Experimental and numerical modeling on liquefaction resistance of geotextile reinforced sand

Abstract

Historical cases show that the liquefaction of sand is an important cause of earthquake disasters. Geosynthetics are widely used to improve the performance of sand deposit. However, limited studies have been conducted on the effect of geosynthetics on mitigation of sand liquefaction. In this study, the liquefaction resistance performance of geotextile reinforced sand is discussed by a series of strain-controlled cyclic triaxial tests with different cyclic strain amplitudes and layer numbers of geotextile. The influence of geotextile layout and cyclic strain amplitude on the liquefaction behavior of saturated sand is studied. Experimental results show that the liquefaction resistance of saturated sand increases with the increase of layer number of geotextiles and decreases with the increase of cyclic strain amplitude. The increased cyclic strain amplitude leads to fast accumulation of pore water pressure. Furthermore, a single element numerical model is created based on the finished cyclic triaxial test, and parameter calibration is carried out for reinforced sand by matching the excess pore water pressure. Numerical simulation results show that the computed responses with calibrated parameters are in good agreement with the experimental ones. This will provide a valuable reference for numerical modeling and engineering application of geotextile reinforced sand.