Evaluating Liquefaction Strength of Partially Saturated Sand |
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Authors: | Jun Yang Stavros Savidis Matthias Roemer |
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Affiliation: | 1Assistant Professor, Dept. of Civil Engineering, The Univ. of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong, China. 2Professor, Institute of Geotechnical Engineering, Technical Univ. of Berlin, Berlin, Germany. 3Research Assistant, Institute of Geotechnical Engineering, Technical Univ. of Berlin, Berlin, Germany.
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Abstract: | A method is presented for evaluating the liquefaction strength of partially saturated sand using the compression wave velocity (P-wave velocity), a new indicator of saturation. Based on laboratory test results, an empirical correlation that relates the liquefaction strength with the pore pressure coefficient B is firstly proposed. The strength is defined as the cyclic stress ratio required to cause liquefaction at a specified number of cycles. With the aid of a theoretical relation between B and the P-wave velocity, an explicit correlation of more interest is then established between the liquefaction strength of sand and its P-wave velocity. A comparison of the predictions using this explicit correlation with laboratory measurements shows a satisfactory agreement. The significance of this method lies in that it makes it possible to evaluate the liquefaction strength of sand as affected by saturation through the measurement of P-wave velocity, which can be made not only in the laboratory but particularly in the field. |
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Keywords: | Liquefaction Sand Partially saturated soils Compression waves Cyclic strength |
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