Special Issue on Liquefaction around Marine Structures: Miscellaneous

The European Union (EU) supported a $3\text{-}\text{year}$ (2001–2004) research program on Liquefaction around Marine Structures (LIMAS) ⟨http://vb.mek.dtu.dk/research/limas/limas.html⟩. This writer was coordinator of this program. A consortium of 10 European institutions (universities, hydraulics and geotechnical-engineering laboratories, and consulting companies) undertook this program. The objectives of the program were two-fold: (1) to investigate potential risks for failure of structures due to liquefaction; and (2) to prepare and disseminate practical guidelines (guidance for design and maintenance) that were developed from present research and also taking into consideration all state-of-the-art knowledge.

The present volume and a previous one (JWPCOE 2006) are a collection of fifteen papers and a technical note produced from the research undertaken in the LIMAS program. The papers in the previous volume (Vol. 132, No. 4) summarized results of experimental and theoretical investigations on the fundamental aspects of soil liquefaction around marine structures and focused on processes and benchmark cases including physics of liquefaction phenomena around marine structures, stability of submarine pipelines on liquefied seabeds, critical flotation density of pipelines in soils liquefied by waves, liquefaction around pipelines under waves, numerical modelling of wave-induced liquefaction around pipelines, fluid-soil-structure interaction in liquefaction around a cyclically moving cylinder; guidelines for pipeline on-bottom stability on liquefied noncohesive seabeds, large-scale experiments on pore pressure generation underneath a caisson breakwater, and liquefaction phenomena underneath marine gravity structures subjected to wave loads. The present volume includes papers on various other aspects of soil liquefaction and focuses on applications, including field investigation of momentary liquefaction and scour, momentary liquefaction and gas content; scour around piles in the case of soil with liquefaction history, soil reaction in saturated sand under impulsive loads, development of a sampler for measurement of gas content in soils, and seismic-induced liquefaction around marine structures. The publication of this group of papers will disseminate the results of the LIMAS program worldwide, appealing to end-users in consulting companies, contractors, governmental authorities, and research entities at universities/research institutions within the coastal and offshore engineering and geotechnical and foundation engineering communities.

The Guest Editor is grateful to Dr. Zeki Demirbilek, the former Editor of this journal, who has been very supportive throughout the entire process. Dr. Demirbilek also helped the Guest Editor for those papers on which the Guest Editor was a coauthor; Review of those latter papers was handled by Dr. Demirbilek. The Guest Editor greatly appreciates that assistance and would also like to express his appreciation for the support of Professor Vijay Panchang, the present Editor of the journal.

As was emphasized in the editorial in the previous volume (Sumer 2006), the peer reviewers have been the key persons in the process of creating the special issue. Without their input, the present task would have been impossible. The Guest Editor is therefore grateful to all the reviewers for their invaluable contributions. In alphabetical order, these persons are Professor H. G. B. Allersma (Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands), Dr. K. H. Andersen (NGI, Norway), Dr. N. Anderson (BP Inc., U.K.), Professor A. Ansal (Bogazici University, Turkey), Dr. P. Brunning (StoltOffhsore, Aberdeen, U.K.), Professor L. Cheng (The University of Western Australia), Mr. J. S. Damgaard (WorleyParsons, UAE), Dr. Z. Demirbilek (ERDC, USA), Professor S. Dey (IIT, India), Professor H. Gotoh (Kyoto University, Japan), Mr. M. B. de Groot (GeoDelft, The Netherlands), Dr. S. A. Hughes (ERDC, USA), Dr. S. Hui (Bechtel Inc., USA), Dr. D.-S. Jeng (University of Sydney, Australia), Dr. R. Kulesza (Bechtel Inc., USA), Professor A. Lamberti (University of Bologna, Italy), Dr. W. Magda (Technical University of Gdansk, Poland), Professor C. C. Mei (MIT, USA), Mr. P. Meijers (GeoDelft, The Netherlands), Professor M. Mory (University of Pau, France), Dr. T. A. Newson (University of Western Ontario, Canada), Professor A. C. Palmer (University of Cambridge, U.K.), Professor M. S. Rahman (North Carolina State University, USA), W. Richwien (Duisburg-Essen University, Germany), Professor T. Sakai (Kyoto University, Japan), Dr. S. Sassa (PARI, Japan), Professor H. Sekiguchi (Kyoto University, Japan), Dr. S. Takahashi (PARI, Japan), Dr. H. Tanaka (PARI, Japan), Professor F. Tatsuoka (Tokyo University of Science, Japan), Professor A. Tørum (NTNU, Norway), Dr. R. Whitehouse (HR Wallingford, U.K.), Professor A. L. Wing-Keung (NTU, Singapore), Professor K. Zen (Kyushu University, Japan).

The Guest Editor wants to reiterate that he owes a heart full of thanks to his colleagues in the LIMAS program for their contributions to the special issue. In alphabetical order they are Dr. S. Dunn (HR Wallingford, U.K.), Professor P. Foray (Domaine Universitaire, Grenoble, France), Professor J. Fredsøe (Technical University of Denmark), Dr. N.-E. O. Hansen (LICengineering, Denmark), Dr. M. Kudella (Technische Universitat Braunschweig, Germany), Professor M. Mory (University of Pau, France), Professor H. Oumeraci (Technische Universitat Braunschweig, Germany), Professor A. C. Palmer (University of Cambridge, U.K.), Professor R. Sandven (NTNU, Norway), Professor A. Sawicki (Institute of Hydro-Engineering, Poland), and special thanks to Mr. M. B. de Groot (GeoDelft, The Netherlands) and Mr. J. S. Damgaard (HR Wallingford, U.K., currently at WorleyParsons, UAE), the two Task Leaders under LIMAS, for their invaluable input throughout the entire project, particularly for their advise in the organization of the special issue, for the selection of the peer reviewers, and for their participation in the peer-review process.

On this occasion, the Guest Editor once again extends his appreciation to Mr. Christos Fragakis, the Scientific Officer in Charge of the LIMAS program and Mr. Hartmut Barth (Mr. Fragakis’ replacement after January 2004) for their cooperation. The effort of the Guest Editor in preparing the special issue has been partially supported by the Danish Research Council for Technology and Production Sciences (Forskningsrådet for Teknologi og Produktion, FTP, formerly the Danish Technical Research Council, STVF) of the Danish Research Agency, Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation Research Frame Program Exploitation and Protection of Coastal Zones (EPCOAST) Sagsnr. 26-00-0144.

Last but not least, the Guest Editor thanks Ms. Jackie Perry, Managing Editor, Journals at ASCE, who has done an excellent job in organizing the publication of the special issue.