Description:
In this paper, we discuss two alternate techniques to treat hanging nodes in a quadtree mesh. Both the techniques share similarities, in that, they require only boundary information. Moreover, they do not require an explicit form of the shape functions, unlike the conventional approaches, for example, as in the work of Gupta (Int J Numer Methods Eng 12:35, 1978) or Tabarraei and Sukumar (Finite Elem Anal Des 41:686, 2005). Hence, no special numerical integration technique is required. One of the techniques relies on the strain projection procedure, whilst the other is based on the scaled boundary finite element method. Numerical examples are presented to demonstrate the accuracy and the convergence properties of the two techniques.
Description:
In this paper, we discuss two alternate techniques to treat hanging nodes in a quadtree mesh. Both the techniques share similarities, in that, they require only boundary information. Moreover, they do not require an explicit form of the shape functions, unlike the conventional approaches, for example, as in the work of Gupta (Int J Numer Methods Eng 12:35, 1978) or Tabarraei and Sukumar (Finite Elem Anal Des 41:686, 2005). Hence, no special numerical integration technique is required. One of the techniques relies on the strain projection procedure, whilst the other is based on the scaled boundary finite element method. Numerical examples are presented to demonstrate the accuracy and the convergence properties of the two techniques.
Description:
Menard pressuremeter testing has been widely used in geotechnical engineering applications for 40 years and is an important technique in determining in-situ horizontal stress distributions. In this study, Menard pressuremeter testing is combined with a "cookie-cutter" insertion technique to determine horizontal stresses for a soft-rock in an operational Australian mine. The method presents an alternative to the Self-Bored Pressuremeter, with cookie-cutter drill rods allowing for sample recovery and further laboratory testing. The method accommodates for the presence of gravel and hard layered materials that present a risk of damage to cutting shoes of Self-Bored Pressuremeter devices. The combination of a sonic drill rig, coupled with the cookie cutter rods produces a close tolerance pocket resulting in "pseudo self boring pressuremeter tests". The undrained shear strength, unload-reload shear modulus and in-situ horizontal stress are presented from pressuremeter tests conducted in the region for the first time. The undrained shear strength was observed in the range of 0.47-0.57 MPa, the unload-reload shear modulus between 17.43 and 18.25 MPa, the lift-off pressure in the range of 0.35-0.61 MPa. The K-0 of coal was equal to 1, with interseam materials ranging from 2.1 to 3.5. Results of the cookie-cutter insertion method are compared with conventional drilling methods, with the cookie-cutter insertion test providing results in good agreement with both advanced triaxial laboratory tests and FEM numerical analysis. Cookie-cutter pressuremeter tests were conducted on cohesive soils at Australia's second-largest open-pit mine, with pressuremeter test results presented for Victorian brown coal for the first time.