Effective stress analyses are performed on the seismic response of port structures during the 1995 Hyogoken-Nambu earthquake. The structures analyzed include: caisson type quay walls which moved up to 5 m maximum toward the sea; pneumatic caisson type bridge foundations which moved toward the sea, reducing the distance between the bridge foundations across a sea channel by a total of 0.8 m; and composite breakwaters which settled 2 m. Although these structures were all a rigid concrete type and shaken by the same earthquake, the mode and extent of deformation/ failure were different depending on the backfill and embedment conditions of the structures.The constitutive model of soil used for the seismic analyses is a multiple mechanism model defined in strain space. The model can take the effect of principal stress axis rotation into account, which is known to play an important role in the cyclic behavior of sand under anisotropic stress conditions. The model parameters are calibrated based on insitu and laboratory investigations, including in-situ freeze sampling. The results of the effective stress analyses are consistent with those measured, including the mode and extent of deformation/ failure, suggesting that the cyclic behavior of soil, idealized through the effective stress model, can explain the variety of seismic response of the port structures in a unified manner.
A high seismic resistance quay wall experienced the 1995 Hyogo-ken nambu earthquake and survived the disaster. To clarify whether high seismic resistance quay walls can survive future earthquakes, a series of two-dimensional effective stress analyses is conducted. The numerical analyses reveal the mechanism why the high seismic resistance quay wall in Kobe Port survived. The numerical results also indicate that it is possible to significantly reduce the residual deformation of quay wall designed with high seismic coefficient if soil improvement against liquefaction is completed.
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