Weighing the Influence of Geological and Geotechnical Factors in Soil Liquefaction Assessments

Abstract

History has shown that soil liquefaction could render buildings or infrastructures nonserviceable. It is understood that the soil liquefaction potential depends on the geotechnical engineering properties at the site and the regional seismicity in the surroundings, which are referred to as the geotechnical and geological factors in this paper. This research aims to explore their respective effect on soil liquefaction assessments. To investigate the effects, the (real) data from two cities in Taiwan were used as the problem sets, and the liquefaction factors of safety for the liquefiable soil at the sites were computed under different circumstances. The research found that regardless of the circumstances, the geological factor plays a predominant role over the geotechnical factor in soil liquefaction assessment. The sensitivity of the geological factor is over 95% quantified with the variance-based sensitivity analysis. Accordingly, one recommendation is that the practitioners should spend more effort characterizing the geological data in soil liquefaction assessment, which can obtain a more reliable outcome, which is the significance of this novel research. The result of a soil liquefaction assessment depends on geological and geotechnical parameters. This research aims to quantify which is more predominant in soil liquefaction assessment. This transparent (sensitivity) study used the analytics called the variance-based sensitivity analysis. Using the accurate soil data in Taiwan and the geological models developed for the region, it was found that the geological factor is predominant in soil liquefaction assessment. Accordingly, when conducting a soil liquefaction assessment in the future, practitioners should spend more effort on characterizing the geological parameters, by which a more reliable outcome could be obtained.