Liquefaction Potential Variations Influenced by Building Constructions

In this paper, a sand deposit with liquefaction potential was simulated in FLAC using Finn constitutive model. Equivalent loads of 5, 10, 15 and 20-story buildings were applied to the deposit. As a cyclic loading, acceleration time history of Bam earthquake was used. To examine pore water pressure variations in the soil mass during the earthquake loading, parameter ru (pore water pressure ration, which equals pore water pressure increment divided by the initial mean effective stress in the soil mass) was defined for the software by a Fish function. Static analyses show that by increasing the applied loading due to building construction, the values of effective and shear stress increase and it generally can be a factor to influence liquefaction potential. Furthermore, dynamic analyses show that there is a shallow longitudinal area beneath 15 and 20-story buildings in which liquefaction potential increases due to high confining effective stress.