Analyse de la liquéfaction et du comportement non drainé des sables du delta de Kenamu (Projet ADFEX)

Abstract

Jointly sponsored by France, Norway, and Canada, the ADFEX project (Artic Delta Failure Experiment) aims at triggering a full-scale submarine slide. For that purpose, a delta is destabilized by blasting to induce instantaneous liquefaction of the delta front. The selected site is the delta of Kenamu River at Melville Lake (Labrador), located approximately 40 km northeast of Goose Bay. The delta sediments are angular fine silty sands constituted mainly of quartz. A series of consolidated isotropically and undrained triaxial tests was performed on specimens of reconstituted loose sands to establish the boundaries between the contracting and dilating behaviours (steady state line or F line) and the upper and lower limits of the boundaries within the bidimensional diagram void ratio – mean effective stress. A soil state above this boundary region constitutes a necessary condition to liquefaction. The results of the triaxial tests are used to evaluate the liquefaction potential of Kenamu delta. Key words : liquefaction, sand, steady state, triaxial test, undrained, delta.