Accounting for Soil Aging When Assessing Liquefaction Potential

Abstract

It has been recognized that liquefaction resistance of sand increases with age due to processes such as cementation at particle contacts and increasing frictional resistance resulting from particle rearrangement and interlocking. As such, the currently available empirical correlations derived from liquefaction of young Holocene sand deposits, and used to determine liquefaction resistance of sand deposits from in situ soil indices standard penetration test SPT, cone penetration test CPT, shear wave velocity test Vs, are not applicable for old sand deposits. To overcome this limitation, a methodology was developed to account for the effect of aging on the liquefaction resistance of old sand deposits. The methodology is based upon the currently existing empirical boundary curves for Holocene age soils and utilizes correction factors presented in the literature that comprise the effect of aging on the in situ soil indices as well as on the field cyclic strength CRR. This paper describes how to combine currently recorded SPT, CPT, and Vs values with corresponding CRR values derived for aged soil deposits to generate new empirical boundary curves for aged soils. The method is illustrated using existing geotechnical data from four sites in the South Carolina Coastal Plain SCCP where sand boils associated with prehistoric earthquakes have been found. These sites involve sand deposits that are 200,000 to 450,000 years in age. This work shows that accounting for aging of soils in the SCCP yields less conservative results regarding the current liquefaction potential than when age is not considered. The modified boundary curves indicate that old sand deposits are more resistant to liquefaction than indicated by the existing empirical curves and can be used to evaluate the liquefaction potential at a specific site directly from the current in situ properties of the soil.