BEHAVIOUR OF DENSE SATURATED SAND SUBJECTED TO VIBRATION

Abstract

Liquefaction of saturated sands has often been the main cause of catastrophic damages to structures resulting in loss of life and property. In case a foundation soil is liable to liquefy during earthquake extra precaution taken in design of the superstructure is not of any help in the event of an earthquake. Therefore it is very important to study the problem of saturated sands under vibration. A review of literature shows that liquefaction behaviour of saturated sands is influenced by the method of test and test equipment used in the study. No uniform agreement has been achieved by different investigators. Behaviour of dense sand is of'particular interest since it has been reported from small sample tests that sands are observed to liquefy even in dense conditions while on the other hand some investigators has reported from large sample tests and small sample tests that dense sand may not liquefy. The present investigation was carried on dense sand to study their behaviour for liquefaction characteristics. The study was carried out on vibration table on a sand of 704 initial relative density to measure the pore water pressure and settlements of 6,8,10,12 cm square plates under different loads and for different accelerations.