Experimental study on sand-tire chip mixture foundations acting as a soil liquefaction countermeasure

Abstract

Soil liquefaction is a phenomenon associated with strong earthquakes and it can affect large areas. High-rise and low-rise buildings, residential structures typically of 1–2 storeys, may be equally prone to the destructive consequences of liquefaction. For the case of high-rise buildings, expensive solutions like well-designed piles with ground improvement can be used. However, in the case of smaller residential structures, this is not economically viable. To this purpose, the current research explores the effectiveness of a novel proposed low-cost liquefaction protection technique, where the soil underneath the foundation is replaced by a sand-tire chip mixture base reaching down to a certain depth. Series of triaxial and shaking table tests were performed for a range of parametric scenarios to, mainly mechanistically, assess the effectiveness of such a mitigation technique, since similar previous studies are extremely limited. The tests have shown that the closest the considered base is to the surface, the thicker it is and with higher tire ratio, the more effective it can become on controlling the pore pressure rise that leads to liquefaction.

Application of Pebbles for Geotechnical Seismic Isolation (GSI): Experimental Parametric Study

“…It is desirable to use materials that are readily found in nature and have large reserves. Several types of materials have been tested and researched for GSI applications, including sand and gravel [15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22], sand-bitumen mixtures [23], EPS beads-sand mixtures [24], rubbersoil mixtures (RSMs) gravel-soil mixtures (GRMs) [25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44], geosynthetics [45][46][47][48], and geofoam [49][50][51][52][53][54][55][56][57].…”

Configuration of a gravel-rubber geotechnical seismic isolation system from laboratory and field tests

“…Granulated rubber or tire chips have been studied numer-95 ically or experimentally as a lightweight backfill material of 96 retaining walls (Youwai and Bergado, 2004;Hazarika, Ko-97 hama and Sugano, 2008;Tsinaris, Anastasiadis and Pitilakis, 98 2018) and bridge abutments (Argyroudis, Palaiochorinou, 99 Mitoulis and Pitilakis, 2016) or as a drainage layer (Edil 100 and Bosscher, 1994). At the same time, they were also 101 proposed in the design of embankments (Bosscher,Edil and 102 Kuraoka, 1997) and lately as a reinforcement layer to pre-103 vent liquefaction-induced settlement of structures (Hazarika, 104 Yasuhara, Karmokar and Mitarai, 2007;Terzi, Erenson and 105 Selcuk, 2015;Nikitas and Bhattacharya, 2023).…”

Preface for the special issue on geotechnical seismic isolation (GSI)

“…Vibration scattering or filtering, as well as various forms of damping, can be utilised to dissipate seismic energy outside the structure. This special issue presents five different GSI systems of varying configurations that belong to this branch ( In addition to reducing structural demands such as inter-storey drift and structural or ground acceleration, GSI can also mitigate liquefaction potential, as demonstrated in the studies conducted by Bernal-Sanchez et al ( 2023) and Nikitas and Bhattacharya (2023) based on the use of mixtures of soil and waste tyre rubber granules. This illustrates the potential for GSI to provide a more comprehensive seismic design solution that considers not only structural demands but also soil liquefaction.…”

“…This includes analytical and numerical modelling of soil-foundation-structure systems (Aloisio et al 2022;Chiaro et al 2022;Forcellini and Alzabeebee 2022;Gatto et al 2022;Hazarika et al 2023;Somma and Flora 2023;Tsang 2022). Laboratory testing of material samples has also been carried out (Dhanya et al 2023;Gatto et al 2022;Hazarika et al 2023;Nikitas and Bhattacharya 2023;Somma and Flora 2023), along with characterising geomaterials at the particle scale (Bernal-Sanchez et al 2023). Shaking table testing (Banović et al 2022;Dhanya et al 2023;Edinçliler and Yildiz 2023;Nikitas and Bhattacharya 2023;Tsiavos et al 2022) and field measurements (Hazarika et al 2023;Vratsikidis and Pitilakis 2022) have been conducted as well.…”

“…Laboratory testing of material samples has also been carried out (Dhanya et al 2023;Gatto et al 2022;Hazarika et al 2023;Nikitas and Bhattacharya 2023;Somma and Flora 2023), along with characterising geomaterials at the particle scale (Bernal-Sanchez et al 2023). Shaking table testing (Banović et al 2022;Dhanya et al 2023;Edinçliler and Yildiz 2023;Nikitas and Bhattacharya 2023;Tsiavos et al 2022) and field measurements (Hazarika et al 2023;Vratsikidis and Pitilakis 2022) have been conducted as well. In addition, practical design models and parameters have been proposed for designing GSI systems (Aloisio et al 2022;Somma and Flora 2023;Tsang 2022).…”