Effects of compaction thickness and initial water content on liquefaction properties of compacted sand specimen

Abstract

In order to investigate the effects of the specimen preparation method on liquefaction properties of sandy soil, a series of undrained cyclic triaxial test and image analysis were performed. Test specimens were prepared by using Toyoura sand under different conditions in terms of compaction thickness and initial water content. As a result, the liquefaction resistance depended on the compaction thickness, and the liquefaction resistance curve moved upward slightly with a decrease of compaction thickness. In addition, the liquefaction resistance changed by approximately 20% with a change in the initial water content by only 1.5%. The distributions of the local axial strain obtained by the image analysis showed different tendencies depending on the compaction thickness. In particular, significant effects of local density distribution in the vertical direction could be inferred from the local axial strains of the specimen with 4 layers of compaction.