Reproduction of Liquefaction Characteristics of Pleistocene Sand Using Artificial Materials and Modeling in Earthquake Response Analysis

Abstract

Liquefaction assessment is necessary for the seismic design of nuclear power plants even for Pleistocene sand, conventionally regarded as non-liquefiable soil. In this paper, a series of undrained cyclic hollow torsional tests, centrifuge model tests, and numerical analysis on open channel bearing ground were conducted using a simulated Pleistocene sand, which imitates liquefaction characteristics of natural Pleistocene sand by adding cement to sandy soil. The simulated Pleistocene sand imitated the failure characteristics of the natural Pleistocene sand; shear failure occurred before the excess pore water pressure ratio reached 1. The total stress analysis could reproduce the acceleration and axial strain observed in the centrifuge model tests.