Foundation Analysis and Design

Sinking maps, created by Northern Virginia Community College professor Joan Marie Giampa, are tools that teach fine art students how to construct visual metaphor by conceptually mapping sensory perceptions. Her dissertation answers the question, "Can visual metaphor be conceptually mapped in the art classroom?" In the Prologue, Giampa explains the origins of developing a methodology for sinking maps. This development derived from her analysis of her 1993 painting "Fish Pot", as well as her coursework and teaching experiences. In the Introduction, she explains that metaphor becomes visual by applying traditional, rhetorical methods for mapping knowledge (known as thinking maps). The Review of Literature summaries and analyses these thinking maps (Circle, Bubble, Double Bubble, Tree, Brace, Flow, Multi-Flow, and Bridge) to show that they can become visual metaphors (by themselves or blended together to form new conceptual maps). The Research Methodology lays out the study she conducted in her Design 131 class during the fall 2011 semester. The study asked students to complete a series of data sheets to develop visual metaphor maps. Then, they were asked to go into groups and combine their maps with other students to develop a group theme for a final group project. The Data and Results show that all eight participants are able to develop visual metaphors from the sinking map tool and successfully combine their maps to generate group connections and themes. The Appendixes list the forms and worksheets used for the study.

Arshad M. and O'Kelly B.C. (2016) Analysis and design of monopile foundations for offshore wind-turbine structures. Marine Georesources and Geotechnology, vol. 34, issue 6, pp. 503–525.

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1064119X.2015.1033070

Offshore wind turbines (OWTs) are generally supported by large-diameter monopiles, with the combination of axial forces, lateral forces, bending moments, and torsional moments generated by the OWT structure and various environmental factors resisted by earth pressures mobilized in the soil foundation. The lateral loading on the monopile foundation is essentially cyclic in nature and typically of low amplitude. This state-of-the-art review paper presents details on the geometric design, nominal size, and structural and environmental loading for existing and planned OWT structures supported by monopile foundations. Pertinent ocean-environment loading conditions, including methods of calculation using site-specific data, are described along with wave particle kinematics, focusing on correlations between the loading frequency and natural vibration frequency of the OWT structure. Existing
methods for modeling soil under cyclic loading are reviewed, focusing in particular on strain accumulation models that consider pile–soil interaction under cyclic lateral loading. Inherent limitations/shortcomings of these models for the analysis and design of existing and planned OWT monopile foundations are discussed. A design example of an OWT support structure having a monopile foundation system is presented. Target areas for further research by the wind-energy sector, which would facilitate the development of improved analyses/design methods for offshore monopiles, are identified.

In this paper the results and conclusions from a small scale model test on shallow circular foundation subjected to uplift force are presented. The foundation is embedded in uniform granular incoherent material compacted with different moisture content. The objective of this study has been to estimate the accuracy of some existing theoretical and empirical methods for determination of the uplift capacity as well as to see which theory gives best estimation of the uplift force. The test results had confirmed that some of the empirical theories underestimate but more important other overestimate the uplift accuracy. Moreover, a numerical model of the experiment had been used to confirm the findings. Thus, it can be concluded that the degree of compaction, the film cohesion and the water content have great influence on the uplift capacity and the failure mechanism.