reportoncodeusageexercisefordeepsoilv2.5(.docVIP

Report on Code Usage Exercise for DEEPSOIL V2.5 (Installed on an XP Home Edition system) Notes regarding observed code limitations and opportunities for improvement of user’s manual The definition of reference strain in DEEPSOIL is ?m0/Gm0 where Gmo is the initial small strain secant shear modulus, i.e. Gmax. ?mo is suggested to be the shear stress at approximately 1% shear strain. It would be convenient for users to be given two alternatives for estimating reference strain: (a) using the above definition, which requires the estimation of the shear strength at rapid strain rates or (b) the shear strain at which G/Gmax = 0.5, which arises from hyperbolic fits of G/Gmax curves according to , where ?r = reference strain and a is a fitting parameter generally taken as 0.92. The advantages of the second option for estimating reference strain are two fold. First, when site-specific lab-based modulus reduction curves are available, reference strain can be readily evaluated from those curves. Second, in the absence of site specific curves, users can refer to convenient guidelines for estimating ?r as a function of soil type, overburden, etc. from Darendeli (2001). Extended MKZ model (which includes pressure dependency, also referred to as extended modified hyperbolic model) utilized in DEEPSOIL seems to be incapable of accurately capturing the damping at large strains. The damping is usually overestimated. Not sure how to avoid this – no guidance provided in users manual. User’s manual does not provide guidelines on what constitutes a good fit of the modulus reduction and damping curves. It is not clear how users should trade off between a good fit of modulus reduction curves versus a good fit of damping curves. Moreover, we suggest that discussion on how to handle confining pressure dependency should be included in the manual. For example, user could either use a set of modulus reduction and damping curves that are specifically determined for soil materials at differen