The Role of Liquefaction on the Seismic Response of Quay Walls during the 2014 Cephalonia, Greece, Earthquakes
Publication: Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 147, Issue 12
Abstract
Following the Cephalonia, Greece, 2014 earthquake sequence ( and ), liquefaction of gravelly earthfill materials at the ports of Lixouri and Argostoli resulted in the manifestation of ground cracking and coarse-grained soil ejecta, and the quay walls in these ports exhibited lateral ground displacements ranging from 0.1 to 1.5 m. To evaluate the seismic performance of the port quay walls, numerical analyses using the finite-difference method were performed, and the results compared with the observed response. Three commonly used constitutive models (PM4Sand, UBCSand, and URS/ROTH) calibrated based on in situ site investigation data were considered in modeling the liquefiable earthfills. The results of the numerical analyses at both ports using the best-estimate parameters indicate that taller walls exhibit smaller lateral ground displacements than shorter walls, something that is in line with field observations. For the shorter walls, liquefaction-induced lateral spreading played an important role in the observed response, whereas for the taller walls, the seismic behavior is dominated predominantly by the dynamic response of the structural system. PM4Sand and UBCSand models seem to yield very similar deformational results, but the URS/ROTH model, which assigns residual shear strength parameters once liquefaction is triggered, resulted in horizontal displacements that are closer to the observations for short-wall geometries but overpredict the response when the effect of liquefaction on the overall displacements is small. Finally, the numerical analyses demonstrate the strong influence of the pulselike characteristics, as well as the polarization of the input motion on the seismic response of the Lixouri quay walls, indicating that forward directivity contributed significantly to the observed quay wall deformations.
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Data Availability Statement
Some data used during the study were provided by a third party. Direct requests for these materials may be made to the provider as indicated in the Acknowledgements. Some data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
Acknowledgments
Funding for this study was provided by the National Science Foundation CMMI Grant No. 16632884. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation. The authors would like to express their gratitude to Dr. Engineering Seismologist Basil Margaris of the Institute of Engineering Seismology and Earthquake Engineering (ITSAK) for providing the processed ground motions of the Cephalonia 1983 M7.0 earthquake.
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Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 147 • Issue 12 • December 2021
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© 2021 American Society of Civil Engineers.
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Received: Aug 18, 2020
Accepted: Jul 1, 2021
Published online: Sep 16, 2021
Published in print: Dec 1, 2021
Discussion open until: Feb 16, 2022
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