Evaluation of Liquefaction Resistance for Gravelly Sands Using Gravel Content–Corrected Shear-Wave Velocity
Publication: Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 142, Issue 5
Abstract
The current practice of evaluating the liquefaction resistance of gravelly soils with shear-wave velocity relies on the assumption that liquefiable gravelly soils behave as sandy ones. Recent laboratory tests on gap-graded gravelly sands show that the cyclic resistance is dominated by the packing conditions of the sand matrix, while the shear-wave velocity is affected by the gravel content. Taking these findings into account, the gravel content–corrected shear-wave velocity is derived based on the time-average equation of lumped gravel particles and the sand matrix. Based on analyses of case histories, a three-step procedure, which includes screening of gravelly sands, computation of stress-normalized, gravel content–corrected shear-wave velocity, and cyclic resistance evaluation using the modified correlation between the corrected shear wave velocity and the cyclic resistance, is proposed for evaluating the cyclic resistance ratio of gravelly sands. Comparisons with case histories show that the proposed procedure can significantly improve the estimation of cyclic resistance.
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Acknowledgments
This study was supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan, under grant NSC 100-2625-M-006-008-MY3 and MOST 104-3113-E-006-015-CC2, which is gratefully acknowledged. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 142 • Issue 5 • May 2016
Copyright
© 2016 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Nov 23, 2014
Accepted: Sep 2, 2015
Published online: Jan 6, 2016
Published in print: May 1, 2016
Discussion open until: Jun 6, 2016
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