Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
1 INTRODUCTION
An earthquake of magnitude M W ΒΌ
7.4 struck northwestern Turkey on August
17, 1999, resulting in widespread destruction and loss of life. Peak accelerations
of up to 0.4 g were measured in areas near the fault. Following the earthquake, the
authors traveled to Turkey to document the field performance of improved soil
sites and mechanically stabilized embankments (MSE) in the affected area. Five
soil improvement sites were studied in detail, and more than 10 MSEs were
investigated. The findings indicated that improved soil sites and MSE walls
performed well in most cases. Of particular significance was the performance of
two reinforced earth (RE) walls located at the site of the Arifiye Bridge overpass.
These walls performed well and suffered little damage despite being subjected to
strong ground shaking and large ground displacements.
The Arifiye Bridge is located along the Trans European Motorway about,
10 Km south of the town of Adapazari, as shown in Fig. 1. The site is located at
the zone of energy release, as the surficial fault rupture passed directly beneath
the site. The bridge, which was constructed in 1988 and destroyed in the 1999
earthquake, consisted of four simply supported spans resting on approach
abutments and three mid-span pier supports. The two wing walls of the northern
approach abutment were constructed using conventional reinforced earth (RE)
Figure 1
Setting of the Kocaeli earthquake (August 17, 1999).
 
Search WWH ::




Custom Search