No Arabic abstract
The French Accelerometric Network (RAP) launched in November 2004 a marked operation for the seismic behaviour assessment of a typical French building. The main goal of this project is to collect accelerometric data in the building and use them to calibrate models or alternative tools used for the seismic behaviour assessment. The final goal of this project is to help the vulnerability assessment of cities in moderate seismic hazard countries. The French Accelerometric Network (RAP) chose to install a permanent network of 6 accelerometers recording continuously the vibrations of the Grenoble City Hall at the basement and at the top. The 13-story building is a RC shear walls building, typical of the RC structures designed at the end of the 60s in France. All the data collected in the building are available on the online access database of the RAP. In addition to the permanent network, an ambient vibration experiment has been performed in 36 points of the whole building. Using the Frequency Domain Decomposition method, these data allowed estimating precisely the different modes of vibration of the structure for low amplitudes. Only the first bending modes in each direction (1.15 and 1.22 Hz) and the first torsion mode (1.44 Hz) are excited. We compared the frequencies obtained using ambient vibration to those for a moderate earthquake recorded by the permanent network. Thanks to the continuous recording, a statistical approach of the torsion mode pointed out the position of the centre of rotation of the building. A modal model extracted from ambient vibrations is proposed and validated thanks to the earthquake recordings collected in the building during the ML=4.6, September 8th 2005 Vallorcine (Haute-Savoie, France) earthquake.
Seismic vulnerability analysis of existing buildings requires basic information on their structural behaviour. The ambient vibrations of buildings and the modal parameters (frequencies, damping ration and modal shapes) that can be extracted from them naturally include the geometry and quality of material in the linear elastic part of their behaviour. The aim of this work is to use this modal information to help the vulnerability assessment. A linear dynamic modal model based on experimental modal parameters is proposed and the fragility curve corresponding to the damage state ?Slight? is built using this model and a simple formula is proposed. This curve is particularly interesting in moderate seismic areas. This methodology is applied to the Grenoble City where ambient vibrations have been recorded in 61 buildings of various types and to the Pointe-`a-Pitre City with 7 study-buildings. The fragility curves are developed using the aforementioned methodology. The seismic risk of the study-buildings is discussed by performing seismic scenarios.
In countries with a moderate seismic hazard, the classical methods developed for strong motion prone countries to estimate the seismic behaviour and subsequent vulnerability of existing buildings are often inadequate and not financially realistic. The main goals of this paper are to show how the modal analysis can contribute to the understanding of the seismic building response and the good relevancy of a modal model based on ambient vibrations for estimating the structural deformation under moderate earthquakes. We describe the application of an enhanced modal analysis technique (Frequency Domain Decomposition) to process ambient vibration recordings taken at the Grenoble City Hall building (France). The frequencies of ambient vibrations are compared with those of weak earthquakes recorded by the French permanent accelerometric network (RAP) that was installed to monitor the building. The frequency variations of the building under moderate earthquakes are shown to be slight (~2%) and therefore ambient vibration frequencies are relevant over the elastic domain of the building. The modal parameters extracted from ambient vibrations are then used to determine the 1D lumped-mass model in order to reproduce the inter-storey drift under weak earthquakes and to fix a 3D numerical model that could be used for strong earthquakes. The correlation coefficients between data and synthetic motion are close to 80% and 90% in horizontal directions, for the 1D and 3D modelling, respectively.
The standard paradigm to describe seismicity induced by fluid injection is to apply nonlinear diffusion dynamics in a poroelastic medium. I show that the spatiotemporal behaviour and rate evolution of induced seismicity can, instead, be expressed by geometric operations on a static stress field produced by volume change at depth. I obtain laws similar in form to the ones derived from poroelasticity while requiring a lower description length. Although fluid flow is known to occur in the ground, it is not pertinent to the behaviour of induced seismicity. The proposed model is equivalent to the static stress model for tectonic foreshocks generated by the Non- Critical Precursory Accelerating Seismicity Theory. This study hence verifies the explanatory power of this theory outside of its original scope.
A new thixotropic model is developed integrating the Papanastasiou-Bingham model with thixotropy equations to simulate the flow behaviour of Tremie Concrete in the Material Point Method framework. The effect of thixotropy on the rheological behaviour of fresh concrete is investigated by comparing field measurements with numerical simulations. The comparison yields new insights into a critical and often overlooked behaviour of concrete. A parametric study is performed to understand the effect of model parameters and rest-time on the shear stress response of fresh concrete. The Material Point Method with the Papanastasiou-Bingham model reproduces slump-flow measurements observed in the field. The novel model revealed a decline in concrete workability during the Slump-flow test after a period of rest due to thixotropy, which the physical version of the test fails to capture. This reduction in workability significantly affects the flow behaviour and the effective use of fresh concrete in construction operation.
Microbial-Induced Carbonate Precipitation (MICP) is an innovative ground improvement technique which can enhance the strength and stiffness of soils, and can also control their hydraulic conductivity. These engineering properties of MICP-treated soils are affected by particle-scale behaviour of the precipitated carbonate, i.e. composition, amount and distribution, which are controlled by the MICP process occurring at the particle-scale. In this study, we designed and fabricated a microfluidic chip to improve our understanding of MICP at particle-scale by observing the behaviour of bacteria and CaCO3 crystals during this process. We found that bacteria became evenly distributed throughout the microfluidic chip after the injection of bacterial suspension, grew during bacterial settling, and detached during the injection of cementation solution. Bacteria aggregated during the cementation solution injection, and CaCO3 crystals formed at narrow pore throats or open pore bodies either during or after cementation solution injections.