Analysis of Soil Liquefaction Potential through Three Field Tests-Based Methods: A Case Study of Babol City

Abstract

During earthquakes, ground failure is commonly caused by liquefaction. Thus, assessment of soil liquefaction potential in earthquake-prone regions is a crucial step towards reducing earthquake hazard. Since Babol city in Iran country is located in a high seismic area, estimation of soil liquefaction potential is of great importance in this city. For this purpose, in the present research, using field-based methods and geotechnical data (such as unit weight of soil, relative density, SPT number, shear wave velocity and cone tip resistance) of 60 available boreholes in Babol, three liquefaction maps were provided. Finally, one comprehensive liquefaction map was presented for soil of Babol city. The obtained results in this paper are well in line with the previous investigations. Based on the results, the factor of safety in 45% of the study area is less than one (liquefaction occurrence). In addition, the results indicate that since each field-based method requires particular data, applying various field tests is necessary for a more accurate liquefaction assessment.

Investigation of Liquefaction Potential in Sands Mixed with Gravel

“…The tested samples in this research were consolidated under a stress of 100 kilopascals. To apply cyclic loading, according to ASTM standard D 5311, a sinusoidal cyclic wave with a frequency of 0.2 hertz was applied to the sample to initiate cyclic loading [12][13][14][15][16][17].…”