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MMPES-2023 IOP Publishing
Journal of Physics: Conference Series 2519 (2023) 012007 doi:10.1088/1742-6596/2519/1/012007

Numerical Simulations of Soil Liquefaction using PLAXIS 2D

E D Mulyadi1,2,*, Y Lastiasih2 and A J Li1

1
Department of Civil and Construction Engineering, National Taiwan University of
Science and Technology, No.43, Keelung Road, Sec.4, Da’an District, Taipei City
10607, Taiwan.
2
Department of Civil Engineering, Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember, Campus
ITS Keputih, Sukolilo, Surabaya 60111, Indonesia.
Email: [email protected]

Abstract. One of the most serious and complex phenomena that can occur during earthquakes
is soil liquefaction. Since Taiwan is located in the seismic zone of the Pacific Rim, where
earthquakes and strong earthquakes occur frequently, the evaluation and prediction of
liquefaction have attracted the attention of many authorities, researchers, and engineers in
Taiwan. Therefore, in this paper, PLAXIS 2D software was used in conjunction with two
model conditions, with and without deep excavation project, and two types of constitutive
models, Hardening Soil model with small-strain stiffness (HSS) and UBC3D-PLM, to simulate
a series of numerical analyses to predict liquefaction potential. The soil profile of Sanchong
District, one of the metropolitan areas in Taiwan considered to be particularly susceptible to
soil liquefaction, was selected as the soil profile. The results show that the UBC3D-PLM
model has a relatively higher liquefaction potential than the Hardening Soil model with small-
strain stiffness (HSS) for the model condition without the deep excavation project. However,
the dynamic calculation using UBC3D-PLM model cannot be fully performed for the model
condition with the deep excavation project.

Keywords. Liquefaction, UBC3D-PLM, HSS, PLAXIS 2D, Deep Excavation Project

1. Introduction
Earthquake-induced liquefaction in geotechnical engineering remains one of the most complex
problems requiring further study. It is a phenomenon in which a saturated, loose (low density or
uncompact), cohesionless soil loses significant strength and stiffness due to increasing pore water
pressure in response to an applied load, such as an earthquake or other rapid cyclic loading, causing it
to behave like a fluid and thus reducing the effective confining stresses in the soil [1]. Numerous
numerical analyses have been developed to predict soil liquefaction. However, prediction remains a
difficult and challenging task.
In general, there are two types of liquefaction analysis, total stress analysis and effective stress
analysis. In total stress analysis, a dynamic analysis is performed based on the total stress. Meanwhile,
in the effective stress analysis, which is followed in this paper, the analysis is based on the effective
stress analysis, in which liquefaction occurs as a result of the generation of excess pore water pressure.
According to the effective stress principle, the effective stress of a soil is equal to the total stress minus
the pore water pressure. When the total stress remains constant, the effective stress gradually decreases
as the pore water pressure slowly increases. When the pore water pressure increases to the point where
it equals the total stress, the effective stress becomes zero. Since the stiffness and strength of a soil

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MMPES-2023 IOP Publishing
Journal of Physics: Conference Series 2519 (2023) 012007 doi:10.1088/1742-6596/2519/1/012007

depends on the value of its effective stress, when the effective stress becomes zero, the soil loses its
strength completely and a liquefaction state is defined [2].
Since Taiwan is located in the seismic zone of the Pacific Rim, where earthquakes occur frequently,
the evaluation and prediction of liquefaction have attracted the attention of many authorities,
researchers, and engineers in Taiwan. Therefore, this paper focuses on the prediction of liquefaction
potential during strong earthquakes. In this paper, the soil profile of Sanchong District, one of the
metropolitan areas in Taiwan considered to be particularly susceptible to soil liquefaction, was studied
in conjunction with two model conditions, with and without deep excavation project, and two types of
constitutive models, Hardening Soil model with small-strain stiffness (HSS) and UBC3D-PLM model.
Some strong earthquakes, including the 1995 Kobe earthquake in Japan and the 1999 Chi-Chi
earthquake in Taiwan, were also selected as seismic data for dynamic analysis.

2. Constitutive Model Determination

In this paper, two types of constitutive models were selected and analyzed to predict soil liquefaction.

2.1. Hardening Soil Model with Small-Strain Stiffness (HSS)

The Hardening Soil model with small-strain stiffness (HSS) is an extended version of the standard
Hardening Soil (HS) model to account for the very small-strain soil stiffness and its nonlinear
dependence on strain amplitude, which should be used in the analysis of geotechnical structures to
obtain more accurate and reliable results.

2.2. UBC3D-PLM Model

The UBC3D-PLM model is an elastoplastic model that can be used to simulate the liquefaction
behavior of sands and silty sands under seismic loading [3]. Its formulation is based on the original
College of British Columbia Sand (UBCSAND) model introduced by [4] and [5], which is a two-
dimensional model for predicting liquefaction in sandy soils and its formulation refers to the
hyperbolic strain hardening rule from classical plasticity theory based on the Duncan-Chang method
with slight modifications.

3. Wildlife Site Case Study

First, the Wildlife site was used for the case study.

3.1. Wildlife Site Case Study Input Parameters

Wildlife site is located in Imperial Valley, California, and according to [6], the sediments at the
Wildlife site that were susceptible to liquefaction during the Superstition Hills earthquake were
identified as the uppermost 2.5-m-thick silts and the 3.3-m-thick silty sands. The input soil parameters
were adopted from [7] and the 1987 Superstition Hill earthquake was used as seismic data. The
maximum seismic acceleration of the earthquake was measured to be 0.17 g, as shown in figure 1.

Figure 1. The 1987 Superstition Hills earthquake acceleration records.

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MMPES-2023 IOP Publishing
Journal of Physics: Conference Series 2519 (2023) 012007 doi:10.1088/1742-6596/2519/1/012007

3.2. Wildlife Site Case Study Numerical Analysis Results

The model was analyzed under 50 seconds of dynamic loading from the Superstition Hills earthquake.
Six pore water pressure piezometers were installed at the site, five of which were located in the
liquefiable layer. These piezometers were located at depths ranging from 2.9 m to 6.6 m. To predict
the liquefaction potential, the value of the excess pore pressure ratio (ru) is needed. When the ru value
is equal to 1, the corresponding soil is in the state of liquefaction. In this paper, points 3 and 5 were
selected for further observation. The results are shown in figure 2 and figure 3 below, and were
compared with the previous research results [7] and the actual measurement results.

Figure 2. ru value result of point 3. Figure 3. ru value result of point 5.

4. Sanchong District without Deep Excavation Project Case Study

For the second case, this paper uses the soil profile of Sanchong District, which is one of the
metropolitan areas in Taiwan considered to be particularly susceptible to soil liquefaction. Soil layer 1
and soil layer 3 were the non-liquefiable soil layers, while soil layer 2 was the liquefiable soil layer
that is the main focus of this paper. Three variations of boundary dimension, 2:1, 4:1, and 6:1, were
also carried out to investigate the influence of boundary dimension on liquefaction prediction.

4.1. Sanchong District without Deep Excavation Project Case Study Dynamic Loading Parameters
Two types of strong earthquakes were used for the seismic data. These were the 1995 Kobe
earthquake in Japan and the 1999 Chi-Chi earthquake in Taiwan. The maximum seismic acceleration
of the Kobe earthquake was measured to be 0.9 g, and the maximum seismic acceleration of the Chi-
Chi earthquake was measured to be 0.5 g. The plot of these acceleration data can be seen in figure 4
and figure 5 below.

Figure 4. The 1995 Kobe earthquake Figure 5. The 1999 Chi-Chi earthquake
acceleration records. acceleration records.

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MMPES-2023 IOP Publishing
Journal of Physics: Conference Series 2519 (2023) 012007 doi:10.1088/1742-6596/2519/1/012007

4.2. Sanchong District without Deep Excavation Project Case Study Soil Parameters
The input soil parameters were summarized in table 1. The UBC3D-PLM model was selected for soil
layer 2, the liquefiable soil layer, while the Hardening Soil model with small-strain stiffness (HSS)
was used for soil layer 1 and soil layer 3, which were the non-liquefiable soil layers. Table 1 presents
the input parameters for the UBC3D-PLM model, which apply only to soil layer 2, and the input soil
parameters for the Hardening Soil model with small-strain stiffness model, which apply to soil layers 1,
2, and 3.

Table 1. The input soil parameters of Sanchong District case.

Symbols Unit Soil Soil Soil
Layer 1 Layer 2 Layer 3
Type - CL SM CL
D m 0-3 3-18 18-60
(N1)60 - - 11.49 -
γt kN/m 3
18.35 19.35 18.92
γsat kN/m3 18.35 19.35 18.92
e - 0.91 0.74 0.91
φcv ° - 30 -
φp ° - 31.17 -
c kPa 0.2 0.1 0.2
kG*e - - 971.95 -
kG*p - - 523.86 -
kB*e - - 680.37 -
me - - 0.5 -
ne - - 0.5 -
np - - 0.4 -
Rf - 0.90 0.77 0.90
σt kPa - 0 -
fachard - - 0.45 -
facpost - - 0.2 -
E50ref kPa 15170.72 13206.35 10388.97
Eoed ref
kPa 10619.50 13206.35 7272.28
Eurref kPa 45512.16 39619.04 31166.92
m - 1.0 0.5 1.0
φ' ° 30 30 30
ψ ° 0 0 0
G0ref kPa 75687.99 96158.25 74503.51
γ0.7 - 0.0001 0.0001 0.0001

4.3. Sanchong District without Deep Excavation Project Case Study Numerical Analysis Results
The model was analyzed under 100 seconds of dynamic loading, and the results of the liquefaction
point history are presented as the results. Figure 6, figure 7, and figure 8 show the results due to the

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MMPES-2023 IOP Publishing
Journal of Physics: Conference Series 2519 (2023) 012007 doi:10.1088/1742-6596/2519/1/012007

Kobe earthquake, while figure 9, figure 10, and figure 11 show the results due to the Chi-Chi
earthquake. The results show that the boundary dimension has some influence in generating the
liquefaction point history, which affects the liquefaction prediction, and for the next case, the 6:1
model was chosen as the boundary dimension.

Figure 6. Liquefaction point history of 2:1 Figure 9. Liquefaction point history of 2:1
model due to the Kobe earthquake. model due to the Chi-Chi earthquake.

Figure 7. Liquefaction point history of 4:1 Figure 10. Liquefaction point history of 4:1
model due to the Kobe earthquake. model due to the Chi-Chi earthquake.

Figure 8. Liquefaction point history of 6:1 Figure 11. Liquefaction point history of 6:1
model due to the Kobe earthquake. model due to the Chi-Chi earthquake.

5. Sanchong District with Deep Excavation Project Case Study

For the third case, an additional TNEC (Taiwan National Enterprise Center) case was selected as a
deep excavation project to be modeled along with the constitutive model. This is to investigate
whether this additional construction has an impact on the liquefaction analysis.

5.1. Sanchong District with Deep Excavation Project Case Study Structure Parameters
The TNEC project structures modeled in the analysis consist of diaphragm walls, foundation slab,
floor slabs, superstructure, and substructure. Diaphragm walls and floor slabs were modeled as plate
elements, and temporary steel struts were modeled as node-to-node anchors. All these structural input
parameters can be adopted from some previous studies, such as [8], [9], [10].

5.2. Sanchong District with Deep Excavation Project Case Study Numerical Analysis Results
The PLAXIS 2D constitutive model result is shown in figure 12 below. For this case study, the models
were also analyzed under 100 seconds of dynamic loading, and the result shows that after modeling
the TNEC structure together with the soil profile of Sanchong district, the dynamic calculation cannot
be fully performed. For the Kobe earthquake, the dynamic analysis ends after about 18-20 s, while for
the Chi-Chi earthquake, it ends after about 45-55 s. Therefore, the Hardening Soil model with small-
strain stiffness (HSS) was applied to check whether this kind of error was caused by the software
problem or the modeling problem. The result shows that the dynamic calculations for the Chi-Chi
earthquake and the Kobe earthquake can be fully performed up to 100 seconds of dynamic loading

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MMPES-2023 IOP Publishing
Journal of Physics: Conference Series 2519 (2023) 012007 doi:10.1088/1742-6596/2519/1/012007

after the soil parameters of the liquefiable soil layer are changed by the parameters of the Hardening
Soil model with small-strain stiffness (HSS). However, this model cannot predict the liquefaction
potential as well as the UBC3D-PLM model.

Figure 12. PLAXIS 2D constitutive model result.

6. Conclusion
This paper presents a series of PLAXIS 2D analyzes for modeling dynamic problems, in particular soil
liquefaction. Three cases are presented, the Wildlife site, the Sanchong district without the TNEC deep
excavation project, and the Sanchong district with the TNEC deep excavation project. This paper
shows that the UBC3D-PLM model gives a better result in predicting the liquefaction potential
compared to the Hardening Soil model with small-strain stiffness (HSS) by producing a relatively
higher ru value. However, this constitutive model is still prone to software problems in dynamic
calculation.

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of the Soil Mechanics and Foundations Division, 92(6), 105-134.
[3] Tsegaye, A.B., 2010. PLAXIS Liquefaction Model (UBC3D), Technical Report, Plaxis B.V.,
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[4] Puebla, H., Byrne, P. M., & Phillips, R. (1997). Analysis of CANLEX liquefaction
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