Energy dissipation and liquefaction assessment in sands and silty soils

Soil liquefaction phenomenon involves progressive intergrain contact deformation, slip, reorganization of contacts, and eventual collapse of soil skeleton. During the process leading to liquefaction energy is continuously lost mainly along frictional contacts. This paper presents a theoretical framework for estimating the frictional energy loss along contacts. A pore pressure model is presented as a function of dissipated energy. Based on above developments and understanding, a numerical simulation model using finite difference method is developed to simulate energy dissipation, pore pressure generation, pore pressure dissipation, and densification in a given soil profile for a given earthquake motion. The results are compared with data from centrifuge model tests. Copyright ASCE 2006.