Luc Chouinard

Discrete Element and Experimental Investigations of the Earth Pressure Distribution on Cylindrical Shafts

AbstractExperimental and numerical studies have been conducted to investigate the earth pressure distribution on cylindrical shafts in soft ground. A small-scale laboratory setup that involves a mechanically adjustable lining installed in granular material under an axisymmetric condition is first described. The earth pressure acting on the shaft and the surface displacements are measured for different induced wall movements. Numerical modeling is then performed using the discrete element method to allow for the simulation of a large soil displacement and particle rearrangement near the shaft wall. The experimental and numerical results are summarized and compared against previously published theoretical solutions. The shaft-soil interaction is discussed, and conclusions regarding soil failure and the earth pressure distributions in both the radial and circumferential directions are presented.

Three-Dimensional Analysis of Geogrid-Reinforced Soil Using a Finite-Discrete Element Framework

AbstractThree-dimensional analysis of soil-structure interaction problems considering the response at the particle scale level is a challenging numerical modeling problem. An efficient framework that takes advantage of both the finite- and discrete-element approaches to investigate soil-geogrid interactions is described in this paper. The method uses finite elements to model the structural components and discrete particles to model the surrounding soil to reflect the discontinuous nature of the granular material. The coupled framework is used in this study to investigate two geotechnical engineering problems, namely, strip footing over geogrid-reinforced sand and geogrid-reinforced fill over a strong formation containing void. The numerical model is first validated using experimental data and then used to provide new insights into the nature of the three-dimensional interaction between the soil and the geogrid layer.

Microzonation models for Montreal with respect to \(\hbox {V}_\mathrm{S30}\)

The development of seismic microzonation maps is now a prerequisite for performing advanced seismic hazards and seismic risk assessments in urban areas. Current microzonation procedures are based on classifying site response in soil categories based on VS30\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}

Evaluation of Soil–Pipe Interaction under Relative Axial Ground Movement

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Seismic fragility assessment of highway bridges using support vector machines

\end{document}. In many practical cases, information on shear wave velocity is sparse and analysts must resort to other sources of information to develop zonation maps over large regions. For Montreal, Canada, a geostatistical approach combining a large dataset of boreholes, f0\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}

Vulnerability analysis of transmission towers subjected to unbalanced ice loads

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