Comparison of Different Methods of Hazard Estimating of Soil Settlements in Loose Sands Due to Liquefaction

Liquefaction induced settlement can produce damage to bridge approaches, abutments, and shallow foundations. It can also cause down drag loading on deep foundations. Available procedures for estimating liquefaction-induced settlement are based on observed soil behavior in laboratory tests and on observed field behavior from earthquake case histories. Because relatively few well-documented case histories of post liquefaction settlement are available, the uncertainty in predicted settlement is significant. The goal of this study describes a series of procedures that can be used to estimate post liquefaction settlement for different earthquake scenarios, different ground motion hazard levels, and different settlement hazard levels. Four existing deterministic methods, those proposed by Tokimatsu and Seed (1987), Ishihara and Yoshimine (1992), Shamoto et al. (1998), and Wu and Seed (2004), were investigated through a series of parametric analyses.

Keywords:

Settlement , Hazard , Soil , Liquefaction , Procedures