Instead of ‘researching’ for perfected (yet rejected) solutions, IMAG-DLO stresses the need for a farmer participatory approach towards: local development of less perfect, yet accepted practical and low-cost technologies; based on simple and durable equipment designs suitable for local manufacture.

Displacement Coefficient Method (DCM) stipulated in the ASCE 41-06 standard is becoming the preferred method for seismic rehabilitation of buildings in many high-seismic-hazard countries. Applications of the method for non-building constructions such as bridges are beyond the scope of this standard. Thus its application to this kind of structure should be approached with care. Target displaceme...

Block volumes are generally estimated by analyzing the discontinuity spacing measurements obtained either from the scan lines placed over the rock exposures or the borehole cores. Discontinuity spacing measurements made at the Mesozoic limestone quarries in Karaburun Peninsula were used to estimate the average block volumes that could be produced from them using the suggested methods in the lit...

A numerical method is presented herein to study soil-pile interaction systems in a stratified media. The method is based on a coupling of the finite element method and the boundary element method. The near field is modeled by the finite elements whereas the far field is modeled by the boundary dement formulation using the multi-layer dynamic fimdamental solution that satisfies the radiation con...

An extended isogeometric analysis (XIGA) approach is proposed for modeling fracturing in a fluid-saturated porous material. XIGA provides definition of the discontinuity independent underlying mesh layout, which obviates need knowing crack extension direction priori. Unlike Lagrange shape functions used standard finite element approach, non-uniform rational B-splines (NURBS) provide higher-orde...

A generalized harmonic balance method is used to calculate the periodic solutions of a nonlinear oscillator with discontinuities for which the elastic force term is proportional to sgn(x). This method is a modification of the generalized harmonic balance method in which analytical approximate solutions have rational form. This approach gives us not only a truly periodic solution but also the fr...

The limit equilibrium model, used in displacement discontinuity codes, is a popular method to simulate pillar failure. This paper investigates the use of physical modelling calibrate this model. For experiments, an artificial material was prepared and cubes were poured using standard 100 mm χ civil engineering concrete moulds. friction angle between platens testing machine varied by soap sandpa...

A new automatic method for discontinuity traces mapping and sampling on a rock mass digital model is described in this work. The implemented procedure allows one to automatically identify discontinuity traces on a Digital Surface Model: traces are detected directly as surface breaklines, by means of maximum and minimum principal curvature values of the vertices that constitute the model surface...