCE, Reston, VA, 369–376.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 142 • Issue 11 • November 2016
Copyright
© 2016 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Aug 12, 2015
Accepted: Mar 22, 2016
Published online: Jun 16, 2016
Published in print: Nov 1, 2016
Discussion open until: Nov 16, 2016
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.