System Response of an Interlayered Deposit with Spatially Preferential Liquefaction Manifestations
Publication: Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 147, Issue 12
Abstract
The Canterbury Earthquake Sequence produced a spatial pattern of liquefaction-induced surface ejecta at an open field along Palinurus Road in Christchurch, New Zealand, that would not be expected based on simplified liquefaction evaluation procedures. Half the site discharged sand boils and the other half did not. Two-dimensional fully-coupled nonlinear dynamic analyses (NDAs) were performed to examine why simplified one-dimensional liquefaction vulnerability indices (LVIs) overestimated liquefaction manifestations at this site for the 2010 Darfield and 2011 Christchurch earthquakes and did not distinguish between areas with and without surface ejecta. The NDAs use the PM4Sand and PM4Silt constitutive models for sand-like and clay-like portions of the subsurface, respectively, within the Fast Lagrangian Analysis of Continua (FLAC) finite-difference program. Material parameters are obtained from in situ geophysical and cone penetration test (CPT) data. A sensitivity study is performed to assess the influence of (1) representative soil property selections and the use of a CPT inverse filtering procedure to correct for thin-layer and transition zone effects, (2) ground motions developed by two distinct methods (i.e., recordings and physics-based simulations), and (3) model assumptions affecting diffusion during reconsolidation. Ground deformations and flow patterns during and after ground shaking are examined. The results provide insights on how stratigraphic details and other factors can affect the system response and dictate the degree and extent of liquefaction surface manifestations.
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Data Availability Statement
Some or all data, models, or code used during the study were provided by third parties. Direct request for geotechnical data and ground motions may be made to the providers indicated in the acknowledgements and requests for software can be made to the providers indicated in the references.
Acknowledgments
The authors appreciate the financial support of the National Science Foundation (Award No. CMMI-1635398) and California Department of Water Resources (Contract No. 4600009751) for different aspects of the work presented herein. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of these organizations. The site characterization data was sourced from the New Zealand Geotechnical Database. Procurement and preparation of the physics-based ground motion simulations benefited greatly from discussions with Chris de la Torre. Examination of this case history benefited from discussions with Brady Cox, Kaleigh Yost, Sjoerd van Ballegooy, Jonathan Bray, Misko Cubrinovski, Ken Stokoe, and Liam Wotherspoon. The analyses benefited from discussions with Jason DeJong, James Dismuke, Nick Paull, Renmin Pretell, and Katerina Ziotopoulou. The authors are grateful for the aforementioned support and interactions.
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Published In
Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 147 • Issue 12 • December 2021
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© 2021 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Jan 31, 2021
Accepted: Jul 27, 2021
Published online: Sep 29, 2021
Published in print: Dec 1, 2021
Discussion open until: Feb 28, 2022
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Cited by
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- S. Zaregarizi, M. Khosravi, B. Kamrani, Liquefaction Evaluation of Palinurus Road Site in Christchurch after 2010–2011 Canterbury Earthquake Sequence, Geo-Congress 2022, 10.1061/9780784484043.024, (246-256), (2022).
- Patrick C. Bassal, Ross W. Boulanger, Jason T. DeJong, System Response of an Interlayered Deposit with Spatially Distributed Ground Deformations in the Chi-Chi Earthquake, Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering, 10.1061/(ASCE)GT.1943-5606.0002869, 148, 10, (2022).
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