2014 Fifth International Conference on Intelligent Systems Design and Engineering Applications

Research on Seismic Load and Input Methods of Underground Cavities

MU Chunlai, LIU Change, ZHANG Zhiguo, SHAO Nian

Changjiang Survey, Planning, Design and Research Co., Ltd, Wuhan 430010,China
E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract—The selection of seismic wave, meshing of finite PT  A T  A( KT u  CT u ) (1b)

element, input methods of wave load are of a great influence
on the accuracy in simulating the earthquake response by time In which,
history method. The method of oblique incidence of seismic G G
KN  N ˈK T   T
wave in space which is suitable for seismic analysis of
R R , CN  cpˈCT  cs
underground cavern is put forward by considering the
direction , multifaceted and the consistency of the seismic wave K ˈK T are normal and tangential spring
In which: N
incident. The selection of seismic load and FEM principle are
discussed. The solution precision is higher by comparing with  ˈ T are respectively for normal and tangential
stiffness, N
the classic examples.
C ˈCT are normal and tangential
correction coefficient; N
damping coefficient; uˈu are the displacement, velocity of
Keywords-underground caverns ˗ three dimensional finite
element method˗Seismic wave input
c ˈc
boundary nodes, p s are medium compression wave and
I. INTRODUCTION shear wave velocity, G is shear modulus,  is medium
The reasonable seismic wave input is directly related to density, R is the distance from waves to artificial boundary
the rationality and the accuracy of calculation results in the point; A is the representative area of boundary point.
calculating dynamic time history of earthquake disaster of The quality matrix of this program in the paper is the
underground caverns. And this is always the hot researching lumped mass matrix. Each grid node represents its
pot in China and abroad. surrounding real quality distribution. To ensure the
Studies by J. B. Liu, etc [1, 2] in the underground consistency of the node representative area of the artificial
structure dynamic time history analysis of the artificial boundary in the calculation and node representative quality,
boundary and the seismic load input method; HaiBo Li, etc boundary point representative area A is 1/4 of boundary
[4] in the earthquake loading input method of underground grid surface area of related node.
For incident boundary, according to the principle of
cavern groupZhiguo Zhang , etc [5] in three dimensional
wave field decomposition, at the moment of tn, the motion
dynamic elastic-plastic FEM implicit solution. Previous
state of boundary point is superposition of incident wave
research almost focus on the field of a theory and not
field and scattering wave field. The incident wave field can
considering the direction, multifaceted and the consistency of
be directly calculated according to the incident seismic time
the seismic wave incident of underground caverns.
history curve. Scattering wave field is the layman wave
The input method seismic wave solution in time history
solution are studied and the selection of seismic wave and from model inside and can be calculated by finite element
FEM principle are discussed for the incident characters of time step in the model. It is considered to be the motion
seismic wave in earthquake disaster of underground caverns. state of boundary point of last time step in the center
The solution is proved to have a high precision in the difference method. For transmission boundary, according to
numerical calculation. the principle of wave field decomposition, at the moment of
tn the motion state of boundary point is the superposition of
II. THE ARTIFICIAL BOUNDARY free field and scattering wave field. The solution of
2.1 Explicit format of viscoelasticity artificial scattering wave field and incident boundary are the same
boundary and the free field can be obtained by Fourier transform.
Viscoelasticity artificial boundary is artificial boundary It can be seen from formula (1), the concentrated force
of stress type. It can be simulated by adding a group of is applied on viscoelastic artificial boundary through the
spring on each 3 degree of freedom and damper. The force boundary point. Therefore, the artificial boundary force is
solution of model boundary nodes should be done according considered to be external force which applied in the
to the following formulas: boundary of the model, and the calculation can be
(1) Normal direction, simplified and independence between calculation modules
PN  A N  A( K N u  CN u ) of program can be enhanced. But, the discretization of
(1a) viscoelastic artificial boundary calculation on in time
(2) The tangential direction, domain time is half time step different to the center
difference method and the potential numerical stability

978-1-4799-4261-9/14 $31.00 © 2014 IEEE 853

DOI 10.1109/ISDEA.2014.190
problem is caused. The time discretization dissonance Seismic wave schedule of reference plane is
mainly includes: the boundary force calculated from the U i  Wi (t ) (i = 1̚3), the fluctuation time-history of each
layman wave field of boundary point at the tn moment is
calculated as boundary load to participate in the calculation node on incident boundary OA, OB as shown in figure 1 is:
of time tn+1. The instability situation can be avoided by U i  Wi (t  t )(1   L)
using smaller time step.
t  L/c
2.2 Seismic load input (2)
The input method of seismic wave load is mainly In which: t is propagation time of seismic wave from
research on the wave function on incident boundary as the reference plane to border incident node, L is the distance
described in article [8,9]. Hydropower underground cavern from incident node to reference plane, c for seismic wave
group is usually buried deep in the rock mass. In the
earthquake catastrophe simulation, it can not be analyzed velocity,  is the attenuation coefficient of seismic
like the surface buildings (Bridges, dams, etc). Seismic amplitude value along the propagation distance; U are
wave should be considered not only incident from the respectively the seismic displacement, velocity, acceleration,
bottom, but also incident from many boundaries that faced i is coordinate component.
wave (see Fig.1). In the calculation of earthquake time history, the first
In figure 1, the time of seismic waves to reach the model thing is to inverse and input the seismic wave of reference
grid node of incident boundary OA, OB is different, so at the plane and the attenuation coefficient  of seismic wave
same time fluctuation state of each node is different and the
according to the surface monitoring datum. The seismic
inconsistency should be considered.
wave form of boundary node is input by formula (2) on the
base of that. Combined with schematic Fig. 1, specific
process is as follows:
(1) The surface monitoring point is supposed to be
point D. The model of the whole project area including
surface monitoring point, fault, and different rock layer is
established. The big model grid is mainly used in the field
of regional fluctuation inversion; the grid size can be set
bigger, but need to satisfy the frequency domain
requirements of seismic wave spectrum analysis.
(2)The input seismic wave of reference plane PQ of the
U  Wi (t )(1   L3 ) , input the seismic wave of
big model is i
Figure 1. Diagram of incident seismic waves in underground
each node on boundary OB, OE according to formula (2).
In the seismic analysis of underground cavern, in order (3)The seismic waveform of point D is considered as
to consider the inconsistencies of oblique incidence and the convergence control standards to do the elastic finite
boundary wave field of seismic wave boundary, space element wave solution of the big model and get attenuation
coefficient  of the seismic wave inversion.
oblique incidence method of seismic wave is put forward in
this paper.
(4) A small model OACB used to analyze the
The analysis area for underground cavern model can be
elastoplastic damage dynamic time history is established.
seen as a particle since it is so small compared to the real
Waveform of incident boundary node of small model is
seismic area .The seismic wave of project area can be
calculated according to the seismic wave attenuation
viewed as plane wave. Furthermore, the fluctuation state of
each particle on the plane which is vertical to the seismic coefficient  and waveform of reference plane so as to do
wave propagation direction can be seen as (plane PQ in the three-dimensional elastic and plastic damage time
figure 1) consistent. history calculation.
Definition: the reference input point (point O in fig.1) The simulation is more real because that the incidence
is the model boundary point that earthquake plane wave characteristics of seismic wave of underground cavern are
first arrives. It is vertical to the direction of seismic wave considered in the input method and polyhedral incident and
propagation, and the reference plane is the space plane non-uniformity features of boundary waveform are reflected.
through the reference point (plane PQ in fig.1). A number of numerical contrast tests of space oblique
Assumptions: according to the research result of incidence and bottom incident have been made by author
HuJinJun and Xie Lili [10], it can be supposed that if the without detailed description due to the limitation of paper.
seismic wave spread in smaller engineering area, there is The test results show that the underground cavern space
only seismic amplitude value influenced by the rock mass oblique incidence method is better than the bottom incident
damping and it has a linear attenuation. method since model damage area and damage degree
increased significantly. It is proposed that the incident

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polyhedral and non-uniformity should be considered in the IV. WAVEFORM PROCESSING AND MESH SIZE
underground cavern earthquake catastrophe simulation to The accuracy of calculation results are directly
ensure the safety of engineering and avoid serious accident. impacted by the rationality of the input of seismic waves.
III. SEISMIC WAVE LOADS Baseline correction and filtering processing of seismic
waves should be done before the calculation. Baseline
The premise of underground cavern group earthquake correction is to eliminate the drift phenomenon of model in
catastrophe process simulation is the selection of scientific the calculation of actual measured seismic waves. Filtering
seismic wave. The reliability of calculation is directly processing is to eliminate the invalid band of numerical
affected. At present, there are no standards and calculation of the seismic wave, maintain effective band and
specifications for the selection or artificial synthesis of ensure the calculation accuracy. The determination
seismic waves of hydropower station underground cavern principles of effective band of seismic waves in the
group, and people don’t have a common sense in this underground cavern are:
academic circles. In the analysis of practical engineering, (1)If each time step distance in the explicit calculation
the seismic wave selection or artificial synthesis is often is tt, the effective band is 1/Td̚1/2 t [3] in theory of
according to document[11] method. Although the code is
digital load of the duration time Td = N t˗
mainly for seismic design of building on the ground, but the
basic principles and ideas are worthy reference in the (2) It should satisfy the condition of t/Thİ0.1 to
seismic analysis of underground cavern. ensure the seismic waveform can be reflected by the
(1)The seismic effect can be estimated according to discrete time step t (in which, Th is the shortest period in
the limited samples because of the unpredictability and the input of seismic waves;
diversity measured in the seismic wave of the future (3) Power spectrum of the input seismic waves is
earthquake. Hydropower station underground cavern is analyzed and 90% energy frequency band is kept.
generally located in the mountains of the seismic wave field (4) Frequency band of seismic wave input should
with little seismic wave data in history. In the specific satisfy the accurate analysis of model grid. After the
engineering analysis, the epicentre structure should be completion of finite element mesh model, the effective
comprehensive analyzed of the engineering area and frequency band which can be analyzed has been determined.
relative historical seismic record data and seismic waves c c
should be collected. At the same time, similar seismic Usually effective frequency of model is 10 Le max
̚ 10 Le min
.
waves in at home and abroad should be selected according
In which, Le , Le are the max and minimum unit
max min

to landform, strata lithology, fault distribution and so on,

feature sizes. The phenomenon of "low frequency drift" and
analogy. The seismic waves are made to be the initial large
"high frequency oscillation" may appear to affect the
sample.
accuracy of calculation if input frequency band beyond the
(2)According to the three elements of vibration of
effective frequency band with the viscoelastic artificial
earthquake which are spectrum characteristics, effective
boundary used in this program.
peak, and duration time, groups of seismic wave that have
There are close relations between input seismic wave
larege influences on underground cavern are selected to be
frequency and the model grid size. The relation is not only
small samples.
include frequency band in formula(4), but also the grid size
The spectrum characteristics should satisfy the group
should be bigger than the propagation distance in a time
requirements of site category and design ground motion. At
step from a physical sense which is also the establishment
the same time, low frequency wave which has a great
principle of formula (5). To ensure the precision of the
influence on underground cavern is better to be choosed.
calculation, regulations in standard says the grid size in the
Generally speaking, the larger the effective peak and
wave propagation direction should be in the range of 1/8 ~
duration time is, the bigger seismic effect of underground
1/12 of shortest wave length. A large amount of numerical
cavern is. Quantity of small sample capacity generally is not
model tests have been done by the author that the limit of
less than three groups.
grid size is difficult to transcend 1/8.
In the actual catastrophe simulation of underground
cavern group earthquake in the hydropower station, seismic V. PROGRAM VERIFICATION
waves of three directions X, Y, Z should be input due to the
asymmetry distribution of geological structure and cavern In order to validate the correctness of viscoelasticity
structure of three dimensional spac. At the same time, it is artificial boundary, the numerical example calculation of
important to mention that the selection of seismic waves FLAC3D in manual [6] is used.
and artifitial synthetic requires people with a higher project a horizontal elastic rod, length is 50 m, width is 1 m,
experience. So it is suggested that professional earthquake elastic modulus is 25.7 MPa, poison ratio 0.286, density 1
workers or seismological bureau are provided in the job of 000 kg/m3. A vertical impact load is applied on the left end,
specific project measure or artificial synthetic seismic wave. right end is free surface and artificial boundary is applied in
the left end. Initial stress, self-weight, etc are not considered

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in the calculation. It is divided into 3 conditions: condition 1,
viscous boundary without considering damping (K = 0);
Condition 2, viscous boundary considering damping (K = 0);
Condition 3, viscoelastic boundary without considering
damping (K  0). Model of example is shown in figure 2.

Figure 2. FEM model of example Figure 3. Velocity time history of monitored point

The velocity response of 3 typical nodes such as It can be seen, the setting of artificial boundary in this
(bottom, center and top part) is recorded (in fig.3). program is reasonable and effective.
Condition 1, damping is not considered, the velocity
response of bottom point and input load are completely VI. CONCLUSIONS
consistent. The waveform time step of monitoring sites is The input method seismic wave solution in time
the same to wave propagation time. The free surface history solution are studied and the selection of seismic
velocity amplitude of top point is twice of input load. The wave and FEM principle are discussed for the incident
last two pulses are waves reflected from free surface of the characters of seismic wave in earthquake disaster of
model and the vibration is finished when the reflection underground caverns. The solution is proved to have a high
wave propagation to the bottom. The calculation results are precision in the numerical calculation.
the same to the results of FLAC3D. Condition 2, damping is
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