Excess Pore Pressures Around Underground Structures Following Earthquake Induced Liquefaction

2012 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 25-41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Siau Chen Chian ◽  
Santana Phani Gopal Madabhushi

Underground structures located in liquefiable soil deposits are susceptible to floatation following an earthquake event due to their lower unit weight relative to the surrounding saturated soil. This inherent buoyancy may cause lightweight structures to float when the soil liquefies. Centrifuge tests have been carried out to study the excess pore pressure generation and dissipation in liquefiable soils. In these tests, near full liquefaction conditions were attained within a few cycles of the earthquake loading. In the case of high hydraulic conductivity sands, significant dissipation could take place even during the earthquake loading which inhibits full liquefaction from occurring. In the case of excess pore pressure generation and dissipation around a floating structure, the cyclic response of the structure may lead to the reduction in excess pore pressure near the face of the structure as compared to the far field. This reduction in excess pore pressure is due to shear-induced dilation and suction pressures arising from extensile stresses at the soil-structure interface. Given the lower excess pore pressure around the structure; the soil around the structure retains a portion of this shear strength which in turn can discourage significant uplift of the underground structure.

Author(s):  
Gopal S. P. Madabhushi ◽  
Samy Garcia-Torres

AbstractSoil liquefaction can cause excessive damage to structures as witnessed in many recent earthquakes. The damage to small/medium-sized buildings can lead to excessive death toll and economic losses due to the sheer number of such buildings. Economic and sustainable methods to mitigate liquefaction damage to such buildings are therefore required. In this paper, the use of rubble brick as a material to construct earthquake drains is proposed. The efficacy of these drains to mitigate liquefaction effects was investigated, for the first time to include the effects of the foundations of a structure by using dynamic centrifuge testing. It will be shown that performance of the foundation in terms of its settlement was improved by the rubble brick drains by directly comparing them to the foundation on unimproved, liquefiable ground. The dynamic response in terms of horizontal accelerations and rotations will be compared. The dynamic centrifuge tests also yielded valuable information with regard to the excess pore pressure variation below the foundations both spatially and temporally. Differences of excess pore pressures between the improved and unimproved ground will be compared. Finally, a simplified 3D finite element analysis will be introduced that will be shown to satisfactorily capture the settlement characteristics of the foundation located on liquefiable soil with earthquake drains.


2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fereshteh Rahmani ◽  
Seyed Mahdi Hosseini

Abstract Liquefaction occurs in a loose and saturated sand layer, induces quite large damages to infrastructures, the importance of liquefaction mitigation has been emphasized to minimize earthquake disasters for many years. Many kinds of ground improvement techniques based on various improvement principles have been developed for liquefaction mitigation. Among them, deep mixing method with grid pattern was developed for liquefaction mitigation in the 1990s, where the grid of stabilized column walls functions to restrict the generation of excess pore pressure by confining the soil particle movement during earthquake. In this study, a parametric study of the grid-form deep mixing wall is performed using numerical modeling with GID+OpenSees interface V2.6.0. The finite element method with a three-dimensional analysis model can be used to estimate the foundation settlement over liquefiable soil layer. The validity of the developed model was evaluated by comparing the results obtained from the model with the results of numerical studies and the experimental centrifuge test to investigate the effect of deep mixing grid wall on the settlement and generation of excess pore pressure ratio of liquefiable soil. Based on the analysis, the settlement for improved soil was 69% smaller than the settlement for unimproved soil. The results also indicated that the grid wall space, relative density, and stiffness ratio between soil-cement columns and enclosed soil plays an important role in the occurrence of liquefaction and volumetric strains.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (7) ◽  
pp. 704
Author(s):  
He Wang ◽  
Rui Wang ◽  
Jian-Min Zhang

Suction caissons are widely used foundations in offshore engineering. The change in excess pore pressure and seepage field caused by penetration and suction significantly affects the soil resistance around the caisson wall and tip, and also affects the deformation of the soil within and adjacent to the caisson. This study uses Arbitrary Lagrangian–Eulerian (ALE) large deformation solid-fluid coupled FEM to investigate the changes in suction pressure and the seepage field during the process of the suction caisson installation in sand. A nonlinear Drucker-Prager model is used to model soil, while Coulomb friction is applied at the soil-caisson interface. The ALE solid-fluid coupled FEM is shown to be able to successfully simulate both jacked penetration and suction penetration caisson installation processes in sand observed in centrifuge tests. The difference in penetration resistance for jacked and suction installation is found to be caused by the seepage and excess pore pressure generated during the suction caisson installation, highlighting the importance of using solid-fluid coupled effective stress-based analysis to consider seepage in the evaluation of suction caisson penetration.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Irena Schulten ◽  
David Mosher ◽  
David Piper ◽  
Sebastian Krastel ◽  
Kevin MacKillop

<p>The 1929 Grand Banks submarine landslide was triggered by a M<sub>w</sub> 7.2 strike slip earthquake on the southwestern Grand Banks of Newfoundland. Studies following the event by several decades were the first to recognize that slope failure can cause tsunamis. These studies identified St. Pierre Slope as the main failure area and showed widespread, shallow (<25 m-thick), translational and possibly retrogressive sediment failures occurred predominately in >1700 m water depth (mwd). It seems unlikely this style of failure in deep water generated a tsunami that had >13 m of run-up along the coast of Newfoundland. The objective of this study is to identify possible alternative tsunami source mechanisms and pre-conditioning factors that may have led to sediment instability. These objectives are addressed using a comprehensive data set of multiscale 2D seismic reflection, multibeam swath bathymetry and laboratory geomechanical test data. Results show numerous reflection offsets within the Quaternary section of the slope underneath modern seafloor escarpments (750-2300 mwd).  These offsets appear down to 550 m below seafloor (mbsf) and are interpreted as low angle (~17°), planar-normal faults of <100 m-high vertical and ~330 m of horizontal displacement. The faults are interpreted as part of a massive (~560 km³) complex slump with evidence for multiple décollements (250 mbsf & 400-550 mbsf) and slumping in at least two directions. Infinite slope stability analysis using peak ground acceleration (PGA) indicates that a combination of earthquake loading and the presence of geomechanical weak layers are needed to explain the slope failure. At St. Pierre Slope, the analysis of sediment cores shows that geomechanical weak layers form as a consequence of underconsolidation in connection with excess pore pressures that are related to: 1) high sedimentation rates, 2) instantaneous deposition of mass transport deposits (MTD’s) and sandy turbidites, and 3) the presence of gas. The décollements of the slump are associated with MTD’s and sediment waves that likely form weak layers. The layers of sediment waves are assumed to consist of sorted silts or fine sands and are therefore likely to be susceptible to excess pore pressure development during earthquake loading. Excess pore pressure development results in reduced effective stress and higher potential for instability. It is interpreted, therefore, that the 1929 earthquake triggered displacement of a 550 m-thick slump with ~100 m of vertical seafloor displacement. This instantaneous displacement of the slump in 750 mwd with a seafloor volume displacement of 70 to 130 km² is likely a more effective source for tsunami generation than the translational, shallow (<25 m) failures in deeper water.</p>


2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (03) ◽  
pp. 2050015
Author(s):  
Samy Garcıáa-Torres ◽  
Gopal Santana Phani Madabhushi

Reducing the risk of structural damage due to earthquake-induced liquefaction in new and existing buildings is a challenging problem in geotechnical engineering. Drainage countermeasure techniques against liquefaction have been studied over the last decades with an emphasis on the use of vertical drains. This technique aims to allow a rapid dissipation of excess pore pressures generated in the soil during the earthquake thereby limiting the peak excess pore pressures and consequently improve the structural response. Rapid drainage in the post-earthquake period in the presence of these drains helps quick recovery of the soil strength. Recent studies propose different variations in the vertical drains arrangement to improve the excess pore pressure redistribution in the soil around structures. However, conventional arrangements for existing buildings do not achieve an adequate proximity from the drains to the soil below the foundation. To address this, the performance of inclined and vertical perimeter drain arrangements are studied in this paper. Dynamic centrifuge tests were carried out for the different arrangements in order to evaluate the excess pore pressure generation due to ground shaking and the following dissipation together with the foundation settlement and dynamic response.


2012 ◽  
Vol 446-449 ◽  
pp. 1940-1943
Author(s):  
Yang Liu ◽  
Hong Xiang Yan

Numerical simulation of vibro-stone column is taken to simulate the installation of vibro-stone column. A relationship based on test is adopted to calculate the excess pore pressure induced by vibratory energy during the installation of vibro-stone column. A numerical procedure is developed based on the formula and Terzaghi-Renduric consolidation theory. Finally numerical results of composite stone column are compared single stone column.


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