The Gujarat earthquake in India occurred in January, 2001, and caused significant damage in the province of Gujarat. The Japanese Geotechnical Society sent a small reconnaissance team to the damaged region after the quake. The present text presents the report from this activity. The major attention of the team was focused on geotechnical aspects of the damage which were related to earthfill dams and harbor land fills. It was found that a significant portion of damage was concentrated in fills resting on soft natural soils. Swedish weight soundings which were conducted at two places demonstrated the existence of such a soft subsoil. From this, it was concluded that amplification of earthquake shaking as well as the permanent deformation in the soft foundation soil induced such kinds of damage as subsidence, cracking, and lateral spreading in overlying artificial fills. For the better seismic resistance of those affected fills during future earthquakes, the improvement of soft subsoil seems essential.

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The boundary element method expanded in frequency domains is presented to analyze the dynamic interaction between an embedded flexible rectangular foundation and soil with consideration of the obliquely incident waves. Numerical results describing the influence of the flexibility of the foundation on the dynamic responses of the foundation due to obliquely incident waves indicate that the flexibility of actual foundations can diminish the reduction of translation responses and increase the rotational responses in the high frequency range. These phenomena are more conspicuous as the embedment ratio is larger and the value of the wave velocity ratio of the soil and the foundation approaches to unity. When the high frequency components of the input ground motion are important and the basement has higher flexibility (for example ₂v_s/₁v_s >0.), the analysis method which considers the basement as a rigid foundation may lead to unsafety estimations and the estimation of the flexibility of the foundation is necessary as analysing the effective input motion with consideration of the incident waves.

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A sample of [³H] tobrarnycin (5, 000 Ci/Mole) has been synthetized and incubated with
the bacterial ribosome and its subunits. The results obtained show that this antibiotic has
two types of binding sites. The primary one is probably responsible for the inhibition of
protein synthesis whereas the secondary one is probably related to the misreading and reading
tiirough of the messenger RNA.

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Stress wave theory is applied to open-ended pipe piles to clarify the effects of soil plug on the behaviour of piles during driving and static loading. Measured field data and various numerical models are reviewed ; methods are presented to calculate wave propagation in both the pile and the soil plug ; modelling is presented which takes into account the interaction between the soil plug and the pile ; also presented is simplified method to estimate the loadsettlement relation of the pipe pile in static loading. By correlating observed and calculated values in two analytical cases, the authors demonstrate that incorporation of the soil plug (modelled as a series of masses and springs) is required to correctly predict pile behaviour during driving and static loading.

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In view of the significant role of the water film effect in flow failure for a liquefied sandy deposit, the mechanism of water film generation is numerically studied based on a 1-dimensional model test. The process of water film growth and decay can be simulated to a certain extent by a simple consolidation analysis, which indicates that only a small difference in permeability in layered sand is enough for a water film to develop. A 1 G shaking table test for a two-dimensional slope model with an arc of silt within a saturated sand is then addressed to discuss the dilatancy effect exerted in sheared sand during flow failure. It is possible that, once the water film is formed, the transmission of shear stress through it is interrupted, leaving the sand below free from the dilatancy ; this eventually allows the water film to stay without being absorbed during flow failure. The result of another shaking table test for a trapezoidal slope with horizontal silt seams indicate that water films beneath the seams enable the soil mass above them to laterally flow along water films very gently inclined even after shaking. If a silt seam breaks due to excessive pressure in the water film, it triggers re-liquefaction in the upper sand and leads to further instability.

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Field data indicate that the P-wave velocity in sand or gravel is sometimes much lower than that of water, even if the soil is below the water table. It is well understood that a slight decrease in saturation normally evaluated by the -value has a significant effect on undrained shear behavior like liquefaction of saturated soil. In the first part of this research, theoretical formulations of the -value, P-wave velocity and Poisson's ratio are made by taking into account the decrease in bulk modulus of water due to a mixture of air bubbles. Then, computations are carried out using formulas based on the soil properties of a typical sand or gravelly soils and Masa soil from the Kobe area to make charts correlating the variables. These charts indicate that a small decrement in the -value in the interval of =1.0 to 0. will considerably decrease the P-wave velocity. Thus, the P-wave velocity which is easily measured in the field can serve as a convenient index to quantitatively evaluate the insitu soil -value.

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In the 1993 Kushiro-oki Earthquake of Richter magnitude ., simultaneous recording of earthquake motions was successfully made at the ground surface and at a depth of 77 meters in a dense saturated sand deposit. The peak horizontal acceleration was 0.47 g on the ground surface and 0.21 g at a depth of 77 meters. The acceleration record at the ground surface showed a distinctive ground response, which consisted of a cyclic motion having a period of about 1.5 seconds overlain by a spike at each peak of the motion. In order to study the mechanism of this peculiar ground response, effective stress analysis was conducted on the dense saturated sand deposit. The model used for this study was a strain space multiple mechanism model, which takes into account the effect of principal stress axis rotation. The recorded earthquake motion at a depth of 77 meters was used as the input earthquake motion for the analysis. Sampling after in-situ freezing was done in order to evaluate the properties of the sand. The results of the analysis indicated that the observed ground response was due to the effect of dilatancy of sand, which plays a significant role in the response of the dense saturated sand deposits during strong earthquake motions.

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Based on the methods previously presented by the authors (Yasuhara et al., 1992, 1994, 1996) for predicting the degradation in strength and stiffness of soft clays in the course of cyclic loading, a methodology has been developed to estimate the cyclic loading-induced settlements. The method also includes not only immediate settlements but also post-cyclic long-term settlements due to dissipation of cyclically induced excess pore pressures in soft soils. The simplified formulae included in the proposed methodology are given as functions of the amplitude of cyclic-induced excess pore pressure normalized by the confining pressure, u/p'_c, plasticity index I_p and factor of safety against bearing capacity failure, F_s. The calculations of cyclic-induced settlements were conducted for soft soil deposits with different index and geotechnical properties. The results calculated using the proposed methodology are presented in the form of a design chart to give the settlement versus normalized excess pore pressure ratio relations including the effects of the plasticity index and safety factor for bearing capacity. An example of the calculated results using the proposed procedure for the earthquake-induced settlements of embankments founded on soft clay, is presented to demonstrate the practicality of the method for design at fields.

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Shaking table tests were performed to clarify the settlement in liquefied loose sand of a new foundation incorporating top-shaped concrete blocks. In the tests, blocks of half scale were installed as they are in practice, by using a crusher-run, a lattice of iron rods and iron bars. Shaking table tests were also conducted on foundations with two differently shaped concrete blocks to investigate the effectiveness of the three foundations in reducing settlement. One was a T-shaped concrete block, or a disk-shaped concrete plate with a leg. The other was a conical concrete block without a leg. The results of shaking table tests showed that the foundation with the top-shaped concrete blocks was most effective in reducing the settlement among the three types of foundation. FEM elastic analyses were performed to compute the stress distributions in the models and in-situ ground when the top-shaped concrete blocks were applied and to confirm whether liquefaction resistance of the sand layer below the foundation is large. Moreover, the factor of safety against liquefaction, F_L was evaluated in in-situ model ground, in order to compare with sensitivities against liquefaction in the ground without countermeasures and with top-shaped concrete blocks. For the liquefaction analyses, shear stress in the ground during an earthquake was estimated by dynamic analyses using the SHAKE computer program.

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The original Drnevich Resonant Column apparatus has been designed for testing cylindrical soil specimen with maximum longitudinal and torsional stiffnesses corresponding to approximate resonant frequencies 285 Hz and 318 Hz respectively. This apparatus has been modified successfully and its stiffness has been increased to over threefold in the longitudinal vibratory mode and at least twofold in the torsional vibratory mode. Monterey No. O sand samples prepared at approximate relative densities 43% and 60% were tested with the original and the modified apparatus in the range of effective confining pressures from 49 kPa to 588 kPa. Measurement of dynamic moduli values measured with the original apparatus were up to 23% higher, and damping values up to five times higher than those measured by the modified apparatus.

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The results of an investigation of soil liquefaction caused by the 1995 Hyogoken-Nambu earthquake are described. Massive and extensive soil liquefaction occurred in the coastal areas of reclaimed land, in old river beds, in Holocene deposits and in areas reclaimed from old ponds. A man-made island of weathered granite, or “Masado, ” was also seriously damaged by soil liquefaction. The maximum distance from the epicenter to the liquefied sites was approximately 90 km. Several characteristics of liquefaction formation, strong earthquake motions recorded on Port Island, and damage to structures from this earthquake are discussed.

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In this paper, centrifuge shaking table tests were conducted in order to understand the performance of seawalls during a seismic event. The model tests showed that the displacement of the caisson was much affected by the seaward shear deformation of the sand seabed beneath it during shaking. It was also confirmed that an armored embankment played an important role in the displacement of the caisson during shaking. Based on these test results, a two-dimensional DEM-FEM coupled analysis method was newly developed to numerically predict the deformation of seawalls covered with armored embankments during earthquakes. The movements of the armor units were calculated by DE analysis and deformations of the caisson, rubble mound, sand seabed and backfill were calculated by FE analysis considering the non-linearity of the soil materials based on the effective stress. Dynamic interaction was taken into account by delivering the nodal displacements of the finite elements or the nodal forces converted from the contact forces through the imaginary distinct elements defined at the boundaries between the DE and FE domain. The applicability of this method to the prediction of the deformation of seawalls was verified through numerical simulations of the centrifuge model test.

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Seismic records obtained from a seismometer array located in downtown Tokyo Japan for about ten years were inversely analyzed to estimate the dynamic soil parameters. Due to the illposed nature of the problem, the simple and often used "least square method" does not properly estimate the parameters. The Extended Bayesian Method combined with the Akaike Bayesian Information Criterion was introduced to overcome this difficulty. The results obtained were compared with dynamic triaxial test results obtained at the time of the seismometer installation. The shear moduli agree quite well with the estimated results, however the damping ratios estimated are slightly higher than the ones obtained in the laboratory.

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The paper illustrates theoretical and experimental procedures adopted to characterize the seismic response of earth dams by performance-based criteria. The study refers to a real case, the Camastra Dam, a zoned earth dam with vertical clay core, placed in a highly seismic zone of Southern Italy. At first, the analysis objectives have been identified along with the physical quantities needed to achieve them for characterizing dam seismic performance. A theoretical approach, consistent with the identified analysis objectives, has been later selected. The adopted approach is based on continuum mechanics and accounts for coupling between soil skeleton and pore water phase. It is also able to describe the main features of soil response under cyclic loading conditions since it implements an advanced constitutive law for the soil skeleton. Big effort has been paid to the mechanical characterization of the dam materials. In addition to data coming from the interpretation of the laboratory tests performed at the time of dam construction, in situ tests (SASW, Down Hole, DMT) have been recently carried out on the embankment and foundation soils and interpreted consistently with the requirements of the selected theoretical model. Preliminarily, the static stages of the dam lifetime have been numerically simulated to reproduce the behaviour observed in terms of cross-arm settlements and pore water pressures, in order to obtain or verify some soil parameters and initialize the state variables for the simulation of the seismic stages. A seismological study of the dam site provided the expected seismic scenarios in terms of time histories of acceleration, needed as input for the dynamic analyses. The seismic response of the Camastra Dam was finally investigated and discussed in the light of performance-based criteria.

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A crucial matter related to roads in seismic areas is to ensure viability during the post-seismic stages, especially if the road represents an important or unique way to reach towns that may be potentially hit by strong earthquakes. Verification of road viability under seismic actions requires not only safety assessment of the failure mechanisms which may jeopardize single road components (embankment, viaduct, bridge, etc.) but also evaluation of performance. Viability of a road may be compromised by an unsatisfactory response of road embankments. The vehicle flux may be, in fact, inhibited or reduced if a road embankment suffers global instability mechanisms or significant permanent displacements mainly at the contact with structural elements (.g., viaducts, bridges) that do not move significantly. In this case the embankment permanent displacements turn out into steps or separations. The paper accounts for the different stages followed to study the seismic performance of the road embankments located along a sample road branch of about 5 km. Preliminary activities consisted in characterizing the geological area of the sample road, in selecting the potentially vulnerable embankments and in carrying out in-situ investigations to properly characterize the physical and mechanical properties of the embankments and foundation soils. A seismological study of the sample area was performed in order to characterize the reference seismic actions needed for the numerical analyses. The seismic response of the embankments was evaluated by a pseudo-dynamic approach and an advanced dynamic model. In the latter, the equations describing dynamic equilibrium and compatibility were merged with an elastoplastic combined-hardening constitutive law that properly models soil response under cyclic loads. The embankment's seismic performance was predicted in terms of permanent settlements at the embankment top surface versus the peak acceleration of the reference input motions.

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The mechanism of wave-induced instability in a permeable seabed have been studied for more than two decades. The distinction between shear failure and liquefaction, however, has not been clearly defined. This paper presents a fundamental study on the differences in two failure modes for a fully saturated seabed of both finite and infinite thickness. The wave-induced effective stresses and pore pressure, obtained from an analytical solution of Biot's pore-elastic consolidation theory, were employed to examine the failure modes under a two-dimensional plane strain condition. A case study is presented to examine the failure modes with respect to several parameters, such as excess pore pressure, seepage flow, seepage force, failure areas and stress path in the seabed. The conclusions obtained from this study were as follows ; (1) the thickness of a permeable seabed affects the pore pressure and effective stress response to ocean waves and the failure mode of the seabed, (2) either a liquefaction or shear failure, or both, occur in the seabed, even in the saturated seabed, (3) the Mohr-Coulomb's failure criterion, when combined with elastic stresses, can not be employed to estimate the liquefaction failure in the seabed, () the liquefaction can be evaluated by a criterion in terms of the excess pore pressure, (5) The liquefied zone in the seabed is significantly different from the shear failure zone. The shape beneath the seabed surface for the former is almost identical to the contour where the upward seepage flow is concentrated.

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An earthquake of magnitude .6 occurred in the south-east coast of El Salvador on January 13, 2001, causing widespread damage to buildings and several kinds of civil engineering structures due to ground shaking and earthquake-induced ground failures, including several large-scale landslides. This paper discusses the results of the damage investigation conducted in the area after the earthquake, with emphasis on the general features of the earthquake and its effects on the ground damage, specifically the landsliding which occurred in natural slopes and the liquefaction of soil deposits. The occurrence of liquefaction in the alluvial plain exhibited several characteristics in common with those observed in other areas of similar condition. On the other hand, the main cause of slope failures in volcanic deposits was not clearly identified, and several possible sources of slope instability were pointed out.

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This text is concerned with the basic principles underlying current practice in the earthquake response analysis of soft alluvial deposits. Its special interest is focused on the stratification of alluvium that has been modeled in analyses by layers in which soil properties are uniform. Since the age and the effective stress are continuous in the vertical direction, it is possible that the soil-dynamic properties such as shear modulus and damping ratio are not uniform but varying continuously in the vertical direction. From this viewpoint, the conventional idea of uniform layers was examined in detail by conducting detailed investigations in-situ, as well as laboratory tests on continuously collected undisturbed soil samples. The test results show that soil properties continuously vary in the vertical direction within an alluvium. This holds true even when the soil type changes from clayey to sandy. In contrast, a discontinuity of properties was detected at an unconformity of Pleistocene layers where the age and sedimentation process are discontinuous. With this knowledge, an attempt was made to propose a recommendable modelling of soil stratification for practical earthquake response analysis on alluvium.

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