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Original Articles

Entropy analysis for identifying significant parameters for seismic soil liquefaction

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Pages 1-8 | Received 17 Jul 2012, Accepted 10 May 2013, Published online: 15 Jul 2013
 

Abstract

A novel application of multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) technique to seismic soil liquefaction, a complex problem in earthquake geotechnical engineering, is presented. Seismic soil liquefaction depends on a diversified set of physical parameters with highly non-linear interconnections. Factors governing liquefaction may broadly be grouped as seismic parameters, site conditions and primarily dynamic soil properties, as the stimulus itself is manifestly dynamic. Each of these factors incorporates a wide range of variety of parameters that characterize liquefaction, to a varying degree of significance, such as: the magnitude, effective overburden pressure, shear modulus, normalized standard penetration blow count [N1]60, etc. Estimating rapid, yet accurate and reliable liquefaction susceptibility requires identification of the most significant factors controlling liquefaction. Thus a new concept of extracting significant parameters and gauging their importance is carried out by assigning them weights by applying MCDM introduced herein, whose evaluation is accomplished by means of an ‘entropy method’. In line with this, a relative reliability risk index (R3I) is computed indicating the ranking that directly reflects the severity of risk for liquefaction. Although the entropy analysis is carried out separately for the three multivariate criteria, it is remarkable that the R3I evaluated for each of these gives consistent ranking.

Abbreviations
ELM:=

empirical liquefaction model

(N1)60:=

normalised standard penetration blow count for a soil

σ’v:=

effective overburden pressure at a site

r:=

epicentral distance for a site

amax:=

peak ground acceleration of induced earthquake

vmax:=

peak ground velocity of induced earthquake

dmax:=

peak ground displacement of induced earthquake

Dr:=

relative density of soil

D50:=

mean grain diameter for a soil

FC:=

fines content in a soil

k0:=

Coefficient of earth pressure at rest for a soil

MCDM:=

multi criteria decision making

R3I:=

relative reliability risk index

AHP:=

analytic hierarchy process

CI:=

consistency index

RI:=

reliability index

CR:=

consistency ratio

LP:=

liquefaction potential

Abbreviations
ELM:=

empirical liquefaction model

(N1)60:=

normalised standard penetration blow count for a soil

σ’v:=

effective overburden pressure at a site

r:=

epicentral distance for a site

amax:=

peak ground acceleration of induced earthquake

vmax:=

peak ground velocity of induced earthquake

dmax:=

peak ground displacement of induced earthquake

Dr:=

relative density of soil

D50:=

mean grain diameter for a soil

FC:=

fines content in a soil

k0:=

Coefficient of earth pressure at rest for a soil

MCDM:=

multi criteria decision making

R3I:=

relative reliability risk index

AHP:=

analytic hierarchy process

CI:=

consistency index

RI:=

reliability index

CR:=

consistency ratio

LP:=

liquefaction potential

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