Deterministic and Probabilistic Analysis of Liquefaction for Different Regions in Bihar

Abstract

The built environment and human life have been regularly affected by earthquakes. One of the most catastrophic earthquake hazards is liquefaction causing failure of embankment, earth structures, foundations, natural slopes and superstructures. In this paper, three methods have been used to predict the liquefaction susceptibility of some of high seismically active regions of Bihar such as Darbhanga, Samastipur, West-Champaran and Araria Sangram. The first method is based on semi-empirical approach, given by Idriss and Boulanger (in: Proceedings of 11th International conference on soil dynamics and earthquake engineering and 3rd International conference on earthquake geotechnical engineering vol 1, pp 32–56, 2006). The stress reduction factor (rd), overburden correction factor for cyclic stress ratios Kσ, earthquake magnitude scaling factor for cyclic stress ratios (MSF) and recently modified relations has been considered in this approach. The result is obtained in form of factor of safety at particular depth beneath the ground surface. The second approach is based on Muduli’s probabilistic method (2013) and third is on relevance vector machine (RVM) method developed by Karthikeyan et al. (Eur J Environ Civ Eng 17(4):248–262, 2013). RVM model has been used to determine the liquefaction potential of soil based on standard penetration test (SPT) blow count. The SPT data has been used as input parameter for the analysis. Site coming under high seismic zone is more susceptible to liquefaction during earthquake. This concludes that earthquake magnitude plays very important role for the assessment of liquefaction, irrespective of soil type and water table of the site. This paper contains the deterministic and probabilistic analysis of liquefaction behavior of soil.