New Trends in Ground Response Analysis and Liquefaction Assessment

Dear Colleagues,

Soil response during strong ground shaking is governed by rather complex mechanical processes, which are ascribed to hysteretic behavior associated with an increase in energy dissipation, and volumetric–distortional coupling, due to the accumulation of irreversible plastic strains induced by either volumetric responses under drained conditions or pore pressure changes under undrained conditions. The latter volumetric effects may evolve into liquefaction in loose, saturated sandy soils. The amount of soil nonlinearity mobilized during shaking controls site response and related consequences induced to structures and infrastructures, including strategic facilities like dams, ports, bridges, and pipelines.

Ground response analysis and soil liquefaction are two binding issues that have undergone a rapid evolution in recent decades due to the propulsive case studies after strong earthquakes, monitoring of test-sites, and cutting-edge experiments. The core focus, connecting these two topics in Earthquake Geotechnical Engineering, is the modeling of soil mechanical behavior under cyclic and dynamic loading up to the point of failure.

This Special Issue aims to collect the most recent advancements able to highlight the most prominent trends in ground response analysis and liquefaction assessment. High-quality papers are welcome which focus on, but are not limited to, discussing numerical approaches for modeling soil nonlinearity at large strains, including limitations of the equivalent linear methods, challenges of simulating excess pore water pressure in saturated soils, compatibility between soil strength and stiffness, post-liquefaction triggering behavior, and induced settlement estimation; liquefaction case studies with special emphasis on soil characterization; validation of soil modeling against experimental results; and semi-empirical methods and simplified indices that measure soil nonlinearity at a regional scale. Within the framework of synthetic methods, validation of new models and methods is particularly interesting in the range of medium-intensity earthquakes, where the efficacy of simplified approaches is more debated.

Contributions from academia and industry are encouraged to critically discuss the state of practice and define horizons for future developments.

Dr. Anna Chiaradonna
Guest Editor

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• ground response analysis
• liquefaction assessment
• soil nonlinearity
• excess pore-water pressure
• post-liquefaction settlement
• case-study validation
• semi-empirical index