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The unique behaviour of carbonate materials under shear loading has stimulated in investigating of their geological and engineering properties.Carbonate soils composed of calcium or other carbonates and most abundant in tropical marine environments are of interest from geotechnical view, especially for offshore engineers engaged with Fossil-based fuel exploitation. This was initiated in the early 1960's, when the first offshore borings in the Persian Gulf identified layers of calcarenite and thick layers of sand containing visible shell fragments.For the purpose of exploiting gas and oil resources in hot and temperate climates (e.g. Persian Gulf) off-shore structures have been placed on carbonate soils. The carbonate sediments are high crushable compared with low crushable sediments such as quartzic soils.To examine the crushability of these problematic sediments a series of monotonic compression, extension and post-cyclic triaxial tests under different densities and confining pressures was carried out to study the crushing behaviour of "Rock" carbonate sand obtained from Cornwall, England.It was shown that crushing coefficient decreases with increasing in maximum principal effective stress ratio for both loose and dense states. It seems that for skeletal carbonate sand maximum and minimum dry densities will be changed during shearing loading. In other words, even though the sample has experienced an increase in density, it may also have experienced a reduction in relative density.

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This paper presents the results of a series of monotonic and post-cyclic triaxial tests carried out on a clay specimen and three types of clay-sand mixed specimens. The focus of the paper is on the post-cyclic mechanical behavior of the mixed specimens, as compared to their monotonic behavior. Analyses of the tests results show that cyclic loading degrade undrained shear strength and deformation modulus of the specimens during the post-cyclic monotonic loading. The degradation depends on the sand content, the cyclic strain level and to some degrees to the consolidation pressure.

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Abstract: This paper presents the results of pullout tests on uniaxial geogrid embedded in silica sand under monotonic and cyclic pullout forces. The new testing device as a recently developed automated pullout test device for soil-geogrid strength and deformation behavior investigation is capable of applying load/displacement controlled monotonic/cyclic forces at different rates/frequencies and wave shapes, through a computer closed-loop system. Two grades of extruded HDPE uniaxial geogrids and uniform silica sand are used throughout the experiments. The effects of vertical surcharge, sand relative density, extensibility of reinforcement and cyclic pullout loads are investigated on the pullout resistance, nodal displacement distributions, post-cyclic pullout resistance and cyclic accumulated displacement of the geogrid. Tell-tale type transducers are implemented along the geogrid at several points to measure the relative displacements along the geogrid embedded length. In monotonic tests, decrease in relative displacement between soil and geogrid by increase of vertical stress and sand relative density are the main conclusions structural stiffness of geogrid has a direct effect on pullout resistance in different surcharges. In cyclic tests it is observed that the variation of post-cyclic strength ranges from minus 10% to plus 20% of monotonic strength values and cyclic accumulated displacements are increased as normal pressure increase, but no practical specific comment can be made at this stage on the post-cyclic strength of geogrids embedded in silica sand. It is also observed that in loose sand condition, the cyclic accumulated displacements are considerably smaller as compared to dense sand condition.

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Inelastic deformation of structural components is generally acceptable in seismic design. In such behavior, the strength of structures increases while plastic hinges are formed in members frequently. The strength revealed during the formation of plastic hinges is called "overstrength". Overstrength is one of the important parameters in the seismic design of structures. The present study tries to evaluate the overstrength of the concentrically steel braced frames (CBFs), considering reserved strength, because of members post-buckling. As such, a static nonlinear (pushover) analysis has been performed on the model buildings with single and double bracing bays, different stories and brace configurations (chevron V, invert Vand X-bracing). It has been realized that the number of bracing bays and the height of buildings have a low effect on reserve strength due to brace post-buckling. However, these parameters have a profound effect on the overstrength factor. These results indicate that the overstrength values for CBFs, proposed in seismic design codes, need to be modified.

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In this study, a researching program is conducted by cyclic triaxial test to determine the post-cyclic behavior of Bushehr carbonate sand retrieved from the north of the Persian Gulf, under anisotropic consolidation at 200 kPa confining pressure. The article compares the post-cyclic monotonic strength and excess pore water pressures generated after the test with the pre-cyclic monotonic results. The results attest to the existence of a relationship between CSR (Cyclic Stress Ratio) and the frequency of failure cycles. The article also investigates the relationship between the amount of excess pore pressures generated during both the cyclic and post-cyclic loading, revealing an increase in the post-cyclic strength and stiffness of sand retrieved from Bushehr. Also the effect of multi stages cyclic loading, density, pore pressure and stain history in post cyclic strength and stiffness is evaluated. The increasing in post cyclic strength and stiffness depends on excess pore pressure generated during cyclic loading and stain history. This article also reveals that a distinct trend in the relation between post cyclic behavior and crushing value does not exist at lower confining pressure.

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Abstract The Drawer Bracing System (DBS) is a ductile bracing system that is developed to enhance the seismic performance of braced frames. The system is composed of three parallel plates that are attached together via transfer plates at right angle. Seismic energy is dissipated through the formation of flexural plastic hinges at the two ends of the transfer plates. The parallel plates must have adequate strength and stiffness to prevent global buckling and to remain elastic while transferring forces to transfer plates. Height, width, thickness and the number of the transfer plates may be varied to achieve the desired strength and stiffness of the system. In contrast to common bracing systems, the main advantage of a DBS is the conversion of the axial forces to flexural moments in the dissipating elements. In the present paper, the nonlinear shear response of the DBS is predicted via closed-form formulas for calculation of strength, stiffness and post-yield behavior of the system. These formulations are based on both experimental observations and theoretical analysis. The calculated force-displacement backbone curve is verified to be a very good approximation for predicting the nonlinear shear response of the system.