1-g Shake Table Experimental Evaluation of Building Settlements Founded on Liquefiable Soils
type: CreativeWork
description: Post-disaster reconnaissance of areas affected by recent earthquakes in Japan and New Zealand has documented extensive damage to buildings with shallow foundations resulting from liquefaction-induced settlement. Current practices in predicting degree of liquefaction-induced settlement are based on semi-empirical relationships for free-field conditions and do not consider external loadings from structures. However, field observations have noted that liquefaction settlement from buildings can be considerably greater than the semi-empirical estimations. The controlling mechanisms of liquefaction settlement under load are not well understood and are currently being investigated by researchers within the Geo-seismic community. Our research is based on a series of 1-g shake table experiments using a transparent soil box to reproduce liquefaction-induced building settlements. Settlements were evaluated using a scaled model of a building foundation representative of a lightly loaded single to double story building. Experimental testing included use of manually induced shaking, implementation of an eccentric-mass shaker and use of a biaxial large scale shake table. Comprehensive parametric study was carried out to establish the effects of several parameters on free-field and building settlements such as building width, relative density, ground motion duration and thickness of liquefiable layer. Experiments included use of accelerometers, pore water pressure sensors and linear variable differential transformers (LVDT) to monitor behavior in both free-field and model building footprints during induction of liquefaction. A comprehensive parametric study was conducted evaluating the influence of key parameters. Results of this study suggest the following on liquefaction settlement behavior. Increases in foundation width showed decreases in settlement. Increases in relative density of soil also showed decreases in settlement. Increases in ground motion duration lead to increases …
abstract: Post-disaster reconnaissance of areas affected by recent earthquakes in Japan and New Zealand has documented extensive damage to buildings with shallow foundations resulting from liquefaction-induced settlement. Current practices in predicting degree of liquefaction-induced settlement are based on semi-empirical relationships for free-field conditions and do not consider external loadings from structures. However, field observations have noted that liquefaction settlement from buildings can be considerably greater than the semi-empirical estimations. The controlling mechanisms of liquefaction settlement under load are not well understood and are currently being investigated by researchers within the Geo-seismic community. Our research is based on a series of 1-g shake table experiments using a transparent soil box to reproduce liquefaction-induced building settlements. Settlements were evaluated using a scaled model of a building foundation representative of a lightly loaded single to double story building. Experimental testing included use of manually induced shaking, implementation of an eccentric-mass shaker and use of a biaxial large scale shake table. Comprehensive parametric study was carried out to establish the effects of several parameters on free-field and building settlements such as building width, relative density, ground motion duration and thickness of liquefiable layer. Experiments included use of accelerometers, pore water pressure sensors and linear variable differential transformers (LVDT) to monitor behavior in both free-field and model building footprints during induction of liquefaction. A comprehensive parametric study was conducted evaluating the influence of key parameters. Results of this study suggest the following on liquefaction settlement behavior. Increases in foundation width showed decreases in settlement. Increases in relative density of soil also showed decreases in settlement. Increases in ground motion duration lead to increases …
author: Toth, Joseph A.W.
keywords: 1-g shake table, building settlements, helical piles, liquefaction
date published: 2016
date modified: 2026-07-27T21:46:41Z
provider: University of Nevada - Reno
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: University of Nevada - Reno

PropertyValue
property ID: Handle
value: http://hdl.handle.net/11714/2106