Efficacy of Aging Correction for Liquefaction Assessment of Case Histories Recorded during the 2010 Darfield and 2011 Christchurch Earthquakes in New Zealand
Publication: Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 146, Issue 8
Abstract
Data from 58 high-quality liquefaction case histories from the Darfield and Christchurch earthquakes are utilized to investigate the efficacy of current liquefaction aging correction procedures. Toward this end, liquefaction case histories are analyzed in which aging corrections are and are not applied, and the resulting predictions are compared to the actual liquefaction response of the deposits. An error-index is calculated to quantify the efficacy of aging corrections. While all the sites located in the Christchurch area are classified as Holocene, based on their geological age, their liquefaction response is influenced more by the geotechnical age of the soil deposits. Aging correction was determined to be beneficial for the liquefaction assessment of soils that experienced recurrent liquefaction (i.e., geotechnical young deposits). However, aging corrections were determined to exacerbate the liquefaction assessment of relatively old (greater than ) soil deposits.
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Data Availability Statement
Case histories used in this study are available in Green et al. (2014), Wotherspoon et al. (2013), and Wood et al. (2017a, b). Raw CPT and data used in this study are available from the New Zealand Geotechnical database (https://www.nzgd.org.nz/) or by request from the corresponding author. Codes used in the study are available from the corresponding author by request.
Acknowledgments
The authors gratefully acknowledge the Canterbury Geotechnical Database and the New Zealand GeoNet project and its sponsors, the Earthquake Commission (EQC), GNS Science, and LINZ, for providing some of the data used in this study. Also, the authors are grateful to Mr. Josh Zupan and Dr. Jonathan Bray, who oversaw the performance of some of the CPT soundings presented in this study. The primary support for the U.S. authors was provided by the National Science Foundation (NSF) Grant Nos. CMMI-1030564, CMMI-1407428, CMMI-1137977, CMMI-1435494, CMMI-1724575, and CMMI-1825189. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the NSF or the other funding agencies.
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Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 146 • Issue 8 • August 2020
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©2020 American Society of Civil Engineers.
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Received: Aug 14, 2019
Accepted: Mar 3, 2020
Published online: May 18, 2020
Published in print: Aug 1, 2020
Discussion open until: Oct 18, 2020
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