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Liquefaction potential and large deformation properties of Christchurch

liquefied sand subjected to undrained cyclic torsional simple shear loadings

Conference Paper · September 2017

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 Proceedings of the 19th International Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering, Seoul 2017

Liquefaction potential and large deformation properties of Christchurch liquefied

sand subjected to undrained cyclic torsional simple shear loadings
Potentiel de liquéfaction et propriétés des grandes déformations du sable liquéfié de Chistchurch,
soumis à essais de cisaillement cyclique torsionnel, non drainés.

Gabriele Chiaro
Department of Civil and Natural Resources Engineering, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand, email:
gabriele.chiaro@canterbury.ac.nz

Takashi Kiyota & Hirotoshi Miyamoto

Institute of Industrial Science, University of Tokyo, Japan

ABSTRACT: Severe liquefaction was extensively observed in and around Christchurch City, New Zealand, following the Canterbury
Earthquake Sequence (2010-2011 and 2016). The effects of liquefaction included major sliding of soil toward water, known as lateral
spreading, which is essentially a progressive accumulation of residual deformation that may range from centimeters to a few meters.
In this paper, a series of undrained cyclic torsional shear tests were conducted to evaluate the liquefaction potential and large
deformation properties of a typical Christchurch sand known to have liquefied. Several hollow cylindrical medium dense specimens
(Dr ≈ 50%) were prepared in the laboratory by the air pluviation method, isotropically consolidated at an effective stress of 100kPa
after saturation and then cyclically sheared under undrained conditions up to 100% double amplitude shear strain (γ DA). The cyclic
strength at different levels of γDA of 7.5%, 15%, 30% and 60%, development of extremely large post-liquefaction deformation and
shear strain localization properties were assessed from the analysis of the effective stress paths and stress-strain responses.

RÉSUMÉ: Une sévère liquéfaction a été largement observée dans la ville de Christchurch, et ses environs (Nouvelle-Zélande), suite à la
séquence de tremblements de terre de Canterbury (2010-2011 et 2016). Les effets de la liquéfaction ont provoqué un glissement
important du sol dans la direction de l'eau, connu sous le nom d'étalement latéral. Ce phénomène est dû essentiellement à une
accumulation progressive de déformations résiduelles, engendrant des glissements du sol pouvant aller de quelques centimètres à
quelques mètres. Dans cet article, une série d’essais de cisaillement torsionnel cyclique non drainés ont été réalisés pour évaluer le
potentiel de liquéfaction et les propriétés des grandes déformations d'un sable typique de Christchurch, connu pour être liquéfié. En
laboratoire, des échantillons cylindriques creux à densité moyenne (Dr ≈ 50%) ont été confectionnés en utilisant la méthode de pluviation
dans l’air. Ces échantillons ont été consolidés isotropiquement à une contrainte effective de 100 kPa, après saturation, puis cisaillés
cycliquement dans des conditions non drainées, jusqu'à 100% de la double amplitude de déformation en cisaillement (γDA). A partir de
l’analyse des chemins de contraintes effectives et de la réponse contrainte-déformation, la force cyclique à différents niveaux de γDA
(7,5%, 15%, 30% et 60%), le développement de déformations post-liquéfaction extrêmement importantes, et les propriétés de localisation
de déformation de cisaillement ont été évalués.

KEYWORDS: Christchurch sand, large strain, liquefaction, torsional shear

evaluation of liquefaction potential and large deformation
1 INTRODUCTION properties. In this paper, the results of a series of undrained
cyclic torsional shear tests conducted on reconstituted
Starting from September 2010, Christchurch City and its specimens are presented and discussed.
neighborhood were shaken by a series of strong earthquakes
including seven major events, all generated by local faults close
to the city: 4 September 2010 (Mw 7.1), 22 February 2011 (Mw
6.2), 13 June 2011 (Mw 5.3 and Mw 6.0), 23 December 2011
(Mw 5.8 and Mw 5.9) and 14 February 2016 (Mw 5.8). Because
of their strength and close proximity to the city, the earthquakes
caused major physical damage and impacts on the people,
natural and built environments of Christchurch. Recurrent
liquefaction was extensively observed in many areas of the city,
particularly affecting deposits of fine sands and silty sands of
recent fluvial or estuarine origin.
The Central Business District (CBD) of Christchurch City is
located about 8.5 km west of the coast line. A tortuous stream,
named Avon River, flows through the central part of the city.
Many areas along the Avon River were reportedly inundated
with liquefied sand after each major earthquake (Cubrinovski et
al. 2012). Following the 22 February 2011 earthquake, a sample
of Christchurch liquefied sand was collected in Dallington (Fig.
1) to conduct detailed laboratory investigations, including the Figure 1. Location of Christchurch liquefied sand sampling
 Proceedings of the 19th International Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering, Seoul 2017

2 TESTING PROCEDURE while moving radially the nozzle of the pluviator and at the
same time circumferentially in alternative directions i.e. first in
2.1 Test apparatus, material and specimen preparation clockwise and then anti-clockwise directions (De Silva et al.
2015). In addition, to achieve specimens with highly uniform
Torsional shear apparatus on hollow cylindrical specimen is
density, the falling height was kept constant throughout the
recognized to be a good tool to properly evaluate liquefaction
pluviation process. Also, to attain a high degree of saturation:
soil response. In particular, it offers the possibility to reproduce
(i) firstly, the double vacuum method (Ampadu and Tatsuoka
simple shear conditions, which are a close representation of
1993) was employed; (ii) then, de-aired water was circulated
field stress conditions during earthquakes. In this study, to
into the specimens; and (iii) finally, a back pressure of 200 kPa
reach extremely large torsional shear displacements, a fully
was applied. Skempton’s B-value ≥ 0.97 was confirmed for all
automated torque loading apparatus on hollow cylindrical
the tested specimens.
specimens (Fig. 2), developed in the Institute of Industrial
The hollow cylindrical specimens with initial dimensions of
Science, University of Tokyo (Kiyota et al., 2008), was
150 mm in outer diameter, 90 mm in inner diameter and 300
employed. It is capable of achieving double amplitude torsional
mm in height, were then isotropically consolidated by
shear strain (γDA) levels exceeding 100% by using a belt-driven
increasing the effective mean stress state (p’) up to 100 kPa.
torsional loading system that is connected to an AC servo motor
Afterward, undrained cyclic torsional loading with shear stress
through electro-magnetic clutches and a series of reduction
constant amplitude (τcyc = 12-30 kPa) was applied at a constant
gears. A two-component load cell, which is installed inside the
shear strain rate of about 0.25 %/min. The loading direction was
pressure cell, was used to measure both the torque and the axial
reversed when the amplitude of cyclic shear stress, which was
load components. Confining pressure obtained by the difference
corrected for the effect of membrane force, reached the target
in pressure between the cell pressure and the pore water
value. During the process of undrained cyclic torsional loading
pressure was measured by a high capacity differential pressure
the vertical displacement of the top cap was prevented, with the
transducer (HCDPT). To evaluate large torsional deformation, a
aim to simulate as much as possible the simple shear stress
potentiometer with a wire and a pulley was employed. In
condition. Note that, effects of membrane penetration due to
conducting cyclic shear tests, the specified shear stress
excess pore water pressure generation on liquefaction resistance
amplitude was controlled by a computer, which monitors the
was not considered in this study, since their extents would be
outputs from the load cell, computes the shear stress (i.e. the
independent from the cyclic shear applied.
measured shear stress was corrected for the effects of
membrane force; Koseki et al., 2005) and controls the device 100
accordingly.
Percentage finer by weigth: %

80
Transducers:
Transducers:
①Two-component l oad cel l Christchurch sand
1 DTwo
② –component
i spl acem load cellf or l arge verti cal di spl acement
ent transducer 60
2 Large
③H vertical
i gh capaci tydisplacement
di f f erenti altransducer
pressure transducer Gs = 2.654 Toyoura sand
f or conf i(confining
3 High capacity differential pressure transducer ni ng stress
pressure) emax=1.081 Gs = 2.656
④ 40
4 Low
Lowcapaci ty differential
capacity di f f erenti pressure
al pressure transducer
transducer (volume change)
f or vol ume change emin=0.654 emax=0.992
Loading
Loadi ng shaft
shaf t((φ30mm)
φ30mm) 20 Fc= 5% emin=0.632
② Fc= 0.1%
Beari ng house
Bearing house 0
Cel l pressure
Cell pressure 0.01 0.1 1 10
Particle size: mm

Figure 3. Grain size distributions for Chrstchurch sand

①

Test Dr τcyc CSR N7.5 γL(DA)

Pressure
Pressurecel
celll
Backpressure
Back pressure TSCH-01 49.0 12 0.12 119 36.4
Top
Top cap
cap TSCH-02 48.5 18 0.18 12.4 32.4
Specimen
Speci men
Do=15cm
Do=15cm
Porous
Porous TSCH-03 48.9 24 0.24 2.5 35.6
stone
stone BBurette
urette
Di =9cm
Di= 9cm TSCH-04 48.6 30 0.30 0.6 31.8
H =30cm
H=30cm
Note: Dr (%) is the relative density measured at an effective mean stress
Pedestal
Pedestal p0’ = 100kPa (i.e. end of isotropic consolidation); τcyc (kPa) is the
③ torsional cyclic shear stress; CSR (= τcyc /p0’) is the cyclic stress ratio;
N7.5 is the number of loading cycle to cause a double amplitude shear
④ strain of γDA = 7.5%; and γL(DA) (%) is the limiting double amplitude
0 10 20 ( cm) shear strain to cause shear strain localization.
Figure 2. Torsional shear apparatus employed in this study
2.2 Correction of measured shear stress for torsional
All the tests were performed on Christchurch sand (Fig. 3), membrane force
which is a sand with non-plastic fines (specific gravity, Gs =
2.654; maximum void ratio, emax = 1.081; minimum void ratio, In performing torsional shear tests on hollow cylindrical
emin = 0.654; and fines content under 75μm, Fc = 5%). specimens, due to the presence of inner and outer membranes,
Several specimens with initial relative density of Dr ≈ 49% the effect of torsional membrane force cannot be neglected
were prepared by an air pluviation method (preparation method (Koseki et al. 2005). Membrane force becomes significantly
and testing conditions (Table 1) were chosen to enable ease of important when shear strain reaches extremely high levels
comparison with Toyoura sand specimens). To minimize the (Kiyota et al. 2008; Chiaro et al. 2012 and 2013). In this study,
degree of inherent anisotropy in the radial direction of hollow the shear stress was corrected for the effect of membrane force
cylindrical sand specimens, specimens preparation was carried by employing the empirical hyperbolic correlation between γ
out carefully by pouring the air-dried sand particles into a mold and τm recommended by Umar et al. 2016 and shown in Fig. 4.
 Proceedings of the 19th International Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering, Seoul 2017

Apparent shear stress due to 4 deformation (from the initial configuration of the specimens)
during cyclic loading. In the case of conventional triaxial tests,
strain levels employed are usually limited to a maximum of
membranes, m (kPa)
2
Umar et al. 2016 about 20%. In the present study, on the other hand, using
γ
m  1.5 torsional shear apparatus that was modified for enlarging the
0 1 γ
 effective range of torsional displacement, the liquefaction
0.12 10 Experimental data
Monotonic characteristics could be obtained up to extremely large shear
-2 Cyclic strain levels.
Linear elastic theory
In Fig. 8, the resistance to cyclic strain accumulation is
-4 plotted for Christchurch sand as the number of cycles to cause
-40 -20 0 20 40
γDA of 7.5%, 15%, 30% and 60%. It is clear that large
Torsional shear strain,  (%) deformation developed quickly for specimens that liquefied in
Figure 4. Torsional membrane force correction used in this study just a few cycles of loading.
Cyclic resistance ratio at 15 cycles of loading (CRR15) is a
well-established parameter to judge the liquefaction potential of
3. TEST RESULTS soils. Here, CRR15 was evaluated for different γDA curves as
displayed in Fig. 9. Interestingly, it seems that CRR15 increases
3.1 Cyclic undrained response and liquefaction resistance gradually by following a linear trend, even after strain
Figures 5 and 6 present the cyclic undrained response of two localization takes place (Kiyota et al., 2008; Chiaro et al. 2013).
Christchurch sand specimens subjected to τcyc = 12 and 30kPa
or a cyclic stress ratio (CSR = τcyc/p0’ of 0.12 and 0.30), 48
TSCH-04 (/p')PTL =0.6
respectively, in terms of effective stress paths and stress-strain

Torsional shear stress, : kPa

(/p')FLR =0.87
relationships. Failure envelope (FLR) and phase transformation 24
line (PTL) are also reported for completeness.
In Fig. 7, a liquefaction resistance curve (defined as the 0
number of cycles to cause γDA = 7.5%, which is equivalent to
shear strain εqDA = 5% in triaxial tests) is plotted for
-24
Christchurch sand and compared to that of Japanese Toyoura
sand specimens. Despite the fact that Christchurch sand has Fc = (a)
5%, its liquefaction potential appears to be similar to that of -48
0 20 40 60 80 100 120
Toyoura sand (Fc = 0.1 %) investigated under analogous testing
Effective mean principal stress, p': kPa
conditions i.e. comparable density and effective mean stress and
same specimen preparation method (Kiyota et al. 2008, 2010; 48
Torsional shear stress, : kPa

Chiaro et al. 2012, 2013). TSCH-04

24

48
TSCH - 01 (/p')PTL =0.6
Torsional shear stress,: kPa

0
(/p')FLR =0.87
24
-24

0 (b)
-48
-40 -20 0 20 40
Pha
-24 se t
Fa
ilur ran
sfor Torsional shear strain, : %
ee ma
nv tion
elo line (a)
pe
-48 Figure 6. Results of test TSCH-04 (CSR = 0.30)
0 20 40 60 80 100 120
Effective mean principal stress, p': kPa 0.4
48 Torsional simple shear
Cyclic stress ratio, cyc/p0'
Torsional shear stress, : kPa

TSCH - 01 D =6 Air pluviation; p0'=100 kPa

r 5%
0.3
24

0.2
D =2 D =4
0 r 5% r 0-50
Experimental data %
Christchurch sand
0.1 This study
-24
Toyoura sand
Kiyota 2008; Chiaro 2010; Umar et al. 2016
(b) 0.0
-48 0.1 1 10 100 1000
-40 -20 0 20 40
Number of cycles to cause DA= 7.5%
Torsional shear strain, : %

Figure 5. Results of test TSCH-01 (CSR = 0.12) Figure 7. Liquefaction potential of Christchurch sand

Significantly, compared to Toyoura sand, it is found that

3.2 Resistance against large cyclic shear strain accumulation
Christchurch sand is stronger against large deformation
Usually, the resistance against liquefaction or, more accumulation. The reason behind this unexpected behavior is
specifically, to cyclic strain accumulation is expressed as the believed to be related to the different particles shape (Figure 10)
number of cycles required to achieve certain level of i.e. Christchurch sand has more angular particles compared with
Toyoura sand. It is important to mention that, the cyclic
 Proceedings of the 19th International Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering, Seoul 2017

resistance value exceeding γDA 34% and 46% is only indicative Kiyota et al. (2010) demonstrated that the limiting values to
since it is affected by strain localization (Fig. 11). This is initiate strain localization observed in torsional shear tests (i.e.
because, after strain localization occurrence at large strain γL(DA)) are consistent with the maximum amounts of liquefied-
levels, specimen deformation is non-uniform i.e. usually in the induced ground displacement observed in relevant case studies.
top part of the specimen deformation diverges from the uniform According to Kiyota et al. (2010), as long as the liquefied sandy
one (Chiaro et al. 2013). In Fig. 11, the limit shear strain soil layer remains in uniform deformation under undrained
(γL(DA)) level to initiate strain localization in the case of conditions, γL(DA) may be used in estimating the maximum
Christchurch sand is compared with that of Toyoura sand amount of liquefaction-induced ground displacement.
specimens having different relative densities.

0.4 4 CONCLUSION
Christchurch sand
To investigate the liquefaction potential and extremely large
Cyclic stress ratio, cyc/p0'

DA=7.5% 15% 30% 60% Air pluviation

0.3 deformation properties of medium dense (Dr ≈ 49%)
p0'=100 kPa
Christchurch sand (Fc = 5%), a series of hollow cylindrical
Dr=49% cyclic torsional shear tests were carried out on specimens
0.2
prepared by an air pluviation method, isotropically consolidated
at an effective stress of 100kPa and cyclically sheared up to
0.1
100% double amplitude shear strain (γDA). Interestingly, it was
Torsional simple shear
found that, when compared with Toyoura sand (Fc = 0.1%), the
0.0 liquefaction resistance defined at a γDA = 7.5 is similar for both
0.1 1 10 100 1000
sands, while the resistance to large cyclic shear strain (γDA >
Number of cycles to cause a specific value of DA 7.5) of Christchurch sand is much higher than that of Toyoura
Figure 8. Resistance to cyclic shear strain accumulation sand. In addition, in the case of liquefied Christchurch sand,
strain localization appears at a shear strain level of γL(DA) ≈
0.30 34%, which is slightly lower than that of liquefied Toyoura
Cyclic resistance ratio, CRR15

Uniform Non-uniform sand (γL(DA) ≈ 46%) prepared at similar density state. This
0.25 deformation deformation
distinct behavior may be associated with the more angular
rch sand shape of Christchurch sand particles compared with those of
0.20
Christchu
Toyoura sand.
0.15 Toyoura sand

0.10 Uniform Non-uniform

Air pluviation deformation deformation 5 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
0.05 p0'=100 kPa
Dr=40-50% Torsional simple shear Japanese Society for Promotion of Science (JSPS) is greatly
0.00 acknowledged for funding the first Author’s research in Japan.
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
Double amplitude shear strain,DA: %

Figure 9. Cyclic resistance ratio for different level of γDA 6 REFERENCES

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