The LEAP (Liquefaction Experiment and Analysis Project) is a continuing international collaboration to create a reliable databank of high-quality
experimental results for the validation of numerical tools. This paper investigates
the response of a floating rigid sheet-pile quay wall under conditions of seismically induced liquefaction, embedded in dense sand and supporting a saturated
liquefiable soil deposit. The experimental challenges related to repeatability in
physical modeling in such a soil-structure-interaction regime are also discussed.
To this end, three experiments performed at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
(RPI) as part of the experimental campaign for the LEAP-2020 are discussed
herein. Models RPI_REP-2020 and RPI10-2020 investigate the repeatability potential in centrifuge modeling in the presence of soil-structure-interaction. Model
RPI_P-2020 is the pilot test of the LEAP-2020 experimental campaign at RPI
and investigates the effect of the wall’s initial orientation on the system’s dynamic response and soil liquefaction, as a possible “defect” in the model construction procedure. The three models were built in a consistent way, employed
comparable instrumentation layout while simulating the same prototype and
comparable soil conditions. The three models were subjected to the same acceleration target input motion, which was repeated across all three models with high consistency.
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Effect of soil-structure interaction on sand deposits supported by a sheet-pile wall under liquefied conditions
Retaining structures in waterfront areas are sensitive to seismically triggered liquefaction, leading to large deformations of the backfill and the retaining structure. The response of such systems depends heavily on the soil parameters, one of the most important being its relative density. This paper summarizes the key aspects of three centrifuge experiments performed at the Center for Earthquake Engineering Simulation (CEES) at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 2020 as part of the experimental campaign for the Liquefaction Experiments and Analysis Project (LEAP-2020). The three models reflected the same prototype problem of a rigid floating sheet-pile quay wall supporting a 3-m-deep liquefiable soil deposit, of loose, medium dense and dense soil relative densities. The three models observed the same building technique and were subjected to the same target dynamic input motion.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1635040
- PAR ID:
- 10406607
- Editor(s):
- Moonkyung Chung, Sung-Ryul Kim
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- 10th International Conference on Physical Modelling in Geotechnics
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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