This paper presents a detailed analysis of the effect of oil contamination on the geotechnical behaviour of bridge pile foundations, focusing on the influence of soil type, oil-contamination intensity and oil-contamination depth. A thorough parametric study of these dominant parameters was carried out through numerical analyses that were performed using Flac3D software. The analyses were designed using three types of soils: poorly graded sand (SP), silty sand (SM) and kaolinite clay. Oil contamination degrades the geotechnical behaviour of bridge pile foundations. Soil type has a clear effect on the internal forces induced in the piles, with maximum normal forces occurring in SP, the maximum bending moment in kaolinite clay and maximum shear forces in SM. The variation of oil-contamination intensity in the soil changes the induced internal forces in the piles by ratios increasing to 40, 34 and 20% of the bending moment, the shear forces and the normal forces, respectively. However, the alterations in the displacements of the soil and the piles are more significant, with ratios up to 150%. In contrast, the oil-contamination depth has a limited effect on the internal force of the pile (up to 4%) but has a considerable effect on the displacement of the foundation.
This study evaluates the dynamic behavior and performance of vital reinforced concrete (RC) public building [Ministry of Higher Education (MHE)] designed in compliance with the old Syrian (non-seismic) building code. The real non-linear dynamic behavior of the MHE building has been checked by detailed dynamic numerical analyses (finite elements method—FEM) validated by a series of ambient noise measurements carried out on-site. The modeling approach for the thorough 3D dynamic analyses of the (RC) MHE building has been developed to be able to investigate the actual non-linear dynamic performance of widespread range of RC structures, providing the opportunity to set up a reliable detailed methodology to assess the real dynamic performance of the old vital structures designed according to the old Syrian (non-seismic) building code from the new seismic requirements perspective. The results of the frequency analyses, the nonlinear time history, and the experimental measurements have shown an excellent agreement. The study showed that the modeling approach by the FEM is reliable for predicting the actual dynamic behavior of RC structures, but it is very sensitive to the modeling assumptions. Furthermore, the dynamic performance analyses have revealed unsymmetrical behavior of the east–west wings about the Y-axis which could be attributed to the inefficient seismic rehabilitation executed in 2001.
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