Impact-Induced Liquefaction Mechanism of Sandy Silt at Different Saturations

Abstract

Landslide-induced liquefaction has received extensive attention from scholars in recent years. In the study of loess landslides in the southern Loess Plateau of Jingyang, some scholars have noted the liquefaction of the near-saturated sandy silt layer that is caused by the impact of loess landslides on the erodible terrace. The impact-induced liquefaction triggered by landslides is probably the reason for the long-runout landslides on the near-horizontal terrace. In order to reveal the mechanism of impact-induced liquefaction, this paper investigates the development of pore pressure and the impact-induced liquefaction of sandy silt under the influence of saturation through laboratory experiments, moisture content tests, and vane shear tests. It has been found that both the total pressure and pore water pressure undergo a transient increase and decrease at the moment of impact on the soil, which takes 40–60 ms to complete and only about 20 ms to arrive at the peak. Moreover, silty sand with a saturation of more than 80° was liquefied under the impact, and the liquefaction occurred in the shallow layer of the soil body. The shear strength of the liquefied part of the soil is reduced to 1.7∼2.8 kPa. Soils with lower saturation did not liquefy. The mechanism of the impact-induced liquefaction can be described as follows: under impact, the water in the soil gradually fills the pores of the soil body as the pore size decreases, and when the contact between the soil particles is completely replaced by pore water, the soil body loses its shear strength and reaches a liquefied state. Soils in the liquefied state have a very high permeability coefficient, and the water inside the soil body migrates upward as the particles settle, resulting in high-moisture content in the upper soil.