Study of soil liquefaction potential at Anutapura General Hospital, Palu City, Central Sulawesi Province

Abstract

On September 28, 2018, at 18:02 local time, a strong tectonic earthquake with a moment magnitude of 7.5 struck Central Sulawesi Province, Indonesia, triggering liquefaction disasters in Palu city and Sigi district. The project of the Anutapura Medical Centre (AMC) building at the Anutapura General Hospital in Palu city is one of the Indonesian government programs to support the rehabilitation and reconstruction of infrastructure after the earthquake. This hospital is located close to the liquefaction-affected area in Balaroa. Geologically, the hospital area is also located in the formation of Holocene deposits that have not been fully lithified. This study aims to analyze the liquefaction potential, which focuses on the construction area of the AMC building. The soil grain size distribution was used for the preliminary analysis of potentially liquified soils. The SPT-based liquefaction triggering procedure was used to calculate the safety factor (SF) against liquefaction. Subsequently, the SF value was further analyzed using the liquefaction severity index (LSI) to determine the severity level. The results show that soils in the study area have the potential to liquefy with a low to moderate severity level. The results are expected to be used as consideration to mitigate the possible liquefaction.