SUMMARY In order to investigate the seismic failure characteristics of a structure on the liquefiable ground, a series of shaking table tests were conducted based on a plaster model of a three‐story and three‐span subway station. The dynamic responses of the structure and ground soil under main shock and aftershock ground motions were studied. The sand boils and waterspouts phenomena, ground surface cracks, and earthquake‐induced ground surface settlements were observed in the testing. For the structure, the upward movement, local damage and member cracking were obtained. Under the main shock, there appeared longer liquefaction duration for the ground soil while the pore pressure dissipated slowly. The acceleration amplification effect of the liquefied soil was weakened, and the soil showed a remarkable shock absorption and concentration effect with low frequency component of ground motion. However, under the aftershock, the dissipation of pore pressure in the ground soil became obvious. The peak acceleration of the structure reduced with the buried depth. Dynamic soil pressure on the side wall was smaller in the middle and larger at both ends. The interior column of the model structure was the weakest member. The peak strain and damage degree for both sides of the interior column exhibited an ‘S’ type distribution along the height. Moreover, the seismic response of both ground soil and subway station structure exhibited a remarkable spatial effect. The seismic damage development process and failure mechanism of the structure illustrated in this study can provide references for the engineers and researcher. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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Abstract:The efficient control of water usage is one of the core goals of the strictest water resources management system in China. Therefore, the objective and reasonable evaluation of the effects of implementing this system is crucial. Based on the natural and social water cycle theories and the mechanism of the influence of agricultural, industrial, domestic and ecological water utilization, this paper proposes an evaluation index system through the qualitative and quantitative analysis of external and internal factors affecting the efficiency of water usage. Then, a matter-element model is developed on the basis of game theory weight to evaluate the effects of the implementation of efficiency control measures for regional water usage. By calculating the comprehensive correlation, this model can directly indicate the level of regional water use efficiency control. The model is applied to water usage in Jiangxi Province for the period 2011-2014. The results indicate a gradual improvement in the efficiency of water usage in this province. The matter-element extension evaluation model is simple and practical, and the evaluation results are in agreement with the facts. In summary, this method can provide a new theoretical basis for controlling the efficiency of regional water usage.

The geotechnical earthquake engineering profession has struggled with the inherent complexity of the multiphase soil response to cyclic loading owing to the progressive nature of the generation of excess pore pressure (EPP) and degradation of soil stiffness and strength. One approach to improve understanding of the cyclic response and correlate the transition from a two-phase saturated soil to a single, fluid-phase liquefied soil is to treat the soil as a non-Newtonian viscous liquid. However, the work to date suggests that the viscous fluid model approach can only be implemented following the onset of sustained soil liquefaction. This paper presents a unified thixotropic fluid model and framework that effectively links the pre-shear soil fabric and its progressive cyclic response to the onset and maintained state of soil liquefaction. The framework treats the soil fabric as a fluid net-type structure proposed for use with thixotropic fluids, and presents the constitutive state and rate equations describing the deconstruction of the liquefiable soil fabric in response to cyclic loading. The unified framework uses physically meaningful soil parameters that can be obtained from common cyclic laboratory tests to seamlessly link the state-dependent and shear-strain-rate-dependent nature of soils to the generation of EPP, the latter of which is shown to increase in significance as EPP accumulates. The proposed thixotropic-induced excess pore pressure model should prove advantageous for use in forward modelling of the stress–strain rate response of liquefiable soil and generation of EPP.