Effect of size and depth on capacities of strip footings in limiting settlement approach

Structural and geotechnical engineers very often seek different options while deciding foundation sizes for buildings. In this research, the effect of different sizes and depths of strip footings below existing ground are studied based on the load bearing capacity using Geo5 spread footing software. Only vertical loadings were taken into account for this study. Four different strip footing widths (1.0m, 1.5m, 2.0m and 2.5m) were modeled under three different loads, 260kN, 600kN and 1000kN. The ground profile considered in this work was having a 2.0m thick weak layer at 6.0m below the existing ground level. Results showed that as the depth of footing increases, the depth of influence underneath the footing and settlement decreases. Also, it was noticed that as the footing width increases, the influence zone’s depth below the footing that passing the weak layer increases.

Liquefaction potential assessment of saturated loess

Usually, soils with mainly fine grain-sized content, as loess, are considered to have low liquefaction potential. Regardless of this, many researchers have analyzed and presented much field evidence that silty soil (in particular loess) liquefaction occurred under certain conditions. In Bulgaria, the first loess river terrace (T1) within the Danube River lowland areas is covered by low plasticity silty loess with a thickness of 10–12 m. Тhe groundwater level is often located between 5 m and 8 m in depth so that substantial part of loess deposits are saturated and immersed. Meanwhile, that region of North Bulgaria is under the influence of the Vrancea seismic zone in Romania, which is able to generate strong earthquakes with magnitudes M≥7.0. The present paper aims to assess the liquefaction potential of loess in a ground profile representative of the T1 loess river terraces by the so-called simplified procedure based on SPT, which is incorporated in the software code NovoLiq. The safety factor against liquefaction FSL is estimated at the respective depths in one-dimensional model of the ground profile for free-field conditions at varying peak ground accelerations amax. The critical amax, at which liquefaction of loess is possible according to the assumptions of the applied simplified procedure and the requirements of the National Annex of Bulgaria to Eurocode 8, has been established.

High-Level Controller for High Productivity Earthmoving by Tracked Bulldozers

The bulldozer is a heavy-duty earthmoving machine generating tractive force between its tracks and ground to cut and push soil with an onboard blade. The productivity of the machine is determined by the amount of soil moved per hour, which is influenced by the travel speed and the amount of material carried by the blade. In this paper, we present a high-level controller for a hydraulic bulldozer to drive the machine’s track slip to a value corresponding to maximum soil removal power. The proposed system sets online reference signals for the blade elevation and track velocity to produce a smooth ground profile and high productivity. The primary traction control strategy manipulates the load on the machine by blade adjustments. When a track slip threshold is exceeded, track velocity control is used to limit the slip to the said value. A comparison to blade-only control strategy shows improvements in ground profile smoothness and productivity on uneven terrain without any prior knowledge of the worksite ground profile.

Effect of Soil Resistivity Measurement on the Safe Design of Grounding Systems

A prerequisite for the proper and safe designing of a grounding system is the full knowledge of the ground structure in the terrain of installation. Through soil resistivity measurements, engineers are able to illustrate the ground profile, which constitutes the most significant parameter for the design of a grounding system and for determining the maximum permissible limits of step and touch voltages. This paper highlights the high importance and necessity for engineers to choose the proper measurement axes of soil resistivity in the terrain of interest and to choose suitable measurement depths, as well the combination of axes for the final determination of the ground profile. The variance of soil resistivity values, as a function of axis distance and the impact of axis placement on determining the uncertainty of measurements, is also analyzed in detail in this study. Furthermore, this work studies the value variance of step and touch voltages as a function of measurement axes, considering two- and three-layer soil models, based on soil resistivity field measurements performed at the university campus. Therefore, the proper and premeditated measurement of soil resistivity, particularly in anisotropic ground, is proved to be of major importance for the full designing of a safe grounding system.

Near-Ground Profile of Bora Wind Speed at Razdrto, Slovenia

Southwest Slovenia is a region well-known for frequent episodes of strong and gusty Bora wind, which may damage structures, affect traffic, and poses threats to human safety in general. With the increased availability of computational power, the interest in high resolution modeling of Bora on local scales is growing. To model it adequately, the flow characteristics of Bora should be experimentally investigated and parameterized. This study presents the analysis of wind speed vertical profiles at Razdrto, Slovenia, a location strongly exposed to Bora during six Bora episodes of different duration, appearing between April 2010 and May 2011. The empirical power law and the logarithmic law for Bora wind, commonly used for the description of neutrally stratified atmosphere, were evaluated for 10-min averaged wind speed data measured at four different heights. Power law and logarithmic law wind speed profiles, which are commonly used in high resolution computational models, were found to approximate well the measured data. The obtained power law coefficient and logarithmic law parameters, which are for modeling purposes commonly taken to be constant for a specific site, were found to vary significantly between different Bora episodes, most notably due to different wind direction over complex terrain. To increase modeling precision, the effects of local topography on wind profile parameters needs to be experimentally assessed and implemented.

Frequency Domain Analysis of Tractor Tyre Enveloping Properties

Main source of vibration excitation for off-road vehicles are ground profile undulations. Most unprepared terrains are characterized by wavelength of unevenness that is of the order of magnitude of the contact length between tire and ground, so that, due to its shape and elasticity, tire actually behaves as geometric low-pass filter transforming real road profile geometry into effective vehicle vibration excitation. Since this effective profile represents real vehicle excitation, it is of interest to study this filtering behaviour in more depth. In this work, investigation of this kind of tire response has been studied for agricultural tractor tire rolling quasistatically over singular road obstacle. Frequency analysis of road excitation and tyre response was carried out in order to obtain their spectra and frequency response function magnitude of the tyre as filter was obtained by dividing input by output spectra. Final assessment of frequency response function magnitude was obtained by averaging instances obtained for different dimensions of input obstacles.