LIQUEFACTION ANALYSIS OF SATURATED REINFORCED GRANULAR SOILS

Laboratory studies on small-size samples have revealed that the liquefaction potential of sand deposits can be significantly reduced by the reinforced earth technique. About 150 tests were performed on 38-mm diameter samples with woven geotextile, nonwoven geotextile, and coir as reinforcement to study the liquefaction behavior of reinforced soil. This paper evaluates the liquefaction potential of reinforced sand under triaxial stress conditions. A simple analytical method for soil liquefaction based on the cyclic triaxial tests conducted on reinforced sand is presented. The restraining effect of the reinforcement is accounted for as an additional confining stress. Good agreement between the analytical and experimental values is noticed. The results show that the bending stiffness and compressibility of the reinforcement played a dominant role in the shear mobilization along the soil fabric interface. The writers also performed tests on larger-diameter samples and the results revealed that the size effect is marginal, with the results falling on the conservative side.