Evaluation of Soil Liquefaction in Harbor District in Tianjin City

Abstract

The liquefaction of soils in the harbor district in Tianjin City near Tangshan, where a great earthquake occurred is a very important issue related to the soil’s compaction, grain composition and content of clay particle. This problem has not been fully considered due to the complexity and uncertainty of the soil properties data, since none of the previous investigations has been concerned about the liquefaction characteristics of this new harbor district. The evaluation of soil liquefaction has been made based on related data of the standard penetration test (SPT) from 26 investigation bore holes and 105 sieving tests. The results show that the liquefaction index of silt sand gradually decreases with the increase of the buried depth; soils less than 10.6 m in depth are of bad gradation identically. Soil less than 10.6 m in depth can be defined as liquefied soil which is further verified by sieving tests. Both the buried depth and particle grading have primarily significant influences on silt sands’ liquefaction. The results from sieve tests based on liquefied soils were found to fit well with the Tsuchida curves. It is believed that even without the in-suit SPT tests, Tsuchida boundary curves can be directly utilized to judge the liquefaction of soils in the harbor district.