NEESR-SG: Soil Improvement Strategies to Mitigate Impact of Seismic Ground Failures via Novel Integration of Experiment and Simulation

该奖项是国家科学基金会07-506计划征求“乔治E。小布朗地震工程模拟研究网络（NEES）竞赛。 该项目由伊利诺伊大学厄巴纳-香槟分校领导，包括瓦尔帕莱索大学的子奖项。 地震引起的地面破坏是地震经济损失的一个普遍和日益增长的来源。同时，国家不断增长的基础设施需求需要更多和更大的桥梁，增加跨度和交通量，因此需要使用大型刚性基础，如大直径轴组或重力沉箱。当地震引起的地面故障发生时，这些基础必须与大的，但未知的横向力。一个常见的解决方案是保守地修复易受破坏的大块土壤，这涉及到高建设成本，增加建设时间和更大的环境影响。该项目将评估新的地基加固几何形状，如人字形和拱形，以“偏转”横向移动的土壤，从而减少：（1）大型基础元件上的横向载荷;（2）地基加固成本;（3）时间和环境影响。这将通过创新的离心机实验（在伦斯勒理工学院的NEES设备现场进行）和使用地震工程模拟软件开放系统的自学模拟（SelfSim）来实现。这种集成被称为“仿真-设计实验-实验驱动仿真”（SDE-EDS）。这种新的集成将导致强大的地震诱发地面破坏的缓解策略，可以在基于性能的地震工程环境中实施。 除了通过减少地基加固成本、环境影响和施工时间来减少地基破坏的社会影响外，其他更广泛的影响包括：（1）为未来基于性能的地震工程研究开辟了新的途径，包括地基性能和地基加固;和（2）启动瓦尔帕莱索大学和伊利诺伊大学厄巴纳分校之间的教育交流-尚潘，以扩大学生接触研究，更好地为实践做好准备。该项目的数据将通过NEES数据储存库（http：//www.example.com）提供。www.nees.org

This award is an outcome of the National Science Foundation 07-506 program solicitation "George E. Brown, Jr. Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation (NEES) Research" competition. This project is led by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and includes a subaward to Valparaiso University. Seismically-induced ground failures are a pervasive and growing source of economic loss from earthquakes. Concurrently, the nation's growing infrastructure needs demand more and larger bridges with increased spans and traffic volumes, thus requiring the use of large, stiff foundations such as large diameter shaft groups or gravity caissons. When seismically-induced ground failures occur, these foundations must contend with large, but unknown lateral forces. A common solution is to conservatively remediate large blocks of soil susceptible to failure, which involves high construction costs, increased construction time, and greater environmental impacts. This project will evaluate novel ground improvement geometries, such as chevrons and arches, to "deflect" laterally moving soil thereby reducing: (1) lateral loads on large foundation elements; (2) ground improvement costs; and (3) time and environmental impacts. This will be accomplished via an innovative integration of centrifuge experiments (performed at the NEES equipment site at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute) and Self-Learning Simulations (SelfSim) using the Open System for Earthquake Engineering Simulation software. This integration is termed "Simulation-designed Experiment - Experiment-driven Simulation" (SDE-EDS).This novel integration will result in robust mitigation strategies for seismically-induced ground failure that can be implemented in a performance-based earthquake engineering environment. Besides reducing societal impacts from ground failures by reducing ground improvement costs, environmental impacts, and construction time, other broader impacts include: (1) opening new avenues for future performance-based earthquake engineering studies involving foundation performance and ground improvement; and (2) initiating an educational exchange between Valparaiso University and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign to expand student exposure to research and better prepare them for practice. Data from this project will be made available through the NEES data repository (http://www.nees.org).