Effects of Ground Failure on Bridges, Roads, and Railroads

2012 ◽  
Vol 28 (1_suppl1) ◽  
pp. 119-143 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Ledezma ◽  
Tara Hutchinson ◽  
Scott A. Ashford ◽  
Robb Moss ◽  
Pedro Arduino ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Lateral Spreading ◽  
Ground Shaking ◽  
Ground Failure ◽  
Major Earthquake ◽  
Long Duration ◽  
Maule Earthquake ◽  
2010 Maule Earthquake

The long duration and strong velocity content of the motions produced by the 27 February 2010 Maule earthquake resulted in widespread liquefaction and lateral spreading in several urban and other regions of Chile. In particular, critical lifeline structures such as bridges, roadway embankments, and railroads were damaged by ground shaking and ground failure. This paper describes the effects that ground failure had on a number of bridges, roadway embankments, and railroads during this major earthquake.

Performance of Port Facilities in Southern Chile during the 27 February 2010 Maule Earthquake

2012 ◽  
Vol 28 (1_suppl1) ◽  
pp. 553-579 ◽  
Author(s):  
Santiago Brunet ◽  
Juan Carlos de la Llera ◽  
Andrés Jacobsen ◽  
Eduardo Miranda ◽  
Cristián Meza
Keyword(s):  
Lateral Spreading ◽  
Soil Liquefaction ◽  
Southern Chile ◽  
Port Facilities ◽  
Chile Earthquake ◽  
Design Values ◽  
Maule Earthquake ◽  
Structural Failures ◽  
2010 Maule Earthquake ◽  
Nonlinear Deformations

This article describes the seismic performance of a group of ports in southern Chile during the 27 February 2010 Maule, Chile, earthquake. Direct costs in damage for these ports have been estimated in slightly less than US$300 million. Similarly to the performance of other ports in previous earthquakes, the most common failures observed were soil related, and include soil liquefaction, lateral spreading, and pile failures. Structural failures were mostly due to short pile effects and natural torsion. This situation is contrasted herein with the performance of the South Coronel Pier, which was seismically isolated in 2007. The isolated portion of this port remained operational after the earthquake, which was the main design goal. Post-earthquake preliminary analyses indicate that the structure was subjected to deformations and forces of approximately 60% to 70% of their design values, respectively. Piles and superstructure remained within elastic range, while the isolators experienced important nonlinear deformations.

Evolution of seismic design codes of highway bridges in Chile

2021 ◽  
pp. 875529302098801
Author(s):  
José Wilches ◽  
Hernán Santa Maria ◽  
Roberto Leon ◽  
Rafael Riddell ◽  
Matías Hube ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Seismic Design ◽  
Failure Modes ◽  
Highway Bridges ◽  
Design Codes ◽  
Seismic Codes ◽  
Analysis And Design ◽  
Residual Displacements ◽  
Shear Keys ◽  
Maule Earthquake ◽  
2010 Maule Earthquake

Chile, as a country with a long history of strong seismicity, has a record of both a constant upgrading of its seismic design codes and structural systems, particularly for bridges, as a result of major earthquakes. Recent earthquakes in Chile have produced extensive damage to highway bridges, such as deck collapses, large transverse residual displacements, yielding and failure of shear keys, and unseating of the main girders, demonstrating that bridges are highly vulnerable structures. Much of this damage can be attributed to construction problems and poor detailing guidelines in design codes. After the 2010 Maule earthquake, new structural design criteria were incorporated for the seismic design of bridges in Chile. The most significant change was that a site coefficient was included for the estimation of the seismic design forces in the shear keys, seismic bars, and diaphragms. This article first traces the historical development of earthquakes and construction systems in Chile to provide a context for the evolution of Chilean seismic codes. It then describes the seismic performance of highway bridges during the 2010 Maule earthquake, including the description of the main failure modes observed in bridges. Finally, this article provides a comparison of the Chilean bridge seismic code against the Japanese and United States codes, considering that these codes have a great influence on the seismic codes for Chilean bridges. The article demonstrates that bridge design and construction practices in Chile have evolved substantially in their requirements for the analysis and design of structural elements, such as in the definition of the seismic hazard to be considered, tending toward more conservative approaches in an effort to improve structural performance and reliability for Chilean bridges.

scholarly journals Empirical models for predicting lateral spreading and evaluation using New Zealand data

2008 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 10-23 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jian Zhang ◽  
Dick Beetham ◽  
Grant Dellow ◽  
John X. Zhao ◽  
Graeme H. McVerry
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Strong Motion ◽  
Lateral Spreading ◽  
Attenuation Relations ◽  
Geotechnical Parameters ◽  
Ground Shaking ◽  
Aerial Photos ◽  
New Model ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Lateral Displacements

A New empirical model has been developed for predicting liquefaction-induced lateral spreading displacement and is a function of response spectral displacements and geotechnical parameters. Different from the earlier model of Zhang and Zhao (2005), the application of which was limited to Japan and California, the new model can potentially be applied anywhere if ground shaking can be estimated (by using local strong-motion attenuation relations). The new model is applied in New Zealand where the response spectral displacement is estimated using New Zealand strong-motion attenuation relations (McVerry et al. 2006). The accuracy of the new model is evaluated by comparing predicted lateral displacements with those which have been measured from aerial photos or the width of ground cracks at the Landing Road bridge, the James Street loop, the Whakatane Pony Club and the Edgecumbe road and rail bridges sites after the 1987 Edgecumbe earthquake. Results show that most predicted errors (defined as the ratio of the difference between the measured and predicted lateral displacements to the measured one) from the new model are less than 40%. When compared with earlier models (Youd et al. 2002, Zhang and Zhao 2005), the new model provides the lowest mean errors.

scholarly journals Geological and Structural Control on Localized Ground Effects within the Heunghae Basin during the Pohang Earthquake (MW 5.4, 15th November 2017), South Korea

Geosciences ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 173 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sambit Naik ◽  
Young-Seog Kim ◽  
Taehyung Kim ◽  
Jeong Su-Ho
Keyword(s):  
South Korea ◽  
Structural Control ◽  
Seismic Waves ◽  
Tectonic Setting ◽  
Lateral Spreading ◽  
Soil Liquefaction ◽  
Ground Shaking ◽  
Potential Mapping ◽  
Sand Boils ◽  
Ground Effects

On 15th November 2017, the Pohang earthquake (Mw 5.4) had strong ground shaking that caused severe liquefaction and lateral spreading across the Heunghae Basin, around Pohang city, South Korea. Such liquefaction is a rare phenomenon during small or moderate earthquakes (MW < 5.5). There are only a few examples around the globe, but more so in the Korean Peninsula. In this paper, we present the results of a systematic survey of the secondary ground effects—i.e., soil liquefaction and ground cracks—developed during the earthquake. Most of the liquefaction sites are clustered near the epicenter and close to the Heunghae fault. Based on the geology, tectonic setting, distribution, and clustering of the sand boils along the southern part of the Heunghae Basin, we propose a geological model, suggesting that the Heunghae fault may have acted as a barrier to the propagation of seismic waves. Other factors like the mountain basin effect and/or amplification of seismic waves by a blind thrust fault could play an important role. Liquefaction phenomenon associated with the 2017 Pohang earthquake emphasizes that there is an urgent need of liquefaction potential mapping for the Pohang city and other areas with a similar geological setting. In areas underlain by extensive unconsolidated basin fill sediments—where the records of past earthquakes are exiguous or indistinct and there is poor implementation of building codes—future earthquakes of similar or larger magnitude as the Pohang earthquake are likely to occur again. Therefore, this represents a hazard that may cause significant societal and economic threats in the future.

scholarly journals Global Earthquake Response with Imaging Geodesy: Recent Examples from the USGS NEIC

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (11) ◽  
pp. 1357 ◽  
Author(s):  
William D. Barnhart ◽  
Gavin P. Hayes ◽  
David J. Wald
Keyword(s):  
Disaster Response ◽  
Human Impacts ◽  
Earthquake Response ◽  
Ground Shaking ◽  
Ground Failure ◽  
The World ◽  
Source Models ◽  
Impact Products ◽  
Seismic Wavefield

The U.S. Geological Survey National Earthquake Information Center leads real-time efforts to provide rapid and accurate assessments of the impacts of global earthquakes, including estimates of ground shaking, ground failure, and the resulting human impacts. These efforts primarily rely on analysis of the seismic wavefield to characterize the source of the earthquake, which in turn informs a suite of disaster response products such as ShakeMap and PAGER. In recent years, the proliferation of rapidly acquired and openly available in-situ and remotely sensed geodetic observations has opened new avenues for responding to earthquakes around the world in the days following significant events. Geodetic observations, particularly from interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) and satellite optical imagery, provide a means to robustly constrain the dimensions and spatial complexity of earthquakes beyond what is typically possible with seismic observations alone. Here, we document recent cases where geodetic observations contributed important information to earthquake response efforts—from informing and validating seismically-derived source models to independently constraining earthquake impact products—and the conditions under which geodetic observations improve earthquake response products. We use examples from the 2013 Mw7.7 Baluchistan, Pakistan, 2014 Mw6.0 Napa, California, 2015 Mw7.8 Gorkha, Nepal, and 2018 Mw7.5 Palu, Indonesia earthquakes to highlight the varying ways geodetic observations have contributed to earthquake response efforts at the NEIC. We additionally provide a synopsis of the workflows implemented for geodetic earthquake response. As remote sensing geodetic observations become increasingly available and the frequency of satellite acquisitions continues to increase, operational earthquake geodetic imaging stands to make critical contributions to natural disaster response efforts around the world.

Structural Performance of Bridges in the Tohoku-Oki Earthquake

2013 ◽  
Vol 29 (1_suppl) ◽  
pp. 315-338 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kazuhiko Kawashima ◽  
Ian Buckle
Keyword(s):  
Highway Bridges ◽  
Elastomeric Bearings ◽  
Tsunami Inundation ◽  
Ground Shaking ◽  
Ground Failure ◽  
Kobe Earthquake ◽  
The North ◽  
Bridge Damage ◽  
Bridge Performance ◽  
Insight Into

Including minor nonstructural damage, over 1,500 highway bridges and numerous rail bridges were damaged during the Tohoku-oki earthquake of 11 March 2011. The causes of this damage can be broadly classified in two categories: ground shaking, including ground failure (liquefaction); and tsunami inundation. Damage included span unseating, column shear and flexural failures, approach fill erosion, liquefaction induced settlement, and failed steel and elastomeric bearings. Since many bridges in the north Miyagi-ken and south Iwate-ken suffered extensive damage during the 1978 Miyagi-ken-oki earthquake, bridge performance during the 2011 earthquake is of particular interest. Advances in design and retrofit may be assessed by looking at the performance of bridges designed to post-1990 codes and those retrofitted since the Kobe earthquake in 1995. In both categories, bridge damage due to ground shaking was minor, thus validating the provisions in the post-1990 codes and the Japan bridge retrofit program. Damage that did occur due to ground shaking was mainly to bridges not yet retrofitted or only partly so. Tsunami-related damage included complete loss of span and erosion of backfills. However, many bridges survived, despite being totally submerged, and their performance gives insight into the potential design of tsunami-resistant bridges.

scholarly journals Liquefaction and Related Ground Failure from July 2019 Ridgecrest Earthquake Sequence

2020 ◽  
Vol 110 (4) ◽  
pp. 1549-1566 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paolo Zimmaro ◽  
Chukwuebuka C. Nweke ◽  
Janis L. Hernandez ◽  
Kenneth S. Hudson ◽  
Martin B. Hudson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Lateral Spreading ◽  
Earthquake Sequence ◽  
Ground Failure ◽  
Liquefaction Susceptibility ◽  
Ground Deformations ◽  
Us Military ◽  
Liquefaction Hazard ◽  
Frame Buildings ◽  
Sand Boils ◽  
Wood Frame

ABSTRACT The 2019 Ridgecrest earthquake sequence produced a 4 July M 6.5 foreshock and a 5 July M 7.1 mainshock, along with 23 events with magnitudes greater than 4.5 in the 24 hr period following the mainshock. The epicenters of the two principal events were located in the Indian Wells Valley, northwest of Searles Valley near the towns of Ridgecrest, Trona, and Argus. We describe observed liquefaction manifestations including sand boils, fissures, and lateral spreading features, as well as proximate non-ground failure zones that resulted from the sequence. Expanding upon results initially presented in a report of the Geotechnical Extreme Events Reconnaissance Association, we synthesize results of field mapping, aerial imagery, and inferences of ground deformations from Synthetic Aperture Radar-based damage proxy maps (DPMs). We document incidents of liquefaction, settlement, and lateral spreading in the Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake US military base and compare locations of these observations to pre- and postevent mapping of liquefaction hazards. We describe liquefaction and ground-failure features in Trona and Argus, which produced lateral deformations and impacts on several single-story masonry and wood frame buildings. Detailed maps showing zones with and without ground failure are provided for these towns, along with mapped ground deformations along transects. Finally, we describe incidents of massive liquefaction with related ground failures and proximate areas of similar geologic origin without ground failure in the Searles Lakebed. Observations in this region are consistent with surface change predicted by the DPM. In the same region, geospatial liquefaction hazard maps are effective at identifying broad percentages of land with liquefaction-related damage. We anticipate that data presented in this article will be useful for future liquefaction susceptibility, triggering, and consequence studies being undertaken as part of the Next Generation Liquefaction project.

Assessing disaster capitalism in post-disaster processes in Chile: neoliberal reforms and the role of the corporate class

2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (6) ◽  
pp. 831-847
Author(s):  
Vicente Sandoval ◽  
Claudia Gonzalez-Muzzio ◽  
Carlos Villalobos ◽  
Juan Pablo Sarmiento ◽  
Gabriela Hoberman
Keyword(s):  
Private Sector ◽  
Private Funding ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Neoliberal Reforms ◽  
Maule Earthquake ◽  
Disaster Capitalism ◽  
2010 Maule Earthquake ◽  
Cross Case Analysis ◽  
Post Disaster

PurposeThis paper examines disaster capitalism in Chile, that is, the relationships between disasters and neoliberalism. It looks at two post-disaster dimensions: disasters as windows of opportunity to introduce political reforms and disasters as occasions for the corporate class to capitalize on such disasters.Design/methodology/approachTwo indices, disaster capitalism (DC) and post-disaster private involvement (PDPI), are proposed for cross-case analysis. They are based on legal records, institutional reports and economic data. The DC assesses the introduction of reforms following disasters, while PDPI evaluates the share of public-private funding used for recovery. Both indices are applied here to two disasters in Chile: the 2010 Maule earthquake, and the 2008 Chaitén volcanic eruption.FindingsResults show that the highly neoliberal Chilean context leaves limited space for new neoliberal reforms. Although recovery is implemented predominantly through the private sector, the state still assumes greater responsibility for recovery costs. Results also detect poor levels of participation from the private sector in accounting their efforts and making them publicly available. Likewise, the research suggests that neoliberal reforms become more likely after disasters. However, the preexisting politico-economic context matters. Finally, there is clearly a need for data systematization in post-disaster recovery.Originality/valueIn the Chilean context, the indices proved beneficial as a strategy for data collection and a method for scrutinizing the implications of neoliberal policy implemented in the wake of disasters, as well as in evaluating the role of the corporate class during recovery.

Development of New Zealand seismic bridge standards

2013 ◽  
Vol 46 (4) ◽  
pp. 201-221 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. S. Hogan ◽  
L. M. Wotherspoon ◽  
J. M. Ingham
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Lateral Spreading ◽  
Base Shear ◽  
Design Standards ◽  
Foundation Design ◽  
Ground Shaking ◽  
Lower Base ◽  
Current Design ◽  
Shear Demand ◽  
Structural Detailing

During seismic assessments of bridges where there is a lack of construction documentation, one method of determining likely structural detailing is to use historic design standards. An overview of the New Zealand bridge seismic standards and the agencies that have historically controlled bridge design and construction is presented. Standards are grouped into design era based upon similar design and loading characteristics. Major changes in base shear demand, ductility, foundation design, and linkage systems are discussed for each design era, and loadings and detailing requirements from different eras were compared to current design practices. Bridges constructed using early seismic standards were designed to a significantly lower base shear than is currently used but the majority of these bridges are unlikely to collapse due to their geometry and a preference for monolithic construction. Bridges constructed after the late 1970s are expected to perform well if subjected to ground shaking, but unless bridges were constructed recently their performance when subjected to liquefaction and liquefaction-induced lateral spreading is expected to be poor.

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