Japan - August 10, 2003

Hi everybody:


Busy, busy, busy! Sorry I'm a week delayed with this update but things have been a bit hectic. All is well though as I'm beginning to wind down things here at the DPRI and am preparing for a visit to Tokyo for summer program closing ceremonies (the first photo at right is of the fine gents I've been working for all summer at the DPRI.) Then it's off to Okinawa for a week of scuba diving!

Last weekend was the most action packed thus far. I started by joining three friends (Rich, Ruth, and Luke) from Great Britian to go see a fireworks display down in Osaka. The display was in honor of the founder of a rather strange group called the Liberty Church the details of which are rather sketchy at this point; I've heard through the grapevine that they may be a bit cultish. In any case they put on a great display and boy was it packed. So crowded in fact that Rich and I missed the last train back to Uji and ended up sleeping on Ruth's floor for the night (thanks Ruth!)



The next day was spent with Rich and Ben (another NHMJer) at the Osaka aquarium. It doesn't quite stack up to the good old John G. Shedd Aquarium in Chi town but it was still pretty spectacular. I had a blast experimenting with my digital camera trying to get good shots of the aquatic life through glass with blue washed light and while surrounded by about a million other tourists. Highlights included a whale shark (amazing but somehow sad to see something that big in captivity), a great array of jelly fish, and thelargest crab species anywhere (Japanese Spider Crab). That evening was followed up with a birthday celebration for Rich at an all you can eatbeer garden on top of the Gion Hotel in Kyoto.

Sunday, Ben and I hit Osaka again to visit the Osaka castle and to go to an Osaka Kintetsu Buffaloes baseball game. I am now officialy a Buffaloes fan (don't worry Pop, the Go!Go! Whitesox are still my favorite team.) We ended up getting in for free as some kind gent had two tickets he couldn't use. We had planned on the cheap seats but were offered two other seats in the official fan section by a very nice eye doctor and his girlfriend from Kyoto; as it turned out he had studied in the US and spoke English very well. The game was pretty good and kept exciting for us as the fans went nuts the entire time their team was up to bat. No, really, I mean non-stop buck wild cheering, flag waving, stomping, trumpet playing fanaticism with a different cheer for each batter. There were two US players for Osaka, Toughy Rohdes and Ken Bairnes (a pitcher from the LA Dodgers on "farm relief"). The most amazing thing I saw during the game was the pitcher from the opposing team (Chibba Lotte Marines.) This guy had a side arm pitch that included totaly bending at the waste to release the ball from below his own knee i.e. he pitched predominantly up towards the batter as opposed to down with an overhand pitch; mind boggeling. If anyone knows of a US pitcher with a similar style I'd definately like to hear about it.

I hope everyone is having a good end to the summer an isn't to bummed about going back to school, end of vacation, etc. Talk to you soon.

Matt


Dr. Susumu Iai, Matt, and Dr. Tetsuo Tobita, Uji, Japan, July 2003(Sorry Tetsuo and I are so sweaty but there wasn't any AC in the lab until last week! Atsui!)


Osaka Buffaloes Fans... Go Go Buffaloes!, Osaka, Japan, August 2003





Osaka Aquarium Jelly Fish, Osaka, Japan, August 2003


Sunset over Kyoto from the Gion Hotel Roof, Kyoto, Japan, August 2003


Kintetsu Buffaloes Osaka Dome, Osaka, Japan, August 2003

Japan - Summer 2003 Research

Hello All,

So it seems that my many travel updates have given the impression that I’ve been on vacation the entire summer. This is not entirely untrue since I know I’ve had a lot of fun but, I also spent a good deal of time participating in research at the DPRI. A brief summary of the work I performed follows.

In a nut shell the purpose of my efforts at the DPRI geomechanics division was to generate experimental data for comparison to and validation of the numerical modeling results of a computer code developed by Dr. Susumu Iai. The code is called FLIP, is based on the finite element method, and is used for the 2D analysis of lateral pile deflection in soil. The basic output of concern for this program are vector displacement fields corresponding to the nodes of the finite element mesh used to define the soil surrounding the pile. Two cases were considered for a model pile displacing through soil; drained and undrained. The drained condition was the first and easiest case tackled followed by the somewhat more difficult undrained testing.The basic test setup consisted of an aluminum test bed having inner dimensions of 80 cm by 50 cm by 4 cm depth. The model pile was fabricated from Teflon, has dimensions of 5 cm diameter by 4.2 cm height, and was constructed in a modular fashion with intermediate compressible gasket to allow for intimate and continuous contact between the pile top and acrylic cover bottom. The acrylic cover was attached to the test bed with a series of perimeter bolts and gasket between the cover and test bed wall. The model pile was attached by wirerope to a lateral load mechanism via an opening at one end of the test bed fit with a tight bushing.

The information I’ve listed above describes the extent of fabrication work Iai-sensei and Tobita-san had completed prior to my arrival. The methodology to be employed for generation of experimental vector displacement fields was left up to me and is to be the foundation for the remaining three years of research left for this program. At the end of the summer I passed on all the test methods and data that I had developed to Iai-sensei and specifically to the ever estute and diligent Mr. Keita Yamaguchi who was recently accepted for masters work at the DPRI. A brief description of the general test method for each condition is given below.

For the drained or dry condition a hopper was employed to “drop” silica sand into the test bed. The sand was then smoothed by hand using a system of aluminum tracks and a 100 cm aluminum ruler. A plastic frame was then employed to place a red dyed silica sand grid around the model pile. The pile was latterly displaced via the load mechanism with motions recorded by digital still photography and video tape. The gathered visual data was then used to track the nodes of the red sand grid and draw displacement vectors using the Surfer software package. A similar process was repeated using a x25 microscope to record the motion of the pile. In this instance, due to the extreme magnification, the red sand grid was replaced with randomly sprinkled red colored sand. This data was again processed with the Surfer program to obtain a vector displacement field.

For the undrained condition silica sand was mixed with a series of liquids. Problems initially arosefrom settling of the sand resulting in increased pore water pressure and “bleeding” to the top of the sand layer. This had the effect of washing away the red sand dots used to track soil displacement and obscuring the pile top from recording equipment. This problem was solved by testing different mixtures of water and a cellulose base compound called Metlose to increase the viscosity of the liquid used to mix the silica sand slurry. The best results were obtained with a liquid mixture having 120 times the viscosity of water. The same recording and processing techniques used for the drained condition were then used to obtain vector displacement fields.

The photos and figures below are of the general test set-up and some test results. Links are also provided to the very rough but much more detailed draft paper I wrote for publication in a Japanese journal covering geotechnical experimental methods (it's in the format required for the JSPS report) as well as the report I had to submit for the initial NHMJ program.

Well, if you’ve read all the way to the end then you are either a geotechnical engineer or you weren’t sleepy enough to get bored. I hope you enjoyed reading all of that gobledy-gook and please drop me a line if you have any questions or comments. Thanks.

Matt


Empty Testbed, DPRI of Kyoto University, Japan, Summer 2003


Model Teflon Pile, DRPI of Kyoto University, Japan, Summer 2003


Complete Set-up Ready for Testing, DPRI of Kyoto University, Japan, Summer 2003

Overall displacement field for drained case, DPRI of Kyoto University, Japan, Summer 2003


Local displacement field for drained case, DPRI of Kyoto University, Japan, Summer 2003