GEOLAB-CENLIMIT

GEOLAB-CENLIMIT

CENTRIFUGE MODELLING OF DESATURATION FOR SOIL LIQUEFACTION MITIGATION: WAVE-BASED PERFORMANCE AND QUALITY CONTROL

The objective of the GEOLAB-CENLIMIT research plan is to evaluate the performance of soil desaturation as a technique for the mitigation of soil liquefaction by physical modelling. This objective will be done by carrying out physical models of Hostun sand in the geotechnical centrifuge of the Schofield Centre in the University of Cambridge, under different degrees of saturation. The physical models will enable to replicate the cyclic soil behaviour in free-field conditions, providing relevant insights about the performance of soil desaturation for liquefaction mitigation, which can be later applied in the design and assessment of critical infrastructures (e.g. road embankments, pipelines, bridges, hospitals, among others) founded in liquefiable soil deposits. For this purpose, the development of an experimental plan that includes cyclic tests in the Turner beam centrifuge of UCAM using air injection and measurements of seismic wave velocities, accelerations, displacements, and pore water build-up during testing is proposed. The objective is to evaluate the response of untreated and treated soil independently from the presence of any (infra)structure, by comparing of fully saturated against desaturated test results. It will then be possible to investigate the performance of air injection for soil desaturation and to assess the quality and homogeneity of the treatment. Based on these experiments, a clear understanding of the influence of the degree of saturation on soil behaviour against soil liquefaction, in free-field conditions, will be achieved.