Dynamic Centrifuge Tests of Soft Clay Reinforced by Soil–Cement Grids
Publication: Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 142, Issue 7
Abstract
A pair of large centrifuge tests was conducted to evaluate the effect of soil-cement grid reinforcement on the seismic response of a deep soft soil profile. The soil profile consisted of a 23-m-thick layer of lightly overconsolidated clay, underlain and overlain by thin layers of dense sand. Each centrifuge model had two separate zones for a total of four different configurations: a zone without reinforcement, a zone with an embedded soil-cement grid that penetrated the lower dense sand layer and had a unit cell area replacement ratio of , a zone with an embedded grid with , and a zone with a floating grid in the upper half of the clay layer with . Models were subjected to 13 shaking events with peak base accelerations ranging from 0.005 to 0.31 g. This paper examines the effect of the soil-cement grids on the global responses of the soil profiles, and the internal interaction between soil-cement grids and their enclosed soils. Nonlinearities in the dynamic responses and interaction mechanisms are examined using (1) time series of accelerations, shaking-induced excess pore-water pressures, and postshaking reconsolidation settlements; (2) response spectra and spectral ratios; (3) back-calculated composite stress-strain responses; (4) analyses of internal stress distributions between the grids and enclosed soils; and (5) dynamic crack detections and posttest crack mapping in the soil-cement grids. The results provide insights on the dynamic performance of soil-cement grids and an archived dataset for evaluating design procedures and numerical analysis methods.
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Acknowledgments
This work was supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) through the George E. Brown, Jr. Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation Research program (NEESR) under Grant No. CMMI-1208117, Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research Center (PEER), Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS), Disaster Prevention Research Institute (DPRI), Kyoto University, and Key Laboratory of Earthquake and Engineering Vibration, Institute of Engineering Mechanics, CEA, China. Operation of the centrifuge facility at the University of California at Davis was supported through the Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation (NEES) under NSF Award Number CMMI-0927178. Any opinions or conclusions expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of any of the above organizations. The authors appreciate the assistance of the staff of the Center for Geotechnical Modeling at UC Davis.
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Published In
Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 142 • Issue 7 • July 2016
Copyright
© 2016 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Aug 29, 2015
Accepted: Dec 16, 2015
Published online: Mar 24, 2016
Published in print: Jul 1, 2016
Discussion open until: Aug 24, 2016
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