Improved Liquefaction Resistance with Rammed Aggregate Piers Resulting from Increased Earth Pressure Coefficient and Density
Publication: Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 150, Issue 6
Abstract
During the last decades, liquefaction damages induced by earthquakes have underlined the importance of identifying effective soil improvement techniques for mitigation purposes. Vibratory methods, such as rammed aggregate piers, are commonly used to densify sands and silty sands, erroneously neglecting the influence of the lateral stress. This paper presents the results of a series of liquefaction mitigation case studies carried out using rammed aggregate piers in Christchurch (New Zealand), Boca de Briceño (Ecuador), and Bondeno (Italy) following the 2010–2011 Canterbury seismic sequence, the 2016 Muisne earthquake, and the 2012 Emilia seismic sequence, respectively. The availability of coupled piezocone and seismic dilatometer tests before and after treatment enabled a geotechnical characterization of the three sandy sites to be made, along with estimating the at-rest lateral earth pressure coefficient, and comparing the effectiveness of the treatment at the trial sites. Finally, the paper proposes an updated procedure for liquefaction assessment that takes into account both the increase in soil density and lateral stress produced by ground improvement.
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Data Availability Statement
Some or all data, models, or code that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request. These data include in situ test results.
Acknowledgments
Special thanks to Studio Professor Marchetti (Rome, Italy) for freely providing the seismic dilatometer equipment to perform the site investigations and to Ground Investigation (Auckland, New Zealand), Geoestudios (Guayaquil, Ecuador), CIRI Edilizia e Costruzioni-University of Bologna (Bologna, Italy), and Geo Geotecnica e Geognostica (Arpino, Italy) for providing the penetrometer at the three research sites. The authors are also thankful to Professor Brady Cox (Utah State University, Salt Lake City) for the use of geophysical data at the Ecuadorian sites. For the New Zealand sites, funding was primarily provided by a grant from the US National Science Foundation (Grant CMMI-1408892), with supplemental funding from the US Federal Highway Administration and the Utah Department of Transportation Research Division. For the Ecuadorian and Italian sites, funding was primarily provided by Geopier Foundation Company (Davidson, North Carolina), with the support of Releo (Ferrara, Italy) at the Bondeno research site. Lastly, the US National Science Foundation provided funding through Grant CMMI-1663546 to investigate the effect of on the liquefaction triggering curves. This support is gratefully acknowledged; however, the conclusions and recommendations of the authors do not necessarily reflect those of the sponsors.
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Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 150 • Issue 6 • June 2024
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© 2024 American Society of Civil Engineers.
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Received: Mar 4, 2023
Accepted: Dec 5, 2023
Published online: Mar 27, 2024
Published in print: Jun 1, 2024
Discussion open until: Aug 27, 2024
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