Abstract
The state of the practice to evaluate the seismic liquefaction potential of a soil column entails the use of semiem-pirical methods that compare the cyclic stress ratio (πΆππ
) with the cyclic resistance ratio (πΆπ
π
). These methods are useful in practice because they are calibrated from limited real liquefaction cases, and are routinely employed although there is limited insight in the fundamentals behind them.
In this work, an extensive numerical modelling exercise is performed to determine which are the main aspects of the soil and the earthquakes that control the liquefaction phenomenon and understand why these methods work so well.
A total of 6500 realizations of a soil column are performed, using the PM4Sand constitutive model implemented in Plaxis 2D. Real ground records are propagated through layers of liquefiable and non-liquefiable soils, and the results are compared with conventional linear and equivalent-linear site response analyses.
The results from both analyses are compared in terms of ππΊπ΄ and πΆππ
at the liquefiable layer. Finally, a discussion is presented regarding the predictive capabilities of the simplified methods and the value added by modern numerical modelling of soil liquefaction.
