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Modelling spiky acceleration response of dilative sand deposits during earthquakes with emphasis on large post-liquefaction deformation

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Abstract

The acceleration records at some liquefied sand deposits exhibit a distinctive spiky waveform, characterized by strong amplification and high-frequency components. A comprehensive constitutive model was used to analyze the mechanism of such spiky acceleration responses. An idealized single-degree-of-freedom (SDF) system was constructed, in which the force-displacement relation of the spring follows the stress-strain behavior of saturated sand during undrained shearing. The SDF system demonstrated that the spikes are directly related to the strain-hardening behavior of sand during post-liquefaction cyclic shearing. Furthermore, there exists a threshold shear strain length, which is in accordance with the limited amplitude of the fluid-like shear strain generated at instantaneous zero effective stress state during the post-liquefaction stage. The spiky acceleration can only occur when the cyclic shear strain exceeds the threshold shear strain length. It is also revealed that the time intervals between the acceleration spikes increase gradually along with the continuation of shaking because the threshold shear strain length increases gradually and then more time is needed to generate larger shear strain to cause strain hardening. Records at the Kushiro Port site and Port Island site during past earthquakes are simulated through the fully coupled method to validate the presented mechanism.

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Acknowledgment

The present study is financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51209179, 51679016) and the Open Research Fund Program of the State Key Laboratory of Hydroscience and Engineering (SKLHSE-2015-D-03).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of New Technology for Construction of Cities in Mountain Area, Chongqing University, Chongqing, 400045, China

    Gang Wang

  2. School of Civil Engineering, Chongqing University, Chongqing, China

    Gang Wang

  3. School of Civil Engineering, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu, China

    Xing Wei

  4. School of Civil Engineering, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu, China

    John Zhao

Authors
  1. Gang Wang
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  2. Xing Wei
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  3. John Zhao
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Correspondence to Gang Wang.

Additional information

Supported by: National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant No. 51209179, 51679016) and the Open Research Fund Program of the State Key Laboratory of Hydroscience and Engineering (SKLHSE-2015-D-03)

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Wang, G., Wei, X. & Zhao, J. Modelling spiky acceleration response of dilative sand deposits during earthquakes with emphasis on large post-liquefaction deformation. Earthq. Eng. Eng. Vib. 17, 125–138 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11803-018-0429-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11803-018-0429-x

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