Excess Pore Pressure (excess + pore_pressure)

Distribution by Scientific Domains


Selected Abstracts


Modelling the hysteresis in the velocity pattern of slow-moving earth flows: the role of excess pore pressure

EARTH SURFACE PROCESSES AND LANDFORMS, Issue 4 2005
T. W. J. van Asch
Abstract This paper describes the velocity pattern of a slow-moving earth flow containing a viscous shear band and a more or less rigid landslide body on top. In the case of small groundwater fluctuations, Bingham's law may describe the velocity of these slow-moving landslides, with velocity as a linear function of excess shear stress. Many authors have stated that in most cases a non-linear version of Bingham's law best describes the moving pattern of these earth flows. However, such an exponential relationship fails to describe the hysteresis loop of the velocity, which was found by some authors. These authors showed that the velocity of the investigated earth flows proved to be higher during the rising limb of the groundwater than during the falling limb. To explain the hysteris loop in the velocity pattern, this paper considers the role of excess pore pressure in the rheological behaviour of earth flows by means of a mechanistic model. It describes changes in lateral internal stresses due to a change in the velocity of the earth flow, which generates excess pore pressure followed by pore pressure dissipation. Model results are compared with a hysteresis in the velocity pattern, which was measured on the Valette landslide complex (French Alps). Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]


Consolidation around stone columns.

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL FOR NUMERICAL AND ANALYTICAL METHODS IN GEOMECHANICS, Issue 7 2009
Influence of column deformation
Abstract A solution is presented for the radial consolidation around stone columns under constant surcharge load. The solution considers the influence of vertical and radial deformation of the column, either in elastic and elastoplastic regimes. The solution is in terms of the average excess pore pressure in the soil. It is based on previous solutions, initially developed for rigid column, or including only vertical deformation. For elastic column, the solution gives the variation of strains and stresses between the undrained and final states, for which it coincides with the existing elastic solutions. All the results are given in closed form, and both the elastic and plastic deformations of the column lead to an equivalent coefficient of consolidation for the radial flow, which enables the application of the existing methods of integration of the consolidation equation. A parametric study is presented, showing the influence of the main problem features. A design example is used to illustrate the application to practical cases. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]


Performance of Jacobi preconditioning in Krylov subspace solution of finite element equations

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL FOR NUMERICAL AND ANALYTICAL METHODS IN GEOMECHANICS, Issue 4 2002
F.-H. Lee
Abstract This paper examines the performance of the Jacobi preconditioner when used with two Krylov subspace iterative methods. The number of iterations needed for convergence was shown to be different for drained, undrained and consolidation problems, even for similar condition number. The differences were due to differences in the eigenvalue distribution, which cannot be completely described by the condition number alone. For drained problems involving large stiffness ratios between different material zones, ill-conditioning is caused by these large stiffness ratios. Since Jacobi preconditioning operates on degrees-of-freedom, it effectively homogenizes the different spatial sub-domains. The undrained problem, modelled as a nearly incompressible problem, is much more resistant to Jacobi preconditioning, because its ill-conditioning arises from the large stiffness ratios between volumetric and distortional deformational modes, many of which involve the similar spatial domains or sub-domains. The consolidation problem has two sets of degrees-of-freedom, namely displacement and pore pressure. Some of the eigenvalues are displacement dominated whereas others are excess pore pressure dominated. Jacobi preconditioning compresses the displacement-dominated eigenvalues in a similar manner as the drained problem, but pore-pressure-dominated eigenvalues are often over-scaled. Convergence can be accelerated if this over-scaling is recognized and corrected for. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]


Towards ground truthing exploration in the central Arctic Ocean: a Cenozoic compaction history from the Lomonosov Ridge

BASIN RESEARCH, Issue 2 2010
M. O'Regan
ABSTRACT The Integrated Ocean Drilling Program's Expedition 302, the Arctic Coring Expedition (ACEX), recovered the first Cenozoic sedimentary sequence from the central Arctic Ocean. ACEX provided ground truth for basin scale geophysical interpretations and for guiding future exploration targets in this largely unexplored ocean basin. Here, we present results from a series of consolidation tests used to characterize sediment compressibility and permeability and integrate these with high-resolution measurements of bulk density, porosity and shear strength to investigate the stress history and the nature of prominent lithostratigraphic and seismostratigraphic boundaries in the ACEX record. Despite moderate sedimentation rates (10,30 m Myr,1) and high permeability values (10,15,10,18 m2), consolidation and shear strength measurements both suggest an overall state of underconsolidation or overpressure. One-dimensional compaction modelling shows that to maintain such excess pore pressures, an in situ fluid source is required that exceeds the rate of fluid expulsion generated by mechanical compaction alone. Geochemical and sedimentological evidence is presented that identifies the Opal A,C/T transformation of biosiliceous rich sediments as a potential additional in situ fluid source. However, the combined rate of chemical and mechanical compaction remain too low to fully account for the observed pore pressure gradients, implying an additional diagenetic fluid source from within or below the recovered Cenozoic sediments from ACEX. Recognition of the Opal A,C/T reaction front in the ACEX record has broad reaching regional implications on slope stability and subsurface pressure evolution, and provides an important consideration for interpreting and correlating the spatially limited seismic data from the Arctic Ocean. [source]