Pore pressure generation characteristics of a liquefiable sandy layer in a stratified soil deposit

Abstract

Soil liquefaction is one of the most dangerous threats to civil engineering structures constructed in sandy grounds when earthquakes occur. Due to the disastrous effect of liquefaction phenomena, in last few decades the study focused on the factors responsible behind such behaviour of soil and ways to mitigate the cause had been studied intensively. This parametric study is done to determine the pore pressure generation characteristics of a stratified sandy soil under seismic loading. Pore pressure generation characteristics will help us in removing the excess pore pressure generated in soil under seismic loading. This study is conducted using nonlinear finite difference software FLAC 2D. The parametric variation of intensity of input motion, type of motion, embankment loading and variation in height of liquefiable layer. From the study it was found that the pore pressure generation increase with the increase in intensity of the earthquake. Power amplitude of input motion also affect the extent of pore pressure generation. With the increase in the length of the embankment the pore pressure generation intensity also increases and cause failure of soil. As the height of liquefiable soil increases the, depth of soil liquefaction also increases. To overcome this pore pressure generation proper ground improvement must be done before starting construction work