Effects of Earthquake-Induced Liquefaction on a Group of Piles in a Level Ground with Sloping Base Layer: a Physical Modeling

• Published in: International journal of civil engineering (Tehran. Online) Vol. 21; no. 6; pp. 973 - 989
• Main Authors: Haeri, S. Mohsen, Sabouri, Marjan, Rajabigol, Morteza, Kavand, Ali
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cham Springer International Publishing 01.06.2023
• Subjects: Civil Engineering; Engineering; Research Paper; Sloping base; Liquefaction; Shake table test; Level ground; Pile; Lateral spreading
• ISSN: 1735-0522; 2383-3874
• DOI: 10.1007/s40999-023-00805-9

A number of shaking table tests have been carried out to study the effects of earthquake-induced liquefaction and lateral spreading on a group of piles. The ground surface was level in these tests, whereas the base layer was inclined. Therefore, the studied subject in this paper is an intermediate problem, a case between level ground liquefaction and sloping ground lateral spreading, which has not been studied before. The tests results indicated that the soil in the free field liquefied before the soil adjacent to the piles. It was found that shadow effect reduced the bending moments of the pile placed in shadow; and neighboring effect may decrease the bending moment of the piles of the group in comparison to that of a single pile. The results also illustrated that the surface ground slope is a key parameter in imposing kinematic pressure on the piles due to lateral spreading and the base slope of the ground still induces lateral pressure on piles but does not play a major role on kinematic lateral pressure associated with limited lateral spreading. The maximum bending moments in the single pile in the level grounds were between 135 and 233% less than that in the sloping ground.