Seismic response evaluation of structures on improved liquefiable soil

Abstract

The aim of this study involves investigating the behaviour of structures supported on liquefiable soil. Additionally, the induced seismic response of structures on improved soil is also evaluated. For the analysis, buildings are modelled by two alternate approaches, namely; single degree-of-freedom and multi degree-of-freedom systems. In each approach, two cases are considered: one case considers the supporting soil as liquefiable, while the other considers an improved supporting soil beneath the base of the building models. The building models with different natural periods are analysed under a suit of three ground motion records with different peak ground accelerations. The influence of soil improvement ratio on the induced seismic response of both the foundation and structure is also investigated to define an optimal value to prevent liquefaction. A numerical algorithm based on a state-space approach is used to perform the numerical simulations. The examined cases indicate that improvements in liquefiable soil are extremely beneficial for both the soil and structure where it possess the potential to seriously alter the response during earthquake loads.

Keywords:

• Liquefaction
• stone columns
• time-history analysis
• SDOF model
• MDOF model

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.