Semester

Spring

Date of Graduation

2005

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Type

MS

College

Statler College of Engineering and Mineral Resources

Department

Civil and Environmental Engineering

Committee Chair

Roger H. L. Chen.

Abstract

Soil is a particulate material, which provides a unique behavior when interacting with its adjacent structure. Emphases of this study are placed on the simulation of the behavior of a target plate and a buried structure. An analytical modeling technique, explicit Finite Element Method (FEM) by ABAQUS was used to simulate the dynamic responses of the plate and buried structure: (1) a plate resting on elastic half space under impact loading; (2) buried structure under a shock impulse system.;In the first analysis, a free-drop impact system was considered to generate the dynamic loading on the plate free surface. Two FEM models were built, one with a slide line underneath the target plate and another one without the slide line. The numerical results (FEM) of the radial strain at the bottom of the target plate were compared with the experimental measurement. The numerical results show good agreement with the experimental results.;In the second analysis, a cylindrical buried structure was considered, and low-velocity impact loadings were generated into the soil. A FEM model with slide line underneath the target plate and each sand layer was built. Under dynamic loading, the buried structure and the soil medium will be traveling at different speeds and will separate from one another at certain moment in time. By modeling soil and structure as separate entities and allowing soil/structure separation, the numerical models are shown to have good correlation with experimental observation of the peak displacement of the buried roof. The results show that smaller amounts of sand-layers beneath the aluminum plate experienced larger displacements but shorter durations than with large amounts of sand-layers.

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