The simplified procedure developed by Seed and Idriss (1971) for evaluating liquefaction potential of soils has become a standard procedure throughout North American and much of the world. Field tests, such as SPT, CPT and, have been widely used to determine the cyclic resistance ratio (CRR) in order to avoid the difficulties associated with sampling and laboratory testing. Although the in-situ case history–based liquefaction criteria have gained common usage in the field, their limitations, uncertainties and possible errors make it necessary to be validated/calibrated. Centrifuge model is an ideal tool to measure shear wave velocity and to validate/calibrate the shear wave velocity based liquefaction criteria. The principle of this research is to conduct dynamic centrifuge tests to model field soil layer response during earthquakes, while, before and after the earthquake test, the profile of the shear wave velocities of the model is measured by bender element tests. According to the measured shear wave velocities and observed model performances, conclusions about the liquefaction resistance of the model can be drawn, which can be further used to examine the field data based criteria. A series of centrifuge test were conducted on Nevada sand with different fine contents to determine the liquefaction resistance of soils. A new liquefaction criterion was developed based on the centrifuge test results by following the general format of the SPT based simplified procedure. Liquefaction resistance curves were established by
modifying the relationship suggested by Dobry based on constant average cyclic shear strain theory. The new CRR curves were compared with some previous proposed liquefaction curves based on case history data. Also all the mentioned curves were examined by actual observation data during past earthquakes. The new criteria will provide an additional tool for practitioners and researchers to predict liquefaction occurrence.