Influence of Soil Saturation on the Free Field Responds of Liquefiable Soils

This paper concerns analysis of the free field response of partially saturated soils to cyclic loading, with a particular attention on liquefaction. Analysis is conducted using a numerical model elaborated for the liquefaction of partially saturated soils together with a cyclic elastoplastic constitutive relation implemented in a finite element program. The paper presents firstly the numerical model, and then the influence of the soil saturation on the free field response for different positions of the water table. Analyses show that the soil saturation degree largely affects the free field response to seismic loading. The decrease in the soil saturation leads to a decrease in the rate of generation of the excess pore-water pressure and consequently to a reduction in the liquefaction risk.