ABSTRACT
The project objective was to model the initial stiffness ratio of a double layered granular material deposit contained in a laminar shear box (‘shear stack). The model deposit was based on a reference numerical prototype employed in previous parametric studies (Mylonakis et al. 1997, Nikolaou et al. 2001, Sica et al. 2007). The prototype deposit has a total thickness of 30 m and consists of two layers characterized by the following parameters: thickness h1 = h2 = 15 m, shear wave velocity vs1 = 100 m/s and vs2 = 400 m/s, Poisson’s ratio ν1 = ν2 = 0.4 Many cases of pile damage during earthquakes have occurred close to interfaces separating soil layers with very different material moduli. Therefore, the selected prototype is meant to emulate precisely that kind of soil configuration.
