Soil liquefaction mitigation in geotechnical engineering: An overview of recently developed methods

• Published in: Soil dynamics and earthquake engineering (1984) 2019-05, Vol.120, p.273-291
• Main Authors: Bao, Xiaohua, Jin, Zhiyang, Cui, Hongzhi, Chen, Xiangsheng, Xie, Xiongyao
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Applicability and cost; Building damage; Construction; Construction costs; Control methods; Earthquakes; Economic impact; Effective stress; Environmental impact; Geotechnical engineering; Liquefaction; Liquefaction mitigation; Materials technology; Mitigating mechanisms; Mitigation; Nanomaterials; Pore size; Pore water; Pore water pressure; Porosity; Recycled materials; Seismic activity; Seismic engineering; Soils; Structural damage; Water pressure
• ISSN: 0267-7261; 1879-341X
• DOI: 10.1016/j.soildyn.2019.01.020

Triggered liquefaction in earthquakes, that soil displays fluid-like characteristics caused by an on-going increase of pore water pressure and reduction of the effective stress, can damage existing building foundations and other structures and result in significant economic losses. Many previous studies have investigated methods, which effectively control sand liquefaction while minimizing cost, environmental impact and other related disturbances. Recently, the rapid development of materials technology and multidisciplinary approaches has made available new materials suitable for improving the liquefaction resistance and enabling other liquefaction mitigation techniques. To raise some important questions and encourage further research and discussions, investigations on the recently developed liquefaction mitigation methods are reviewed in this study. The review first analyzed and discussed the characteristics of the newly developed methods including the mitigating mechanism, effectiveness, and possible executive problems for purpose of building sufficient understanding into the progress of liquefaction resistance. Then, the applicability and uniformity in the soil with different pore size, possible disturbance to nearby structures are discussed. Additionally, the potential cost and duration time of the mitigation measures for site constructions are briefly described. Through this review, some important questions and discussions are raised; the readers will fully understand the research trend of liquefaction mitigation and further explore new methods and techniques that could be effective, easy for on-site construction, low cost, environment-friendly and highly durable. This study recommends long-term in-situ investigation on mitigation effectiveness, duration time and quantitative cost assessment. •Applications of new concepts and materials for liquefaction mitigation were analyzed.•The mitigating mechanism, effectiveness, problems and in-site application, duration time and cost were discussed.•Trends and relationships between technologies, materials and multidisciplinary on liquefaction mitigation were analyzed.•Investigations on the mitigation effectiveness, durability and cost by long term in-situ observation were recommended.