2023 Volume 79 Issue 13 Article ID: 22-13009
The 2011 off the Pacific coast of Tohoku Earthquake and the 2016 Kumamoto Earthquake caused liquefaction in reclaimed land, which led to damage such as settlement and inclination of many direct-foundation buildings. In this study, the mechanism of building damage due to liquefaction was numerically investigated by considering the spatial variability of soil properties inherent to the natural ground and limiting the study to one direct-foundation building without considering the influence of adjacent buildings. The analytical results have demonstrated that the influence of spatial variability of soil properties cannot be ignored in evaluating the settlement and inclination of a direct-foundation building due to liquefaction. The dissipation process of excess pore water pressure after shaking differs from point to point in the heterogeneous ground, which induces inclination damage to the building even when there is no tilt in the base or ground surface and the earthquake motion is positively and negatively symmetrical.
