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Experimental studies on dynamic and static properties of sand during repeated liquefaction events

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Abstract

The phenomenon of repeated liquefaction of sand has been widely observed in field and laboratory testing, and the liquefaction responses of sand during repeated liquefaction events and the shear behavior of sand after initial liquefaction have been excessively tested. However, the dynamic and static properties of sand, which play a vital role in the assessment of the long-term safety and stability of geotechnical systems, under repeated liquefaction have not been studied systematically. As such, a series of undrained triaxial dynamic and compression tests are conducted in this study to investigate the liquefaction properties, dynamic modulus, undrained shear behavior, and seismic wave characteristics of sand during repeated liquefaction events. The test results indicate that the undrained shear strength increases with the number of liquefaction events, whereas the liquefaction resistance, static stability, dynamic modulus, and shear wave velocity decrease after initial liquefaction and then increase after subsequent liquefaction events. Further, a novel index based on the shear wave velocity and primary wave velocity is formulated to assess the liquefaction history of sand: this index of post-liquefaction sand tends to be much lower than that of unliquefied sand.

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Acknowledgements

The financial support provided by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 41977242), the Major Program of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 42090055), and the Outstanding Youth Foundation of Hubei Province, China (Grant No. 2022CFA102) is acknowledged.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Engineering, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan, 430074, Hubei, China

    Shaoyan Zhang, Wenping Gong, Tianzheng Li & Xiaoyu Zhao

  2. Institute of Geotechnical Engineering, Nanjing Tech University, Nanjing, 210009, Jiangsu, China

    Qi Wu

  3. Faculty of Architecture, Civil and Transportation Engineering, Beijing University of Technology, Beijing, 100124, China

    Qi Wu

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  1. Shaoyan Zhang
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Correspondence to Wenping Gong.

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Zhang, S., Gong, W., Wu, Q. et al. Experimental studies on dynamic and static properties of sand during repeated liquefaction events. Acta Geotech. 18, 5231–5249 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11440-023-01819-2

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