Monday, February 9, 2009
Soil liquefaction describes the behavior of soils that, when loaded, suddenly go from a solid state to a liquefied state, or having the consistency of a heavy liquid.
Liquefaction is more likely to occur in loose to moderate saturated granular soils with poor drainage, such as silty sands or sands and gravels capped or containing seams of impermeable sediments.
During loading, usually cyclic undrained loading, e.g. earthquake loading, loose sands tend to decrease in volume, which produces an increase in their porewater pressures and consequently a decrease in shear strength, i.e. reduction in effective stress.
Jasley was here @
8:38 PM
