Empirical criteria for liquefaction in sands via standard penetration tests and seismic wave energy

Five empirical equations are presented, describing initiation of liquefaction in fully saturated sands, in terms of standard penetration values and initial overburden stress on level ground. These equations are based on 90 case histories of liquefaction, and relate empirically the pore pressure increase to earthquake magnitude, epicentral distance, energy of strong motion at the site, peak ground velocity, Fourier amplitude of velocity and duration of strong motion. The results are given in terms of raw standard penetration values corrected for overburden pressure. For all the models presented, the standard deviation of the residuals, representing the differences between the observed and predicted penetration values is less than six blow counts.