Geotechnical Earthquake Engineering - 5EMHAAV0

Goal(s)

The course focusses on the behaviour and design of geotechnical structures under earthquake loading and covers the following items :

• Engineering seismology
• Cyclic and dynamic behaviour of soils
• Liquefaction
• Behaviour of retaining walls
• Seismic design of earth dams and slopes
• Seismic design of foundations (shallow and deep)
• Seismic design of buried infrastructures

Content(s)

Introduction
Elements of engineering seismology

• Introduction
• Earthquakes: origins and mechanics
• Main elements of characterisation
• Seismic wave propagation
• Strong motion analysis: response spectra
• Seismic hazard analysis
• Design spectra

Cyclic and dynamic behaviour of soils

• Introduction
• Strain degradation of stiffness
• Equivalent linear model
• Cyclic non linear model
• Cyclic strength of soils
• Determination of dynamic soil properties
  • From lab tests
  • From in situ tests

Liquefaction of soils

• Introduction
• Physical evidence
• Behaviour of soils: drained or undrained monotonic loading
• Behaviour of soils: drained or undrained cyclic loading
• Prediction of liquefaction by laboratory tests
• Prediction of liquefaction by in situ tests

Seismic behaviour of retaining walls

• Introduction
• Pseudo-static approach
• Yielding walls
• Mononobe – Okabe approach
• Effect of water
• Estimation of permanent displacements
• Non-yielding walls

Seismic slope stability and design of earth dams

• Introduction
• Slope stability analysis
• Pseudo static approach
• Newmark sliding block analysis
• Simplified linear dynamic analysis
• Seismic stability – Makdisi & Seed (1979)
• Non-linear effects
• Design recommandations

Seismic behaviour of foundations

Seismic behaviour of buried structures

Soil mechanics
Structural dynamics