Liquefaction Risk Assessment: Historical Earthquakes and Future Damage Scenarios

Dear Colleagues,

Liquefaction has been documented during historical earthquakes (such as Niigata, Japan 1964; Dagupan City, Philippines 1990; Chi-Chi, Taiwan 1999; Japan 2011; Kocaeli, Turkey 1999; Christchurch, New Zealand, 2011; Emilia-Romagna Italy, 2012) with severe consequences on the civil environment and communities. Infrastructures, bridges, and buildings were affected by induced damages such as settlements, lateral spreading, bearing capacity reductions, disruption of functions, causing direct and indirect losses.

The state of the practice for liquefaction risk assessment generally adopts empirical procedures based on one-dimensional analyses of settlements in free-field conditions. 

Even if these approaches can be detailed, they lead to conservative evaluations that may underestimate the shear deformations that cause many liquefaction-induced effects (e.g., ratcheting, bearing capacity failures, soil deformations due to partial drainage).

Therefore, advanced 3D assessment methodologies are necessary to capture excess pore pressure development, the induced permanent deformations, and to predict the possible damage scenarios. Pre-earthquake and post-earthquake assessments are fundamental in order to define regional vulnerability to liquefaction-potential impacts and establish recovery procedures to improve seismic resiliency of local communities.

Dr. Davide Forcellini
Guest Editor

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