Conventional liquefaction assessment methodologies for reclaimed gravelly soil

Soil liquefaction has been an extensively studied topic over the past several decades with majority of these studies focusing on sand and silty sand deposits. However, several case histories have illustrated that gravelly soils can also liquefy and cause severe damage to reclaimed soils and port infrastructure. Examples include Kobe Port Island (Japan) where Masado gravels liquefied in the 1995 Kobe earthquake in Japan and the port of Wellington (New Zealand) where gravel-sand-silt reclamations liquefied in the 2016 Kaikōura earthquake.

As gravelly soils are not well represented in current semi-empirical liquefaction procedures, questions are raised as to whether state-of-the-practice liquefaction evaluation methods based on sands are applicable to gravelly soils, or whether conventional testing methods (e.g., the Cone Penetration Test) can be performed in these materials. This research topic investigated the applicability of conventional liquefaction evaluation procedures to case histories of well-graded reclaimed gravelly soil at the port of Wellington in New Zealand.

Collaborators:

• Professor Misko Cubrinovski, University of Canterbury

• Professor Jonathan D. Bray, University of California, Berkeley

• Dr Chris de la Torre, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, University of Canterbury