Roles of pre- and post-liquefaction stages in dynamic system response of liquefiable sand retained by a sheet-pile wall

This study examines the dynamic system response of a liquefiable deposit retained by a sheet-pile wall, with emphasis on the roles of pre-and post-liquefaction stages of soil response. A recently developed constitutive model, SANISAND-MSf, is utilized to simulate the pre-and post-liquefaction cyclic response of sands. The model is a stress-ratio controlled, critical state compatible, bounding surface plasticity model, which incorporates the concepts of memory surface and semifluidized state. The model's performance is validated using a combination of cyclic simple shear tests and dynamic centrifuge tests from the LEAP-2020 project. A sensitivity analysis is then conducted by varying the base input motion intensity and duration. The results reveal that the amplitude of equivalent uniform base acceleration in pre-liquefaction correlates well with the timing of liquefaction triggering, and the cumulative absolute velocity of the base acceleration during the post-liquefaction stage correlates well with the post-liquefaction displacements. The study highlights the importance of accurately simulating response in the pre-liquefaction stage for the extent and timing of occurrence of liquefaction, which regulates the remaining intensity and duration of shaking, and in turn, affects the post-liquefaction permanent deformations at the system level.

Automated summary

This study focuses on the dynamic system response of a liquefiable deposit retained by a sheet-pile wall, particularly the pre- and post-liquefaction stages of soil response. A newly developed constitutive model, SANISAND-MSf, is used to simulate the cyclic response of sands during these stages. The model incorporates the concepts of memory surface and semifluidized state and is validated using experimental tests. The study reveals the correlation between the amplitude of pre-liquefaction base acceleration and liquefaction triggering, as well as the correlation between the cumulative absolute velocity of post-liquefaction base acceleration and post-liquefaction displacements.