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Development of an energy method for evaluating the liquefaction potential of a soil deposit

Liang, Liqun

Abstract Details

1995, Doctor of Philosophy, Case Western Reserve University, Civil Engineering.
Liquefaction occurs in loose and saturated cohesionless soils subjected to strong ground motion caused by earthquakes, machine vibrations, ocean waves, blasting, etc. It is a source of major damage to various types of structures. Under cyclic loading the pore water pressure in loose to medium dense, saturated cohesionless soils increases and the effective stress decreases, leading to a degradation of the shear strength and of the stiffness. It appears as if some damage occurs in the material. Recently, it was found that the level of energy dissipated into the soil can better represent this damage. To fully develop the energy approach for design purposes, a combination of experimental, analytical and numerical studies are needed. A total of 74 tests were conducted on hollow cylinder of soils under undrained conditions and torsional shear loading. The effects of factors such as: amplitude of shear strain, confining pressure, relative density, soil type, loading pattern and application of static shear, on the liquefaction characteristics and on energy dissipation were studied. Statistical analyses were conducted to obtain relationships between the energy dissipated and some of these important parameters. It is shown that the use o f the amount of dissipated energy per unit volume in the evaluation of the liquefaction potential has the advantage over conventional methods since the amount of dissipated energy per unit volume required for liquefaction is independent of the loading pattern. Based on observation and experimental results, models for the degradation of the maximum shear modulus and of the shear strength as a function of the energy were developed and used with a hyperbolic stress-strain relationship to provide a very effective numerical procedure that can be used to calculate the seismic response and the energy dissipation of a soil deposit. This procedure was incorporated into the program ELFS which was applied to solve a variety of problems, and predicts the seismic response of a horizontal deposit and its energy dissipation in a very satisfactory way. Finally, a formal procedure using the energy method to evaluate the liquefaction potential of a soil deposit is proposed
J. Figueroa (Advisor)
281 p.

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Liang, L. (1995). Development of an energy method for evaluating the liquefaction potential of a soil deposit [Doctoral dissertation, Case Western Reserve University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1058541489

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Liang, Liqun. Development of an energy method for evaluating the liquefaction potential of a soil deposit. 1995. Case Western Reserve University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1058541489.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Liang, Liqun. "Development of an energy method for evaluating the liquefaction potential of a soil deposit." Doctoral dissertation, Case Western Reserve University, 1995. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1058541489

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)