Online Earthquake Response Test for Stratified Layers of Clay and Sand
Publication: Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 132, Issue 5
Abstract
Artificial islands often consist of layers of alluvial clay and reclaimed soil of varying order and thickness. Soft clay layers have nonlinear characteristics and can both amplify and attenuate earthquake ground motions. Liquefied ground impedes propagation of shear waves and thus attenuates the earthquake accelerations. Online testing is a method of feeding soil response characteristics directly from soil samples into a modeling algorithm. The effects of the layer thickness, configuration, and degree of consolidation on the earthquake response characteristics of alternating layers of clay and sand have been investigated. The degree of liquefaction and strain generated in sand adjacent to clay layers increased with the degree of consolidation. Clay layers attenuate the motions of sand layers for short period vibrations but amplify the long period motions, increasing the strain in overlying liquefied sand layers. Clay layers which were closer to the ground surface or of greater thickness tended to increase the surface accelerations. Normalized cumulative energy loss was larger in clay than in sand increasing with a decreasing degree of consolidation.
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Acknowledgment
The writers thank Mr. Kusakabe of Okumura Corp., who developed the online earthquake response tests and for giving us valuable advice on how to progress in this study.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 132 • Issue 5 • May 2006
Pages: 611 - 621
Copyright
© 2006 ASCE.
History
Received: Dec 17, 2003
Accepted: Aug 30, 2005
Published online: May 1, 2006
Published in print: May 2006
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