Examination of the Overburden Correction Factor on Liquefaction Resistance
Publication: Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 140, Issue 12
Abstract
The overburden correction factor () is used to account for the curvature of the cyclic strength envelope with increasing consolidation stress, and it provides part of the basis for extrapolation of liquefaction-triggering correlations based on standard penetration test (SPT) and cone penetration test (CPT) to larger depths than covered by current databases of liquefaction case histories. This paper presents an updated database of laboratory test results defining effects. Laboratory test results included in previous databases are reexamined in light of current understanding of factors that can affect laboratory measurements of cyclic strengths, including the effects of increasing density with increasing consolidation stress, variable overconsolidation ratios, and other factors. The updated database is used to examine potential biases in the relationships used in two SPT-based liquefaction triggering procedures. The first relationship was found to be conservative with respect to the data for clean sands and less conservative for sands with fines contents between 7 and 35%. The second relationship was found to provide a reasonably good fit to the data for clean sands and to be slightly unconservative for sands with fines contents between 7 and 35%. Implications for practice are discussed.
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Acknowledgments
This study was supported by the California Division of Safety of Dams under Contract 4600009523. The first author received support from the U.S. Army COE and the United States Society on Dams. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of these organizations. Professors Bruce Kutter, Jason DeJong, and I. M. Idriss, as well as Dr. Vlad Perlea, provided valuable comments and suggestions. The authors appreciate this support and assistance.
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Published In
Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 140 • Issue 12 • December 2014
Copyright
© 2014 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Jul 25, 2013
Accepted: Jul 7, 2014
Published online: Aug 7, 2014
Published in print: Dec 1, 2014
Discussion open until: Jan 7, 2015
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