Steel sheet pile joints are investigated to determine their permeability behavior. A suitable definition is obtained for the permeability. A testing rig is described and tests on 10 different joint filler materials are reported. The results show significant time-dependent and joint-dependent features. These are explored and conclusions on both water swelling and bituminous materials are noted. A case study gives a design example as well as suggestions on how a safety factor can be implemented.

The advection-dispersion equation is often used to describe subsurface contaminant solute transport in a homogeneous, isotropic, and saturated geologic porous medium. An analytical solution to the equation has been developed by Ogata assuming the domain of space is extended from zero to infinity. However, the length of the column of geologic porous medium used in laboratory experimental studies is always finite. Criteria for applicability of the solution in analyzing experimental data obtained from column experiments are established in this paper. The velocity of the 50% concentration point of the concentration profile is often erroneously taken as the retarded advective velocity of the contaminant solute to determine the retardation factor and distribution coefficient of the contaminant between the solid and liquid phases. The error is carefully investigated for different boundary conditions of the experiments and necessary corrections are recommended. Detailed procedures for different applications of the developed correction charts are also presented in this paper.

Bentonite was exposed to aniline through batch experiments and flexible wall conductivity tests. The mineralogy and microstructure of the samples were studied using X-ray diffraction, infrared spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and mercury intrusion porosimetry, before and after aniline exposure. Results indicated that the mineralogical structure of the clay mineral was unaffected by the exposure to aniline, despite evidence that aniline adsorbed onto bentonite upon contact. Tests on sand-bentonite composites showed that the sample with a larger fraction of clay had a greater proportion of fine pores ( <50 μm), thus a lower conductivity to aniline. This is attributed to the phenomenon of the two phase immiscible flow. The conductivity of sand-bentonite composites to aniline appears to be controlled by the soil's pore structure; the amount of bentonite controls the pore size distribution of the sample.

Finite-element simulations using a large-strain thaw-consolidation model, formulated by the writers, are presented and compared with the data obtained from a warm-oil test pipeline at Inuvik, Northwest Territory, Canada. Nondimensional design charts generated by the method are used to predict thaw-consolidation settlements. A good agreement is found between observed and predicted settlement values giving encouragement for future thaw-settlement predictions, based on finite-element-generated nondimensional charts.

U.S. federal regulations require that municipal solid-waste landfills located in seismic impact zones be designed to resist earthquake hazards. However, due to the lack of well-documented case histories, analytical procedures for evaluating the seismic performance of waste fills are not well established. Typically, procedures that were developed to analyze the seismic stability of earth embankments are applied to landfills, but waste fills are significantly different from earth embankments. In this paper, the application of pseudostatic stability and seismically induced deformation analyses to waste fills is assessed. The results of one-dimensional wave propagation analyses indicate that the seismic stability of waste fills depends primarily on the dynamic properties and height of the waste fill, and the characteristics of the design bedrock motions (intensity, frequency content, and duration). For many cases in which the waste fill's fundamental period is at least two times higher than the design bedrock motion's predominant period, the maximum horizontal equivalent acceleration will be less than about half of the bedrock maximum horizontal acceleration.

Two techniques for stability analysis of reinforced soil structures are presented. In the first one, called the continuum approach here, the reinforced soil is first homogenized, and the slip-line method is used to find the limit stress field in an anisotropic continuum. The second, structural approach, considers reinforcement and granular fill as two separate structural components, and the kinematical method of limit analysis is used as the technique of solution. The solutions to critical heights of reinforced slopes are presented as an illustrative example for application of the described techniques. The structural approach proposed here has a clear theoretical interpretation, is easily applicable to any failure patterns, and can be modified to accommodate the nonassociative flow rule for soils. The continuum approach with the slip-line method of solution for stresses was found to be more restrictive and less convenient than the structural approach. The continuum approach is expected to have a wider application, however, in analysis of earth structures with less conventional reinforcements such as continuous filament or for fiber-reinforced soils.

The static undrained behavior of saturated sand is shown to be dilative in triaxial compression, even in the loosest deposited state. However, the behavior in triaxial extension is contractive for relative densities of up to 60%, implying a profound anisotropy of response to undrained loading. On monotonic loading, following liquefaction, the sand always responds in a dilative manner even though it is contractive under static loading. The postliquefaction response represents continuously stiffening behavior and an approach to any residual strength is not observed, regardless of density or effective stress conditions prior to cyclic loading.

The results of torsional shear tests on a normally consolidated marine clay have been analyzed to check the common assumption of colinearity between the principal directions of stress and plastic strain increment. Shear strain increments measured during the tests were divided into elastic and plastic components using three different plastic models: an isotropic hardening model, a kinematic hardening model, and a model in which all shear strain was assumed to be plastic. These three cases are believed to bound the possible divisions, which may be obtained using more sophisticated models. Colinearity was not observed for any of the models over most of the shearing range. All the models indicated that at the onset of yielding, the principal plastic strain increment directions are close to those of stress increment, and they approach those of stress toward failure. A new parameter, psi-ratio, was introduced, defining the principal direction of the plastic strain increment relative to those of the stress and the stress increment. Based on the findings of this investigation, a simple model may be adopted in which the psi-ratio varies from 1 at the onset of yielding (when plastic strain increment and stress increment are assumed to be colinear) to 0 at failure (when plastic strain increment and stress are assumed to be colinear). The psi-ratio is related to the degree of yielding in the soil and, consequently, it may be a useful parameter in studies on the yielding criteria of soils.

A dynamic plane-strain finite-element study of the response of a typical 100-m-tall concrete-faced rockfill (CFR) dam to strong seismic shaking is presented. The rockfill is modeled as an equivalent-linear material, whose strain-dependent shear modulus is proportional to the square root of the confining pressure. Coulomb's friction law governs the behavior of the interface between face slab and dam, and slippage is allowed to occur whenever the seismic shear tractions exceed the pertinent frictional capacity. Two sets of historic accelerograms, with peak ground accelerations (PGA) of about 0.40 g and 0.60 g , respectively, are used as excitation. Numerical results highlight key aspects of the seismic response of CFR dams with emphasis on the internal forces developing in the slab. It is shown that slab distress may be produced only from axial tensile forces, developing due mainly to the rocking component of dam deformation. For the 0.60 g shaking tensile stresses that are much higher than the likely tensile strength of concrete develop in the slab. The presented results do not account for potentially detrimental three-dimensional (3D) narrow-canyon effects.

The main objectives of this paper are to determine if it is feasible to detect and size cracks with the time-domain wave propagation techniques and to recommend the best field-test configuration to be used. The focus is on the geotechnical and geoenvironmental applications. A finite element program was used to model a cracked medium. Several parameters were considered—the location of source and receivers relative to the crack, the depth of the crack, the width of the crack, and the duration of the source impulse. Major parameters that significantly affect the waveforms were identified by performing a sensitivity analysis on each parameter. The most significant feature that can be used to predict the crack is the existence of standing wave energy detected in the waveforms from receivers located relatively close to the downstream end of the crack. The best test setup is obtained when the source and one receiver are located close to the crack on one side of a crack and a second receiver located on the opposite side of the crack at a distance from the crack.

The uniaxial ( K₀) compression of several soil types (loess, limestone powder, cemented sand) is analyzed with special reference to the instability phenomena. According to the K₀ dependence on the axial stress, two kinds of behavior may be discerned: physically isomorphous ( K₀= const) and anisomorphous ( K₀≠ const). The first alternative is confined to the semilogarithmic compression law and exists within a certain interval of behavior. Different sorts of discontinuities in the uniaxial stress path are illustrated by experiments with cemented sand, sagging loess, limestone powder, and brickearth. The dependence of soil structure on the principal state parameter stress takes the form of a gradual destruction of natural brittle bonding, adhesive bonds, and of changes in the fabric and internal stress. The effects can be directly described by a “residual” stress representing the main internal variable.

The potential for collapse due to a reduction in confinement is evaluated for two very different soils: a uniformly graded sand and an undisturbed clayey colluvial soil. Soil specimens were consolidated anisotropically and subjected to constant-shear-drained (CSD) tests. During the CSD test, the effective confining pressure is gradually reduced while the shear stress is held constant. Only for very loose specimens is collapse observed before the failure envelope or steady state is reached. In general, specimens subjected to the CSD stress path behave differently than specimens of similar initial density and confining pressure subjected to typical compression stress paths. This observation indicates that knowledge of the stress path is necessary to accurately predict the collapse potential, and thereby the potential for flow failure, of loose saturated soils.