Identifying significant influence factors of seismic soil liquefaction and analyzing their structural relationship

Abstract

Soil liquefaction causes extensive damages to buildings and infrastructures during earthquakes. It is very important to identify the significant parameters controlling seismic liquefaction which will enhance the predictability of evaluation models. In order to identify the significant factors, 203 literatures about soil liquefaction are analyzed by bibliometrics, 12 significant factors, such as: magnitude, epicentral distance, duration of earthquake, fines content, particle size, grain composition, relative density, drainage condition, degree of consolidation, thickness of sand layer, depth of sand layer, groundwater table, are identified among 22 influence factors. And then the interrelationship among the 12 main factors was analyzed, and a multilevel structure hierarchy is developed by interpretive structural modeling, which would help understand more clearly about the relationships among these factors. The results show that: magnitude, epicentral distance, duration of earthquake and drainage condition have a direct impact on soil liquefaction, and fines content plays a key role in all factors. The results can provide guidelines for election of factors and the establishment of model in the risk evaluation of soil liquefaction.