Steady state and liquefaction characteristics of gravely sands

Abstract

Liquefaction of loose and saturated soils during earthquakes and strong ground motions has been a major cause of damage to buildings and earth embankments as well as other civil engineering structures. In order to evaluate the liquefaction potential and steady state characteristics of gravely sand of south west Tehran,a subsoil exploration program conducted dividing the region into 10 zones. In each zone of 500 m × 500 m a borehole of 20 m deep was drilled. SPT was performed at one meter intervals in each borehole and a total of 200 samples were recovered. Soils of similar grain size distribution have been considered to have similar steady state characteristics,therefore consolidated undrained triaxial tests were performed on these soils of similar grain size distribution to evaluate the steady state strength. The steady state line for each soil type was derived. Comparing the steady state strengths with the shear stress due to an earthquake with a PGA of 0.35 g,the potential of sand liquefaction and .ow failure in soil layers has been evaluated and the settlement of soil due to the liquefaction phenomena is calculated. Finally some recommendations for estimating the steady state strength from simple SPT test in gravely sands are presented.