Liquefaction of Soils

Presented By:-
Kunal Mahajan(17204004)
Abhishek Gupta(17204020)
2 What is Liquefaction?

Liquefaction is a process by which sediments below the water table

temporarily lose strength and behave as a viscous liquid rather than a solid.
Seismic waves, primarily shear waves, passing through saturated granular
layers, distort the granular structure, and cause loosely packed groups of
particles to collapse. These collapses increase the pore-water pressure
between the grains if drainage cannot occur. If the pore-water pressure rises
to a level approaching the weight of the overlying soil, the granular layer
temporarily behaves as a viscous liquid rather than a solid. This
phenomenon is called Liquefaction.
3
The length of the arrows represent
the size of the contact forces
between individual soil grains. The
contact forces are large when
the pore water pressure is low.
Soil grains in a soil deposit. The
height of the blue column to the
right represents the level of pore
water pressure in the soil.
Observe how small the contact forces are because of the
high water pressure. In an extreme case, the pore water
pressure may become so high that many of the soil
particles lose contact with each other. In such cases, the
soil will have very little strength, and will behave more like
a liquid than a solid - hence, the name "liquefaction".
 Types of Liquefaction
4

Flow Liquefaction:
Can occur when the static shear stress (required for
stability) is greater than the shear strength of the liquefied
soil. In this case, liquefaction leads to a strength loss, which
causes static stresses to cause the flow failure. Flow
liquefaction can be initiated in a variety of ways like
monotonic loading, vibrations caused by non-seismic
sources like pile driving, train movement, blasting and
geophysical explorations.

Cyclic Mobility:
Occurs when the static shear stress is smaller than the shear
strength of the liquefied soil. In this case, incremental
deformations are caused by both cyclic and static shear
stresses. Cyclic Mobility is always triggered by earthquakes.
5 Effects of liquefaction

It is not the occurrence of liquefaction that is of prime importance, but its

severity or its capability to cause damage.
Adverse effects of liquefaction can take many forms.
• Flow failures
• Loss of bearing strength & settlement
• Sand Boil
• Lateral spreads
• Ground oscillation
6 Flow Failure

Flow failures are the most catastrophic ground failures caused by

liquefaction. These failures commonly displace large masses of soil laterally
tens of meters and in a few instances, large masses of soil have traveled tens
of kilometers down long slopes at velocities ranging up to tens of kilo-
meters per hour.
Flows may be comprised of completely liquefied soil or blocks of intact
material riding on a layer of liquefied soil.
7

Flow failure of Lake Merced in San Francisco during the 1957 Daly City
earthquake
 Loss of bearing strength
8
When the soil supporting a building or other structure liquefies and
loses strength, large de-formations can occur within the soil which
may allow the structure to settle and tilt. Buried tanks and piles may
rise buoyantly through the liquefied soil.
 Loss of bearing strength
9

Nishinomia Bridge 1995 Kobe earthquake, Japan

10

Tilting of apartment buildings, Niigata (1964)

 Sand Boil: Ground water rushing to
11
the surface due to liquefaction

Sand blow in mud flats used for salt

production southwest of Kandla Port, Gujarat
12
 Lateral Spreading
13
Lateral spreading in the soil beneath embankment causes the embankment to be
pulled apart, producing the large crack down the center of the road.

Cracked Highway, Alaska, 1964

 Lateral Spreading
14

Upslope portion of lateral spread at Budharmora, Gujarat

 Ground Oscillation
15
 The occurrence of liquefaction at depth beneath a float ground surface
can decouple the liquefied soils from the surficial soils and produce large,
transient ground oscillations.
 The surficial soils often broken into blocks separated by fissures that can
open and close during the earthquake.
 Ground waves with amplitudes of up to several feet have been observed
during ground oscillation, but permanent displacements are usually small.

Ground oscillations (a) before and (b) after

earthquake.
16 Factors that Govern Liquefaction in Field

• Grain size distribution and particle shape

• Relative Density
• Earthquake Loading Characteristics
• Vertical Effective Stress and Over-consolidation
• Age and Origin of the Soils
• Degree of Saturation
• Thickness of Sand Layer
17 Grain size distribution and particle shape
• The type of soil most susceptible to liquefaction is one in which the
resistance to deformation is mobilized by friction between particles.
• If other factors such as grain shape, uniformity coefficient and relative
density are equal, the frictional resistance of cohesionless soil decreases as
the grain size of soils becomes smaller.
• Tsuchida (1970) summarized the results of sieve analyses performed on a
number of alluvial and diluvial soils that were known to have liquefied or
not to have liquefied during earthquakes. He proposed ranges of grain size
curves separating liquefiable and non-liquefiable soils as shown in Figure
below.
• The area within the two inner curves in the figure represents sands and silty
sands, the soils with the lowest resistance to liquefaction. A soil with a
gradation curve falling in the zones between the outer and inner curves is
less likely to liquefy.
• Soils with a higher percentage of gravels tend to mobilize higher strength
during shearing, and to dissipate excess pore pressures more rapidly than
sands.
18

Limits in the gradation curves separating liquefiable and non-

liquefiable soils (Tsuchida, 1970)
19 Relative Density

• Liquefaction occurs principally in saturated clean sands and silty

sands having a relative density less than 50%.
• For dense sands, however, their tendency to dilate during cyclic
shearing will generate negative pore water pressures and increase
their resistance to shear stress.
• The lower limit of relative density beyond which liquefaction will not
occur is about 75%.

Earthquake Loading Characteristics

• The vulnerability of any cohesionless soil to liquefaction during an

earthquake depends on the magnitude and number of cycles of
stresses or strains induced in it by the earthquake shaking.
• These in turn are related to the intensity, predominant frequency, and
duration of ground shaking.
20 Vertical Effective Stress and Over-consolidation

• It is well known that an increase in the effective vertical stress increases the
bearing capacity and shear strength of soil, and thereby increases the shear
stress required to cause liquefaction and decreases the potential for
liquefaction.

• From field observations it has been concluded by a number of investigators

that saturated sands located deeper than 50 to 60 feet (15 to 18 m) are not
likely to liquefy. These depths are in general agreement with Kishida (1969)
who states that a saturated sandy soil is not liquefiable if the value of the
effective overburden pressure exceeds (190 kN/m2).

• Both theory and experimental data show that for a given soil a higher
over-consolidation ratio leads to higher lateral earth pressure at rest and
thereby increases the shear stress ratio required to cause liquefaction.
21 Age and Origin of the Soils

• Natural deposits of alluvial and fluvial origins generally have soil grains in
the state of loose packing. These deposits are young, weak and free
from added strength due to cementation and aging.

• Youd and Hoose (1977) stated that, as a rule of thumb, alluvial deposits
older than late Pleistocene (10,000- 130,000 years) are unlikely to liquefy
except under severe earthquake loading conditions, while late
Holocene deposits (1,000 years or less) are most likely to liquefy, and
earlier Holocene (1,000-10,000 years) deposits are moderately
liquefiable.
22
Degree of Saturation

Liquefaction will not occur in dry soils. Only settlement, as a result of

densification during shaking, may be of some concern. Very little is
known on the liquefaction potential of partially saturated sands.
Available laboratory test results (Sherif et al., 1977) show liquefaction
resistance for soils increases with decreasing degree of saturation, and
that sand samples with low degree of saturation can become liquefied
only under severe and long duration of earthquake shaking.

Thickness of Sand Layer

In order to induce extensive damage at level ground surface from

liquefaction, the liquefied soil layer must be thick enough so that the
resulting uplift pressure and amount of water expelled from the
liquefied layer can result in ground rupture such as sand boiling and
fissuring (Ishihara, 1985; Dobry, 1989)
23 Liquefaction Susceptibility
The term “liquefaction” is typically used to describe a variety
of phenomena that causes soil deformations resulting from
monotonic, transient, or repeated disturbance of saturated,
cohesionless soils under undrained conditions.

The generation of excess pore pressures under undrained

loading is a key aspect of liquefaction and the formation of
sand boils.

The evaluation of liquefaction hazards requires that the

susceptibility of soil deposits be evaluated. However, not all
soils deposits are susceptible to liquefaction. Therefore,
several criteria are used by which liquefaction susceptibility
can be assessed. These criteria include historical, geologic,
compositional, and state criteria.
24 Historical Criterion
Liquefaction often recurs at the same location when soil and
groundwater conditions remain relatively unchanged.
Therefore, field case histories where liquefaction evidence has
been observed can be used to identify the general site
conditions under which susceptibility can be evaluated.

Prehistoric evidence has been used to identify the sites and

conditions under which liquefaction has occurred. The study of
these prehistoric features, termed paleoliquefaction, examines
exposed soil stratigraphy in the field to identify liquefaction
features that have been subsequently buried by sedimentation.

Researchers have begun to use paleoliquefaction evidence to

estimate magnitudes and accelerations (peak) associated with
prehistoric earthquakes
25 Geological Criterion
Sedimentary facies that consist of uniform grain size distributions
deposited in loose states produce soils highly susceptible to
liquefaction. These facies primarily consist of fluvial (river),
alluvial (seasonal), colluvial (slope instability), and aeolian
(wind).

Soil aging can also affect liquefaction susceptibility; older

sediments are less susceptible to liquefaction.

Liquefaction only occurs in saturated soil deposits. Therefore,

the depth to groundwater, either static or perched, is an
important factor in susceptibility.
 Compositional Criterion
26
Compositional characteristics influence volume change behavior
in soils during liquefaction, and hence, how excess pore pressures
develop.

These characteristics primarily consist of particle shape and size,

and gradation.

The bounds on size criteria are broad and range from non-plastic
silts to gravel, however most liquefaction is observed in clean
sands.

Well-graded soils are generally less susceptible to liquefaction than

poorly graded soils.

Most liquefaction failures in the field have involved uniformly

graded soils.

Rounded soil particle shapes are generally more susceptible to

liquefaction than angular-grained soils.
27 Compositional Criterion

In order for a cohesive soil to liquefy, it must

meet all the following criteria:
• Fraction finer than 0.005 mm <15%
• Liquid Limit, LL <35%
• Natural water content > 90%
• Liquidity Index <0.75
28 State Criterion

Liquefaction susceptibility also depends on

the initial state of the soil. State criteria
define the stress and density state
characteristics at the time of the
earthquake required to evaluate
liquefaction susceptibility.
29
Remedial Measures
 Soil composed of a mix of small and big grains, can safely endure
liquefaction, since the smaller grains fill the pores between the
larger grains. Thus, the soil strength is maintained.
 Modern buildings are designed to be liquefaction resistant. In a
shallow foundation, the foundation constituents are joined to ensure
uniform settlement of the foundation. Thus, the induced shear forces
are decreased.
 The soil characteristics may also be enhanced by improving the soil
density, strength, and drainage characteristics.
 Mitigation by deep soil mixing method
 Compaction, Permeation, and Jet Grouting
 Drain Pile technique
 Dynamic compaction and construction of stone columns
30

STONE COLUMNS DRAIN PILE TECHNIQUE

31

THANK YOU!!!