Centrifuge Testing to Evaluate and Mitigate Liquefaction-Induced Building Settlement Mechanisms
Publication: Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 136, Issue 7
Abstract
The effective application of liquefaction mitigation techniques requires an improved understanding of the development and consequences of liquefaction. Centrifuge experiments were performed to study the dominant mechanisms of seismically induced settlement of buildings with rigid mat foundations on thin deposits of liquefiable sand. The relative importance of key settlement mechanisms was evaluated by using mitigation techniques to minimize some of their respective contributions. The relative importance of settlement mechanisms was shown to depend on the characteristics of the earthquake motion, liquefiable soil, and building. The initiation, rate, and amount of liquefaction-induced building settlement depended greatly on the rate of ground shaking. Engineering design procedures should incorporate this important feature of earthquake shaking, which may be represented by the time rate of Arias intensity (i.e., the shaking intensity rate). In these experiments, installation of an independent, in-ground, perimetrical, stiff structural wall minimized deviatoric soil deformations under the building and reduced total building settlements by approximately 50%. Use of a flexible impermeable barrier that inhibited horizontal water flow without preventing shear deformation also reduced permanent building settlements but less significantly.
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Acknowledgments
This work is supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) under Grant No. UNSPECIFIEDCMMI-0530714. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the writers and do not necessarily reflect the views of the NSF. Operation of the large geotechnical centrifuge at UC Davis is supported by the NSF George E. Brown, Jr. Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation (NEES) program under Award No. UNSPECIFIEDCMMI-0402490. The writers would also like to thank those at the UC Davis Center for Geotechnical Modeling, and in particular Dr. Bruce Kutter, for their assistance.
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Information
Published In
Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 136 • Issue 7 • July 2010
Pages: 918 - 929
Copyright
© 2010 ASCE.
History
Received: Mar 26, 2009
Accepted: Dec 12, 2009
Published online: Dec 18, 2009
Published in print: Jul 2010
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