Model uncertainties of SPT, CPT, and VS-based simplified methods for soil liquefaction assessment

Abstract

Simplified methods for assessing soil liquefaction potential based on the standard penetration test (SPT) are prevalent in practice and widely accepted by several seismic design codes. When encountering sites that have not been investigated using SPT, such as offshore sites or sites with a high level of gravel content, engineers can only substitute the methods based on piezocone penetration test data (CPT-qc methods) or shear wave velocity measurements (VS-based methods); however, these two approaches perform inconsistently with methods based on SPT data (SPT-N methods). As a result, this paper exploits the datasets consisting of SPT, CPTU, and in situ seismic test measurements from 13 alluvium sites in the Taipei Basin to compare the performance of prevalent SPT-N, CPT-qc, and VS-based methods. The discrepancies (uncertainties) of these methods are characterized as Gaussian distribution models, which is believed to be a feasible strategy for predicting equivalent results for SPT-N methods when SPT data are not available. Finally, the application of the proposed models to liquefaction potential index evaluation is demonstrated using a real case study.