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Development of Energy-Based Site-Specific Correlations to Evaluate Liquefaction Potential

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Abstract

Liquefaction of soil is a phenomenon where effective stresses get reduced due to the generation of excess pore-water pressures during earthquake shaking. This is manifested by loss of soil stiffness and shear strength. It is a general practice to evaluate the liquefaction potential using EPP generation and single or double amplitude shear strain of 3% or 5%, respectively, using either a stress-based or strain-based approach. The energy-based approach is also preferred by a few researchers, which quantifies the capacity of soil in terms of dissipated energy during an earthquake. In the present investigation, a series of strain-controlled cyclic triaxial experiments are conducted on Solani sand to explore the potential for liquefaction utilizing an energy-based approach. Estimations were performed for varied parameters, including effective confining pressure, strain amplitude, diameter, relative density, and frequency, at appropriate intervals. A relationship is proposed between the dissipated energy per unit volume and the controlling parameters that influence soil liquefaction potential. The experimental investigations are not directly applicable to the field conditions. To overcome these lacunae, a numerical approach is proposed to simulate the experiments, validated, and utilized to simulate the field conditions. For this purpose, a set of six near-field and six far-field ground motions corresponding to the targeted designed spectrum are selected, and the energy experienced on soil samples during these earthquakes is evaluated. Besides, the implication of variation between the energy dissipated by the tested soil to get liquefied and the energy imparted to the on-site soil during earthquake shaking is also discussed.

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Most of it is provided in the manuscript, and the remaining is available upon request.

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Acknowledgements

The presented work would not have been possible without the contribution of SPARK, an internship programme by IIT Roorkee, for providing research exposure to undergraduate students and, in return, assisting the research field with bright and capable young minds. The authors are also grateful to the Department of Earthquake Engineering for providing the well-equipped resources required for experimental and numerical studies. Special mention to Mr. Digvijay Patankar, research scholars at IIT Roorkee, and Prof. S. C. Gupta for their support as and when needed.

Funding

Authors have received funds from Faculty Initiation Grant, FIG100915, for newly joined faculty members; the Ministry of Human Resource Development, MHRD also provided scholarships to Indian scholars under their research scheme. The authors are also thankful to SPARK for providing funding to undergraduate students under their internship program.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Earthquake Engineering, Indian Institute Technology, Roorkee, 247667, India

    Aparna Kanth

  2. Department of Earth Sciences, IISER Bhouri, Bhopal, 462066, India

    Nitarani Bishoyi

  3. Department of Earthquake Engineering, Indian Institute Technology, Roorkee, 247667, India

    Ritesh Kumar

Authors
  1. Aparna Kanth
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  2. Nitarani Bishoyi
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  3. Ritesh Kumar
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. AK: Conceptualization, Methodology, Investigation, Data collection and analysis, Result interpretation, Writing: original draft. NR: Conceptualization, Methodology Writing: literature review. RK: supervision, conceptualization, Writing: review and editing.

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Correspondence to Ritesh Kumar.

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Kanth, A., Bishoyi, N. & Kumar, R. Development of Energy-Based Site-Specific Correlations to Evaluate Liquefaction Potential. Geotech Geol Eng 42, 1793–1809 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10706-023-02646-8

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