Ground motion observation for the health monitoring of retaining wall and earthfill ‐applicability and problems‐

Ichii Koji, Kawano Mayumi

doi:10.3124/segj.68.101

　Earth fill is one of the most standard and cheap construction method in civil engineering field and it is often used for road construction and river dike construction. The stability of earth fill is considered to increase with ages, due to the consolidation of the foundation etc. However, the failure of constructed earth fill due to heavy rainfall is reported such as the failure in Sanyo Express Way in Typhoon 14, 2005. At the failure of earth fill at Tohmei Express Way in 2009 off Suruga-bay Earthquake, it was pointed out that the rainfall before the earthquake increases the water level in the earth fill and the earth fill was shaken in the unstable condition. From these failure experiences, it is understood that the periodic assessment of the condition (health monitoring) for earth fill is necessary. In this research, as a possible periodic condition assessment method, non-destructive method to evaluate the variation of the ground condition under the effect of ground water is examined.<br> 　First, bender element test is carried out to evaluate the relationship between the ground conditions and shear wave velocity of the ground. The test results indicate the variation of water content in the ground and flow out of small size particles in the ground causes the variation in the measured shear wave velocity. Second, the variation in the natural frequency of retaining wall for earth fill is examined by dynamic FEM analysis and microtremor measurement in the field. FEM analysis indicate the increase in the ground water level behind the wall decrease the natural frequency of the wall, however, the observed data in the field come out the opposite of analysis. Third, field observation of surface wave (Rayleigh wave) exploration at a quay wall under the tidal effect and earth fill were conducted. The field observation results at the quay wall indicate the water level variation due to the tidal action can be observed by the variation in Rayleigh wave. However, field observation at an earth fill indicates the importance of the consideration of the irregular shape of the fill.<br>

Ground motion observation for the health monitoring of retaining wall and earthfill ‐applicability and problems‐

Bibliographic Information

Search this article

Abstract

Journal

Citations (1)*help

References(1)*help

Related Projects

Keywords

Details 詳細情報について

Export

Report a problem