The Effect of Irregular Seismic Loading and Soil Density on the Liquefaction Behavior of Saturated Sand

Abstract

Structures located on sandy soils can be significantly damaged by earthquake-induced liquefaction. A series of stress-controlled cyclic triaxial tests under harmonic and irregular loading under various soil densities 30%, and 50%, was conducted to evaluate the effects of irregularities and relative densities on the liquefaction characteristics of saturated sand. The irregular actual ground motions time histories obtained from six stations of the 1999 Chi-Chi Earthquake and harmonic sinusoidal cyclic loading time histories were applied to Firoozkooh #161 sand specimens, and the results were compared in terms of the type waveforms loading and relative densities. Based on the stress and energy method, the Correction coefficient is calculated for a variety of densities and types of irregular loading. The present results reveal that it is not precise to assume a single correction coefficient for all records, regardless of the complicated time-domain characteristics of ground motions. Furthermore, the results indicate that the relative soil density and the type of irregular loading influenced sand's pore pressure generation and liquefaction potential.