Liquefaction Analysis Using PLAXIS
Liquefaction Analysis Using PLAXIS
Liquefaction Analysis Using PLAXIS
CONTENTS
Under static and cyclic loading, dry cohesionless soil tends to densify. If these soils are
saturated and the applied load acts in a short time, as in case of earthquake, the tendency to
densify causes an increase in excess pore pressure that can’t be rapidly dissipated and
consequently decrease in effective stresses occurs.
This phenomenon can be explained considering that the shear resistance for cohesionless
soils is given by Coulomb’s formula:
where σ'vo is the initial effective stress and φ is the friction angle
where σvo is the total vertical stress and u is the pore pressure. When the excess pore pressure
develop during an earthquake, the equation can be written as
It is an effective stress elasto-plastic model which can simulate the liquefaction behavior of
sands and silty sands under seismic loading. (Tsegaye(2010), Peralas & Galavi(2012))
a) Hysteresis Damping of the soil model can capture damping at strains larger than 10-4-10-2%,
depending on the values of material properties.
b) Soil behavior is irreversible even at low deformation levels. Hence additional damping is
needed to model realistic damping characteristics of soils in dynamic calculations. This can
be done by means of Rayleigh damping
Where vs is the shear wave velocity in the soil deposit, that is function of the shear stiffness modulus G
The mesh generation is fully automatic and based on robust triangulation procedure in
PLAXIS.
Kuhlemeyer & Lysmer (1973) suggest to assume a size less than or equal to one-eight of the
wavelength associated with the maximum frequency component fmax of the input wave( i.e.
the highest frequency component that contains appreciable energy)
For example, Average Vs=100m/s, fmax= 5 Hz, Average element size =2.8m
1. Tied degrees of freedom option allows to successfully model a reduced geometry for a 1D
wave propagation analysis, while the bottom boundary can be modeled as a compliant
base by applying a prescribed displacement without any conversion to a distributed load(A
Laera & R.B.J. Brinkgreve)
2. For the base of the model, the most common case is that of a soil deposit with nonlinear
behavior overlying a bedrock, assumed to behave linearly and to be able to absorb
downward propagating waves. This can be achieved by complaint base.
Compliant base is based on same principles of free field boundaries, where free field
elements are added to main domain and are connected to it by means of dashpots attached
in normal and shear directions.
Amplification
At Bedrock
Liquefaction Points
1. With dynamic analysis using UBC Sand model, one can simulate the generation of excess
pore water pressure in the soil.
2. Nonlinear time history analysis uses earthquake time history function to predict
liquefaction.
3. In addition to Factor of safety, it gives insight to the designer for a list of output like
amplification, and information of build up of excess pore pressure(ru),liquefaction/plastic
point.
4. Post Liquefaction behavior can be simulated using UBC Sand Model
5. Liquefaction remedial measures could be modeled in 2D/3D to study its effectiveness
1. It should be noted that any soil model, even the most complex, is a simplification of the
real soil behavior and it involves certain number of limitations. One hand constitutive
models with reduced number of parameters are quite easy to calibrate but more
assumptions on soil behavior. On other hand, complex constitutive models gives the
possibility to model more features of the soil behavior, but they require adequate
knowledge of the model parameters and an extensive soil characterization to perform an
appropriate calibration.
2. The limitation associated with the material model. For UBC Sand, it is not appropriate to
generate the initial stresses and associated overdamping due to the use of Gmax in elastic
unloading. Further Study: Use of PM4 Sand material Model