This paper reports the findings of research examining the blast resistance of bridge piers that are designed in accordance with current knowledge and specifications to ensure ductile seismic performance. Blast testing was conducted on 1/4 scale ductile RC columns, and nonductile RC columns retrofitted with steel jacketing. The seismically designed RC and steel jacketed RC columns did not exhibi...

Direct shear (DS), simple (DSS) and Triaxial tests with controlled rates were performed in two soils from the Baixada Fluminense region, city of São João do Meriti – Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The question are deposited on non-compacted soft soil addition Municipal Solid Waste (MSW). Both samples compacted excavated at a depth 10.0 m, undisturbed collected. In both tests, rate 0.043 mm/min was ado...

In recent years, geotechnical engineers have paid much attention on reliability-based design. The probability density functions (PDFs) of the uncertain soil parameters are required for the reliability-based design. Once these PDFs are obtained, reliability analysis can be conducted, and reliability-based design can be achieved. Among the soil parameters, soil strengths play important roles in g...

One of the most common methods to measure soil mechanical properties (namely cohesion and internal friction angle) is direct shear box test. In this paper the development of a three-dimensional (3D) discrete element soil model for simulation of a cohesive soil’s direct shear test is presented. The aim was to calibrate the properties of the Hertz-Mindlin with bonding contact model available in E...

During severe impact conditions, brain tissue experiences a rapid and complex deformation, which can be seen as a mixture of compression, tension and shear. Diffuse axonal injury (DAI) occurs in animals and humans when both the strains and strain rates exceed 10% and 10/s, respectively. Knowing the mechanical properties of brain tissue in shear at these strains and strain rates is thus of parti...

We study the effect of particle cohesion on the steady state shear strength of a granular material. For cohesive powders, the steady state shear loci (termination loci) from DEM simulations are nonlinear with a peculiar pressure dependence due to the non-linear increase of contact adhesion with pressure in the contact model. Physical experiments are carried out on fine limestone powder in the d...

Articular chondrocytes experience a variety of mechanical stimuli during daily activity. One such stimulus, direct shear, is known to affect chondrocyte homeostasis and induce catabolic or anabolic pathways. Understanding how single chondrocytes respond biomechanically and morphologically to various levels of applied shear is an important first step toward elucidating tissue level responses and...