Assessment of various CPT based liquefaction severity index frameworks relative to the Ishihara (1985) H1–H2 boundary curves

The objective of the study presented herein is to develop an understanding of the predictive trends of four different liquefaction severity index frameworks, with emphasis on the utility of the frameworks for assessing liquefaction vulnerability in Christchurch, New Zealand. Liquefaction induced land damage was widespread following the four major earthquakes in Christchurch (M_w 5.9–7.1) between 4 September 2010 and 23 December 2011. As part of the rebuilding effort, a major focus, to date, has been on assessing/developing approaches for evaluating vulnerability to liquefaction induced damage in future events. The four liquefaction severity index frameworks that are evaluated herein are: the one-dimensional volumetric reconsolidation settlement (S_V1D), the Liquefaction Potential Index (LPI), and two new liquefaction severity indices developed following the major earthquakes in Christchurch, namely the Ishihara inspired LPI (LPI_ISH) and the Liquefaction Severity Number (LSN). To assess the predictive trends of the four severity index frameworks, the H₁–H₂ boundary curves developed by Ishihara (1985) are used as a reference of comparison. In large part, the severity index frameworks serve the same purpose as the Ishihara boundary curves, but they alleviate some of the difficulties in implementing the Ishihara boundary curves for assessing the highly stratified soil profiles that underlie much of Christchurch. A parametric study was performed wherein relatively simple soil profiles are evaluated using all the procedures and contour plots of calculated S_V1D, LPI, LPI_ISH, and LSN values were superimposed onto the Ishihara boundary curves. The results indicate that the LPI_ISH and LSN indices yield similar trends as the Ishihara boundary curves, whereas the S_V1D and LPI indices do not. Furthermore, little field data is available to assess the severity indices for the scenarios where the trends in the LPI_ISH and LSN indices differ.     

CPT-based analysis of liquefaction and re-liquefaction following the Canterbury earthquake sequence

The Canterbury region experienced widespread damage due to liquefaction induced by seismic shaking during the 4 September 2010 earthquake and the large aftershocks that followed, notably those that occurred on 22 February, 13 June and 23 December 2011. Following the 2010 earthquake, the Earthquake Commission directed a thorough investigation of the ground profile in Christchurch, and to date, more than 7500 cone penetration tests (CPT) have been performed in the region. This paper presents the results of analyses which use a subset of the geotechnical database to evaluate the liquefaction process as well as the re-liquefaction that occurred following some of the major events in Christchurch. First, the applicability of existing CPT-based methods for evaluating liquefaction potential of Christchurch soils was investigated using three methods currently available. Next, the results of liquefaction potential evaluation were compared with the severity of observed damage, categorised in terms of the land damage grade developed from Tonkin & Taylor property inspections as well as from observed severity of liquefaction from aerial photography. For this purpose, the Liquefaction Potential Index (LPI) was used to represent the damage potential at each site. In addition, a comparison of the CPT-based strength profiles obtained before each of the major aftershocks was performed. The results suggest that the analysis of spatial and temporal variations of strength profiles gives a clear indication of the resulting liquefaction and re-liquefaction observed in Christchurch. The comparison of a limited number of CPT strength profiles before and after the earthquakes seems to indicate that no noticeable strengthening has occurred in Christchurch, making the area vulnerable to liquefaction induced land damage in future large-scale earthquakes.     

地球难以承载人类重负——《生命行星报告2004》解读

人类对地球自然资源的利用状况反映人类社会的可持续发展状况，要定量反映人类的可持续发展状况，就需要定量评价人类对地球自然资源的利用状况。世界自然基金会（WWF）等机构每2年发布一次的《生命行星报告》是世界上有影响的对人类对地球自然资源利用状况的定量评价分析研究报告。《生命行星报告2004》运用全球足迹网络（Global Footprint Network）提供的新的科学分析方法比较了世界上150个国家的生态足迹；以更加复杂的数据和分析、更加详细的时间趋势，测算了全球生物多样性的状况。报告肯定，地球的生态超载已经成为一个现实，人类目前消费的自然资源超过地球生产能力的20%，即人类目前使用着1.2个地球，导致了生物多样性的快速减少。