EFFECT OF FINES ON LIQUEFACTION USING SHAKE TABLE TEST

S. R. Pathak, Madhura Joshi, Mugdha Kshirsagar

Abstract: Earthquake is one of the most disastrous natural calamities resulting into considerable damages. One of the most detrimental effects caused due to earthquake is liquefaction. This paper deals with experimental investigation of effects of fines content on liquefaction behavior using shake table test. A test program consisted of total 19 tests conducted on saturated cohesionless sand with varying amount of non-plastic silt. The behavior of such silty sand in the relative density range 30 to 60% has been studied by subjecting the specimens to a specific acceleration of 0.54g. Effect of silt content and the relative density on generation of pore pressure and thereby initiation of liquefaction has been studied. The results obtained from the present study showed that cyclic stress ratio (CSR) values decrease with the increase in fines content for lower relative densities. Delay in development of pore pressure is observed with the increasing fines content. This indicates that higher silt contents at higher densities offer better resistance to liquefaction. Further, for lower densities and lesser silt contents liquefaction occurred at pore pressure ratio even less than one. The trend observed for CSR and relative density is similar when compared with triaxial test reported in literature. The points where liquefaction has occurred in the field, when checked in the present study, they lie in ‘YES’ zone of liquefaction.

Keywords: Relative Density, Cyclic Stress Ratio, Pore Pressure Ratio, Liquefaction Resistance, Initiation of Liquefaction

DOI: https://doi.org/10.15623/ijret.2016.0503023