Seismic Compression of Two Compacted Earth Fills Shaken by the 1994 Northridge Earthquake
This article has a reply.
VIEW THE REPLYThis article has a reply.
VIEW THE REPLYPublication: Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 130, Issue 5
Abstract
Seismic compression is defined as the accrual of contractive volumetric strain in unsaturated soil during strong shaking by earthquakes. We document and analyze two case histories (denoted school site and site A) of ground deformation from seismic compression in canyon fills strongly shaken by the Northridge earthquake. Site A had ground settlements up to about 18 cm, which damaged a structure, while the school site had settlements up to about 6 cm. For each site, we perform decoupled analyses of shear and volumetric strain. Shear strain is calculated using one-dimensional and two-dimensional ground response analyses, while volumetric strain is evaluated from shear strain using material-specific models derived from simple shear laboratory testing that incorporates important effects of fines content and as-compacted density and saturation. Analyses are repeated using a logic tree approach in which weights are assigned to multiple possible realizations of uncertain model parameters. At the school site, predicted settlements appear to be unbiased. At site A, the analyses successfully predict the shape of the settlement profile along a section, but the weighted average predictions are biased slightly too low. We speculate that the apparent site A bias can be explained by limited resolution of the site stratigraphy, bias in laboratory-derived volumetric strain models, and/or uncertainty in the estimated earthquake-induced settlements.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
References
Abrahamson, N. A., and Silva, W. J.(1997). “Empirical response spectral attenuation relations for shallow crustal earthquakes.” Seismol. Res. Lett., 68(1), 94–127.
American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM). (2002). Standard test methods for laboratory compaction characteristics of soil using modified effort, ASTM International, West Conshohocken, Pa.
Arias, A. (1970). “A measure of earthquake intensity.” Seismic design for nuclear power plants, R. J. Hansen, ed., MIT, Cambridge, Mass., 438–483.
Cressie, N. A. C. (1991). Statistics for spatial data, Wiley, New York.
Houston, S. L. (1992). “Partial wetting collapse predictions.” Proc., 7th Conf. on Expansive Soils, Texas Tech University Press, Lubbock, Tex., 1, 302–306.
Hudson, M., Idriss, I. M., and Beikae, M. (1994). “QUAD4M: A computer program to evaluate the seismic response of soil structures using finite element procedures and incorporating a compliant base,” Center for Geotechnical Modeling, Univ. of California, Davis, Calif.
Idriss, I. M., and Sun, J. I. (1991). “User’s manual for SHAKE91: A computer program for conducting equivalent linear seismic response analyses of horizontally layered soil deposits,” Center for Geotechnical Modeling, Univ. of California, Davis, Calif.
Liu, A. H., Stewart, J. P., Abrahamson, N. A., and Moriwaki, Y.(2001). “Equivalent number of uniform stress cycles for soil liquefaction analysis.” J. Geotech. Geoenviron. Eng., 127(12), 1017–1026.
Pyke, R., Seed, H. B., and Chan, C. K.(1975). “Settlement of sands under multidirectional shaking.” J. Geotech. Eng., 101(4), 379–398.
Rathje, E. M., Abrahamson, N. A., and Bray, J. D.(1998). “Simplified frequency content estimates of earthquake ground motions.” J. Geotech. Geoenviron. Eng., 124(2), 150–159.
Rodriguez-Marek, A., Bray, J. D., and Abrahamson, N. A.(2001). “An empirical geotechnical seismic site response procedure.” Earthquake Spectra, 17(1), 65–87.
Seed, H. B. (1967). “Soil stability problems caused by earthquakes.” Soil Mechanics and Bituminous Materials Research Laboratory, Univ. of California, Berkeley, Calif.
Seed, H. B., and Idriss, I. M. (1970). “Soil moduli and damping factors for dynamic response analysis.” Rep. No. UCB/EERC-70/10, Univ. of California, Berkeley, Calif.
Siddharthan, R. V., and El-Gamal, M. (1996). “Earthquake induced ground settlements of bridge abutment fills.” Analysis and design of retaining structures, Geotechnical Special Publication No. 60, ASCE, New York, 100–123.
Silva, W. (1986). “Soil response to earthquake ground motion.” Rep. No. RP2556-07, Electrical Power Research Institute, Palo Alto, Calif.
Silva, W. J., Darragh, R. B., Stark, C., Wong, I., Stepp, J. C., Schneider, J. F., and Chiou, S.-J. (1990). “A methodology to estimate design response spectra in the near-source region of large earthquakes using the band-limited-white noise ground motion model.” Proc., 4th U.S. National Conf. on Earthquake Engineering, Earthquake Engineering Research Institute, El Cerrito, Calif. 1, 487–494.
Silver, M. L., and Seed, H. B.(1971). “Volume changes in sands during cyclic loading.” J. Soil Mech. Found. Div., 97(9), 1171–1182.
Slosson, J. E. (1975). “Chapter 19: Effects of the earthquake on residential areas.” San Fernando, California, Earthquake of 9 February 1971, Bulletin No. 196, California Division of Mines and Geology, Sacramento Calif.
Stewart, J. P., Smith, P. M., Whang, D. H., and Bray, J. D. (2002). “Documentation and analysis of field case histories of seismic compression during the 1994 Northridge, California, earthquake.” Rep. No. PEER-2002/09, Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research Center, Univ. of California, Berkeley, Calif.
Stewart, J. P., Bray, J. D., McMahon, D. J., Smith, P. M., and Kropp, A. L.(2001). “Seismic performance of hillside fills.” J. Geotech. Geoenviron. Eng., 127(11), 905–919.
Tokimatsu, K., and Seed, H. B.(1987). “Evaluation of settlements in sands due to earthquake shaking.” J. Geotech. Eng., 113(8), 861–878.
Toro, G. R. (1997). “Probabilistic models of shear-wave velocity profiles at the Savannah River site, South Carolina.” Rep. to Pacific Engineering and Analysis, El Cerrito, Calif.
Vucetic, M.(1994). “Cyclic threshold shear strains in soils.” J. Geotech. Eng., 120(12), 2208–2228.
Vucetic, M., and Dobry, R.(1991). “Effect of soil plasticity on cyclic response.” J. Geotech. Eng., 117(1), 89–107.
Wald, D. J., and Heaton, T. H. (1994). “A dislocation model of the 1994 Northridge, California, earthquake determined from strong ground motions.” Open-File Rep. No. 94-278, U.S. Geological Survey, Pasadena, Calif.
Whang, D. H., Stewart, J. P., and Bray, J. D. (2004). “Effect of compaction conditions on the seismic compression of compacted fill soils.” Geotech. Test. J., in press.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 130 • Issue 5 • May 2004
Pages: 461 - 476
Copyright
Copyright © 2004 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Jan 13, 2003
Accepted: Jul 28, 2003
Published online: Apr 15, 2004
Published in print: May 2004
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.