ABSTRACT
Soil liquefaction may cause significant damage to structures, especially when lateral soil flow takes place. Such flow (which often takes the form of “lateral spreading”) was triggered along river banks and sea coasts behind quay-walls in Kobe during the 1995 Great Hanshin Earthquake. (Tazoh, et al., 2001, 2002)
Numerous studies have been published in the last decade on lateral flow failures induced by soil liquefaction. Numerical and experimental studies focused on the damage mechanism of structures and on the external forces induced by the soil flow on deep foundations. Many important structures exist along and near waterfronts in Japan, and their safety in the next major earthquake must be secured. Thus, the study of liquefaction-induced soil flow, together with remedial measures to mitigate the damage, is a crucial earthquake engineering issue. (Tazoh, et al., 1996)
In this study, a series of centrifuge tests was conducted to shed light on the seismic performance of pile-foundation-structure systems located behind quay-walls, arising from the large displacement or collapse of these walls and the ensuing soil flow.
