Abstract

Use of a liquefied strength ratio to estimate strengths for postliquefaction slope stability analyses assumes that the liquefied shear strength of sandy soil can be normalized by the consolidation stress. This implies that the void ratio versus log consolidation stress and void ratio versus log liquefied strength relationships are parallel (or nearly parallel, for engineering purposes). Laboratory isotropically consolidated and monotonically loaded triaxial compression test data for eight normally consolidated sandy soils were used to show that this assumption may be reasonable in certain effective stress ranges—for example, greater than 1  kg/cm2, for practical applications. The use of a strength ratio can facilitate postliquefaction stability and deformation analyses by representing the liquefied strength as a function of the preliquefaction effective vertical stress.

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Data Availability Statement

Some or all data, models, or code generated or used during the study are available from the corresponding author by request. These include the laboratory tests results.

Acknowledgments

The laboratory testing performed by Geotechnical Engineers, Inc., who performed the tests in 1982, was funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), Grant No. PFR-7924731. The first author also appreciates the financial support of the National Science Foundation (NSF Award CMMI-1562010). The contents and views in this paper are those of the individual authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the National Science Foundation. This support is gratefully acknowledged. The findings and opinions in this paper are solely those of the authors. Endorsement of the results by the NSF is not implied and should not be assumed. The authors also acknowledge the assistance of Professor Gholamreza Mesri, who helped formulate parallel regression and presentation of the test results. The Associate Editor and Reviewer #3 who reviewed this paper do not believe the liquefied strength can be normalized and stated so in their review of the six revisions of this paper.

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Go to Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 147Issue 2February 2021

History

Received: May 21, 2019
Accepted: Sep 15, 2020
Published online: Dec 3, 2020
Published in print: Feb 1, 2021
Discussion open until: May 3, 2021

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P.E.
D.GE
Professor, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Univ. of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, 205 N. Mathews Ave., Urbana, IL 61801 (corresponding author). ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2384-1868. Email: [email protected]
Senior Lecturer, Dept. of Civil Engineering, Stellenbosch Univ., Bosman St., Stellenbosch 7600, South Africa. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7141-1339. Email: [email protected]
Geotechnical Engineer, Federal Highway Administration, 610 E. 5th St., Vancouver, WA 98661. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8786-1740. Email: [email protected]

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