The Earthquake Engineering Online Archive

Influence of sample disturbance on sand response to cyclic loading

Mori, Kenji; Seed, H. Bolton; Chan, Clarence K.

UCB/EERC-77/03, Earthquake Engineering Research Center, University of California, Berkeley, 1977-01, 59 pages (475/M6/1977)

One of the major developments in the evaluation of the liquefaction characteristics of sand deposits has been the recognition that these properties are influenced not only by the density of the deposit but also by such factors as the structure of the sand grains, the seismic history of the deposit, the coefficient of lateral earth pressure for the in-situ conditions, and the age of the deposit. Accordingly, it is necessary to obtain and test undisturbed and representative samples if meaningful evaluations of in-situ performance are to be made on the basis of laboratory tests. This report presents the results of a study of sample disturbance during extraction and handling on the liquefaction characteristics of a sand having an artificially induced increased resistance to liquefaction as a result of the application of a prescribed prior strain history. It is shown that the effects of this strain history are, for practical purposes, obliterated by the sampling and handling procedure; and suggestions are made for assessing the significance of such effects in the practical evaluation of laboratory test results.

Available online: http://nisee.berkeley.edu/documents/EERC/EERC-77-03.pdf (3 MB)