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In this study, four full scale static compression tests were performed on a tapered steel jacking pile with diameters 76 mm and 89 mm in both dry and saturated soil conditions. Each test consists of multiple sub-tests with respect to determination of in-situ Baskarp Sand No.15 conditions and bearing capacities of the piles. Further, a finite element methodology has been developed to predict the load-displacement response of tapered piles installed in sand, incorporating the effects of jacking installation. The methodology is based on the identification of the failure mechanism and shear strain formation at failure around the pile as well as adoption of soil-soil interface elements. The nonlinear soil model parameters for a fully wished-in-place (fully-WIP) condition were obtained through piezocone penetration tests where various methods were applied to obtain the relative density, among which those providing best fit according to Jamiolokowski et al., (2003) were selected for further assessment. Finally, the hammer tests were performed from which the dynamic bearing capacities and the relation between static and dynamic bearing capacities were obtained.

Large offshore wind turbines are founded on jacket structures. In this study, an elastic full-space jacket structure foundation in an elastic and viscoelastic medium is investigated by using boundary integral equations. The jacket structure foundation is modeled as a hollow, long circular cylinder when the dynamic vertical excitation is applied. The smooth surface along the entire interface is considered. The Betti reciprocal theorem along with Somigliana’s identity and Green’s function are employed to drive the dynamic stiffness of jacket structures. Modes of the resonance and anti-resonance are presented in series of Bessel’s function. Important responses, such as dynamic stiffness and phase angle, are compared for different values of the loss factor as the material damping, Young’s modulus and Poisson’s ratio in a viscoelastic soil. Results are verified with known results reported in the literature. It is observed that the dynamic stiffness fluctuates with the loss factor, and the turning point is independent of the loss factor while the turning point increases with load frequency. It is seen that the non-dimensional dynamic stiffness is dependent on Young’s modulus and Poisson’s ratio, whilst the phase angle is independent of the properties of the soil. It is shown that the non-dimensional dynamic stiffness changes linearly with high-frequency load. The conclusion from the results of this study is that the material properties of soil are significant parameters in the dynamic stiffness of jacket structures, and the presented approach can unfold the behavior of soil and give an approachable physical meaning for wave propagation.

This paper aims at finding force-displacement relationships to be employed in the design of bucket foundations for offshore wind turbine. This is accomplished by combining small-scale tests and element tests within a theoretical framework. A similitude theory, regarding the lateral displacement of bucket foundations under horizontal load, is put forward. A constitutive law of the soil and a load-displacement relationship for the bucket foundation are theoretically obtained. Triaxial tests of sand, and small-scale tests of bucket foundation, are respectively employed to corroborate the theory. Attention is given to the different behaviour shown during the compressive and dilative phases of the soil. Some analogy between triaxial tests and tests of bucket foundation are pointed out. A theoretically derived power law is found capable to represent the dimensionless horizontal load-displacement curves of experimental results. In accordance with the theory, the exponent of the power law slightly varies between tests with considerably different features. The non-dimensional moment-rotation relationship is represented by a power law as well. The approach is considered valid for fatigue design. The study may be an interesting source for further researches on long-term cyclic horizontal loading.

Convention does not provide a solution combining drained and undrained response, loss and recovery of sand stiffness, all in one irregular loading sequence. Alas, such solution is necessary for designing offshore wind turbine foundations and predicting soil behavior during (and after) seismic events. To gain deeper understanding of the fundamental phenomenon governing disturbed sand behavior, unconventional testing procedures were attempted using a frictionless triaxial apparatus. The resulting observations revealed a new physical phenomenon (deformation dependent stiffness hysteresis loops). The new observations were then used to derive an unconventional model (BSM), which uses a strain (deformation) envelope.

The aim of this paper is to define a guideline for an objective interpretation of oedometer tests on Yoldia clay. The approach followed consists in a first analysis where the separation of strains is applied to the consolidation curves. During this phase, primary consolidation strains are filtered from creep by using Brinch-Hansen, Taylor and ANACONDA method. The second phase of the interpretation aims to determine the preconsolidation stress according to three different theories (Akai, Janbu and Casagrande - Terzaghi). The preconsolidation stress values, as well as the consolidation curves, are slightly influenced by the separation of strains method applied, while using different preconsolidation stress theories deeply affects the final results.

This paper is concerned principally with the application of Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) in geotechnical engineering. In particular the application of ANN is discussed in more detail for subsurface soil layering and landslide analysis. Two ANN models are trained to predict subsurface soil layering and landslide risk using data collected from a study area in northern Iran. Given the three-dimensional coordinates of soil layers present in thirty boreholes as training data, our first ANN successfully predicted the depth and type of subsurface soil layers at new locations in the region. The agreement between the ANN outputs and actual data is over 90 % for all test cases. The second ANN was designed to recognize the probability of landslide occurrence at 200 sampling points which were not used in training. The neural network outputs are very close (over 92 %) to risk values calculated by the finite element method or by Bishop's method.

Appropriate modeling of offshore foundations under monotonic loading is a significant challenge in geotechnical engineering. This paper reports experimental and numerical analyses, specifically investigating the response of circular surface footings during monotonic loading and elastoplastic behavior during reloading. By using the findings presented in this paper, it is possible to extend the model to simulate the vertical-load displacement response of offshore bucket foundations.

Chemotherapy treatment of cancer remains a challenge due to the molecular and functional heterogeneity displayed by tumours originating from the same cell type. The pronounced heterogeneity makes it difficult for oncologists to devise an effective therapeutic strategy for the patient. One approach for increasing treatment efficacy is to test the chemosensitivity of cancer cells obtained from the patient's tumour. 3D culture represents a promising method for modelling patient tumours in vitro. The aim of this study was therefore to evaluate how closely short-term spheroid cultures of primary colorectal cancer cells resemble the original tumour. Colorectal cancer cells were isolated from human tumour tissue and cultured as spheroids. Spheroid cultures were established with a high success rate and remained viable for at least 10 days. The spheroids exhibited significant growth over a period of 7 days and no difference in growth rate was observed for spheroids of different sizes. Comparison of spheroids with the original tumour revealed that spheroid culture generally preserved adenocarcinoma histology and expression patterns of cytokeratin 20 and carcinoembryonic antigen. Interestingly, spheroids had a tendency to resemble tumour protein expression more closely after 10 days of culture compared to 3 days. Chemosensitivity screening using spheroids from five patients demonstrated individual response profiles. This indicates that the spheroids maintained patient-to-patient differences in sensitivity towards the drugs and combinations most commonly used for treatment of colorectal cancer. In summary, short-term spheroid culture of primary colorectal adenocarcinoma cells represents a promising in vitro model for use in personalized medicine.