Technical Papers
Feb 24, 2022

Assessment of Liquefaction-Induced Differential Ground Settlement and Lateral Displacement Using Standard Penetration Tests with Consideration of Soil Spatial Variability

Publication: Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 148, Issue 5

Abstract

One of the major risks to civil structures during an earthquake is the occurrence of liquefaction in loose saturated sand deposits. The main consequences of liquefaction include lateral spreading deformations and postliqufaction reconsolidation settlement. In situ tests, such as standard penetration tests (SPTs), commonly are used in one-dimensional models for estimating liquefaction-induced deformation, which provide ground deformation only at limited locations at which SPTs are performed. However, magnitudes of liquefaction-induced ground deformation within a specific site may exhibit significant spatial variation when subsurface soils are not homogeneous or when they vary spatially within a site. Therefore, using the ground deformations estimated from limited SPT locations to represent a whole site might provide misleading results and cannot properly predict the differential ground settlement or displacement, posing a significant risk to civil structures. To deal with this challenge, a novel approach was developed in this study for characterizing spatial variation of the soil lateral spreading displacement and reconsolidation settlement in a cross section of a specific site from limited SPTs with consideration of soil spatial variability along both depth and the horizontal direction. The proposed method was illustrated using both simulated data and real data.

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Data Availability Statement

Some or all data, models, or code that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Acknowledgments

The work described in this paper was supported by grants from the Research Grant Council of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China (Project Nos. CityU 11202121 and CityU 11213119). The financial support is gratefully acknowledged.

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Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 148Issue 5May 2022

History

Received: May 22, 2021
Accepted: Dec 21, 2021
Published online: Feb 24, 2022
Published in print: May 1, 2022
Discussion open until: Jul 24, 2022

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Zheng Guan, S.M.ASCE [email protected]
Research Assistant, Dept. of Architecture and Civil Engineering, City Univ. of Hong Kong, Tat Chee Ave., Kowloon, Hong Kong. Email: [email protected]
Professor, Dept. of Architecture and Civil Engineering, City Univ. of Hong Kong, Tat Chee Ave., Kowloon, Hong Kong (corresponding author). ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4635-7059. Email: [email protected]

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  • Efficient three-dimensional soil liquefaction potential and reconsolidation settlement assessment from limited CPTs considering spatial variability, Soil Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering, 10.1016/j.soildyn.2022.107518, 163, (107518), (2022).

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