Low height embankments are widely used as road embankments for highways and rural roads in India. Sometimes, the construction of such types of embankments on soft foundation soil becomes mandatory.... Show More

Low height embankments are widely used as road embankments for highways and rural roads in India. Sometimes, the construction of such types of embankments on soft foundation soil becomes mandatory. In addition to the problematic soft foundation soil, seismic excitation might also play a significant role in the stability of such an embankment. The present study analyses the response of a low height embankment with soft foundation soil under earthquake loading. Numerical simulations have been performed using FLAC2D program. A stiffer half-space with higher shear wave velocity (Vs) has been considered below the soft foundation soil and the earthquake loading has been applied at the bottom of this stiffer half-space. Simulation has been performed considering two different thicknesses of soft foundation soil. In addition to that, three different levels of earthquake shaking and Vs of the stiffer half-space have been considered in the analysis. Results have been presented in the form of PGA amplification, excess pore water pressure, horizontal, vertical static/seismic displacement, etc.

On a Winkler foundation, solid circular plate vibration is examined using a higher-order finite element in polar co-ordinate system. The present formulation has developed a Mat-lab code to handle... Show More

On a Winkler foundation, solid circular plate vibration is examined using a higher-order finite element in polar co-ordinate system. The present formulation has developed a Mat-lab code to handle any boundary conditions. Validation of the code is carried out after the convergence studies. The results are compared to other researchers and show excellent conformity. Furthermore, a parametric analysis gave the first 10 natural frequency characteristics in tabular and graphical form. The authors conclude that the present formulation is straightforward, behaves exceptionally well for thin solid circular plates on elastic foundations with reasonable convergence rate and accuracy, and requires less computational effort, resources, and time.

Liquefaction susceptibility of river channel deposit in Kolkata city is studied using laboratory cyclic triaxial tests. River channel deposit, which supports a large part of rapidly growing... Show More

Liquefaction susceptibility of river channel deposit in Kolkata city is studied using laboratory cyclic triaxial tests. River channel deposit, which supports a large part of rapidly growing urbanization of Kolkata city, mainly consists of sandy soil with little amount of silt. Cyclic triaxial tests have been performed on this soil sample with varying relative density, confining pressure, and cyclic strain amplitude. Results are presented to show how these parameters influence the pore water pressure generation within soil. Relative density, confining pressure and cyclic strain amplitude are found to affect the pore pressure generation characteristics in the soil, and the number of cycles required to reach liquefaction phenomena vary significantly. Finally, pore pressure generation characteristics are modeled using a hyperbolic model and a pore pressure generation equation is proposed for the typical river channel deposit soil. The model exhibits a certain threshold value of cyclic strain amplitude, up to which the initial rate of pore pressure generation decreases and then increases.