E F F E C T S OF SATURATION AND B A C K PRESSURE

ON SAND LIQUEFACTION
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By Hong Xia1 and Ting H u 2

ABSTRACT: The influence of saturation and back pressure's on the liquefaction

resistance of a sand is investigated by conducting cyclic triaxial tests on four sets
of sand samples with different degrees of saturation and on five sets of samples
with different back pressures. The tested sand is taken from the site of Tong Jaizhi
Water Power Station in China. Test results show that the conspicuous effect of
saturation on the liquefaction resistance of the tested sand cannot be improved by
keeping back pressures on samples during the test. On the other hand, the appli-
cation of back pressures otherwise results in higher liquefaction resistance. The
effect of back pressures is further explained by analyzing the internal interaction
of soil particles. It is concluded that the back-pressure method should not be used
in cyclic liquefaction tests for improving the degrees of saturation of sand, and
Terzaghi's effective stress principle is not valid unless additional conditions are
included for the actions of interparticle forces in soils.

INTRODUCTION

In the field of geotechnical engineering and soil mechanics, it has been

well known that the same soil with different degrees of saturation shows
different physical properties. For that reason, soil is conventionally consid-
ered to be composed of three phases, i.e., solid soil particles, water, and
air. The degree of saturation is therefore used to indicate the relative amount
of water contained in the voids. With the increasing research activities in
liquefaction of sand under dynamic loading since 1964, the remarkable effect
of degree of saturation on the properties of sand liquefaction has also been
recognized. Some researchers' work has shown that for a sand near full sat-
uration, even a slight shift of the degree of saturation can cause a significant
change in the liquefaction resistance of the sand. That fact is also shown in
the present tests. In mainland China, the experiment operation code for geo-
technical engineering specifies that in the tests of soil dynamics, a soil sam-
ple can be considered to be fully saturated by water if Skempton's pore
pressure coefficient B (Skempton 1954) is over 0.97. A similar requirement
exists in other countries. In laboratory tests, in order to meet this require-
ment, sometimes the back-pressure method is used. The applied back pres-
sure could be as high as 588.6 kPa to 686.7 kPa. However, the possible
effect of back pressures on sand liquefaction has never been investigated.
Although, in the tests for static properties of soils, the back-pressure tech-
nique has been an effective way to achieve the high degree of saturation
since it was proposed by Skempton and Bishop et al. in the 1950s. On the
other hand, it may not be so in dynamic tests for soil, especially the liq-
uefaction tests of sand. Generally speaking, the back-pressure method is based
'Ph.D. Student, Dept. of Civ. Engrg., Carleton Univ., Ottawa, Canada K1S 5B6;
formerly, Lect. in Chengdu Univ. of Sci. and Tech., Peoples Republic of China.
2
Prof., Dept. of Hydr. Engrg., Chengdu Univ. of Sci. and Tech., Peoples Republic
of China.
Note. Discussion open until February 1, 1992. To extend the closing date one
month, a written request must be filed with the ASCE Manager of Journals. The
manuscript for this paper was submitted for review and possible publication on May
22, 1989. This paper is part of the Journal of Geotechnical Engineering, Vol. 117,
No. 9, September, 1991. ©ASCE, ISSN 0733-9410/91/0009-1347/S1.00 + $.15
per page. Paper No. 26124.

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 on the following two principles: (1) Terzaghi's effective stress principle in
soils—at present, this principle is usually defined as that if the forces applied
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on the soil skeleton (effective stresses) are the same, then the soil exhibits
the completely identical mechanical properties no matter how much the pore
pressure would be; and (2) Henry's law about the dissolution of air in water
and Boyle's law in classic physics. In other words, under the same tem-
perature, the volume of air dissolved in a certain volume of water is the
same, and the product of the volume of air and the value of pressure existing
on the water is constant. The back-pressure technique has been playing a
very important role in geotechnical laboratory tests. In the mid-1960s, with
the increasing research interests in dynamic properties of soil, typically in
the liquefaction of saturated sand, much stricter control of the degree of
saturation for sand test samples is challenged. The adoption of the back-
pressure technique sometimes appears to be a natural way. The purpose of
the present work is to investigate the possible effects of the method on the
resistance of liquefaction of a sand. However, in this paper, it will show
that the use of back-pressure technique in liquefaction test of the sand dis-
torts the test results. Needless to say, the so-called back pressure in this
paper can also be viewed as the hydrostatic pore pressure existing initially
in sand before the application of dynamic loading. For example, the case
could be easily found in practice, such as a sand layer embedded within the
region of a reservoir. Due to the restriction of the present research to the
laboratory investigation here, the term back pressure is used throughout this
paper to refer to this hydrostatic pressure.

TEST MATERIAL AND TEST PROCEDURES

The test material is a fine sand taken from the drill holes at the site of
Tong Jaizhi Power Station. It has a coefficient of uniformity C„ = 3.7, me-
dian size of particle D50 = 0.0995 x 103 m, and specific gravity Gs = 2.74.
A cyclic triaxial apparatus is used with sizes of cylindrical samples of 0.05
m in diameter and 0.12 m in height. The dry unit weight controlled for the
tested sand samples is yd = 1,620.0 kg/m 3 , which is corresponding to 60%
in relative density. Fig. 1 illustrates the pressure cell of the cyclic triaxial
apparatus used.
In Fig. 1, No. 1 is the sand sample in latex membrane; No. 2 is the applied
all-around pressure; No. 3 is compression air; No. 4 is the porous stones;
No. 5 is the lower platen; No. 6 is the upper platen; No. 7 is the axial piston;
No. 8 is the axial displacement transducer; No. 9 is the static axial pressure;
No. 10 is the applied dynamic loading; and No. 11 is the pore pressure
transducer.
The latex membrane is sealed at both ends onto the lower platen and upper
platen by O-rubber rings, respectively. Porous stones with filter paper are
used to separate the upper platen as well as the lower platen from the sand
sample. The pore pressure transducer is located very close to the lower end
of the sample, which has a size 0.003 m in diameter and 0.008 m in length.
The effect of the stiffness of the pore pressure measuring system on the
readings of pore pressure is restricted to a very small and negligible level
by making the measuring tunnel of the pore pressure transducer very short
and mainly embedded in the very rigid base of the pressure cell. The pore
pressure coefficient B is obtained by measuring the ratio of the increment

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11
FIG. 1. Pressure Cell of Cyclic Triaxial Apparatus

of the pore pressure Au and the increment of the all-around pressure Ao-3.
The axial piston is the exact same size as the upper platen, through which
the axial static pressure and the dynamic force are applied. The ambient
pressure is provided by compression air. The fluctuation of the ambient pres-
sure during the excitation of dynamic loading can therefore be brought down
to a negligible value since the great compressibility of air provides the ad-
vantage for easy up-down movement of the axial piston. The effect of air
penetrating into the tested sand sample is found insignificant if the latex
membrane is not defective. It can be regarded that both axial load and am-
bient pressure are controlled separately. All-around pressure is given by ap-
plying the same amount of the axial pressure and ambient pressure at the
same time. Dynamic exciting load is applied from the top of the sample.
The process of dynamic axial displacement of the sample is obtained from

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 TABLE 1. Test Data with Different Degrees of Saturation
Tests Number B s0 N
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"f,/0 "id Od

(1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8)

Set No. 1 1 1,566.0 1,619.0 1.0 100.0 39.34 3.5
2 1,570.0 1,624.0 1.0 100.0 39.14 5.0
3 1,560.0 1,615.0 1.0 100.0 35.90 6.5
4 1,565.0 1,619.0 1.0 100.0 34.53 12.0
5 1,570.0 1,619.0 1.0 100.0 35.32 20.0
6 1,571.0 1,626.0 1.0 100.0 32.57 33.0
7 1,569.0 1,621.0 1.0 100.0 32.37 40.0
8 1,564.0 1,617.0 1.0 100.0 33.06 70.0
9 1,567.0 1,620.0 1.0 100.0 32.18 120.0
Set No. 2 1 1,577.0 1,630.0 0.928 99.5 44.24 4.0
2 1,570.0 1,631.0 0.928 99.5 43.75 5.0
3 1,579.0 1,637.0 0.928 99.5 41.59 11.5
4 1,567.0 1,628.0 0.928 99.5 39.44 20.0
5 1,575.0 1,635.0 0.928 99.5 39.04 65.0
6 1,568.0 1,629.0 0.928 99.5 38.65 99.0
Set No. 3 1 1,565.0 1,617.0 0.857 99.1 47.38 3.0
2 1,565.0 1,619.0 0.857 99.1 44.93 5.0
3 1,568.0 1,618.0 0.857 99.1 43.85 7.5
4 1,560.0 1,611.0 0.857 99.1 42.58 13.0
5 1,561.0 1,610.0 0.857 99.1 41.79 18.0
6 1,560.0 1,609.0 0.857 99.1 40.52 94.0
7 1,563.0 1,616.0 0.857 99.1 40.32 160.0
Set No. 4 1 1,572.0 1,621.0 0.714 97.8 48.85 7.0
2 1,570.0 1,620.0 0.714 97.8 46.11 16.0
3 1,569.0 1,617.0 0.714 97.8 44.54 27.0
4 1,568.0 1,620.0 0.714 97.8 43.16 54.0
5 1,570.0 1,623.0 0.714 97.8 44.64 56.0
6 1,566.0 1,618.0 0.714 97.8 43.26 96.0

measuring the movement of the axial piston by an electrical capacitance

transducer that provides the least frictional effect on the dynamic loading
compared with electrical resistance transducers. Drainage of the sample is
provided with two small tubes connected to the upper platen and the lower
platen, respectively.
In all of tests, symmetric dynamic loading of sinusoidal form is used. The
rate of the loading is chosen to be 1 Hz throughout the research.
The process of dynamic loading, increasing of pore pressure as well as
dynamic axial displacement of the sample, are measured by respective trans-
ducers and recorded on a 12-channel oscillograph automatically.
The summary of all test data including the densities of all test samples
before and after consolidation is presented in Tables 1 and 2. Those tests
are further explained in detail in the following two subsections.

Tests with Different Degrees of Saturation

Four sets of samples used in the tests for detecting the effects of degree
of saturation are prepared by following these steps: firstly, dry sand samples
of a fixed amount of 400 g are measured on a balance with the precision of

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 TABLE 2. Test Data with Different Back Pressures
Tests Number 7* y.i B P Oj N
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(1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8)

Set No. 1 1 1,570.0 1,620.0 0.97 0.0 38.26 3.5
2 1,571.0 1,617.0 0.97 0.0 34.34 6.5
3 1,569.0 1,618.0 0.97 0.0 31.39 12.0
4 1,567.0 1,619.0 0.97 0.0 29.82 42.0
5 1,565.0 1,620.0 0.97 0.0 29.53 115.0
Set No. 2 1 1,566.0 1,619.0 0.97 98.1 42.38 4.5
2 1,569.0 1,617.0 0.97 98.1 39.24 6.5
3 1,574.0 1,622.0 0.97 98.1 35.32 15.0
4 1,571.0 1,620.0 0.97 98.1 34.34 40.0
5 1,563.0 1,615.0 0.97 98.1 34.36 158.0
Set No. 3 1 1,570.0 1,618.0 0.97 196.2 49.15 6.5
2 1,571.0 1,619.0 0.97 196.2 48.07 10.0
3 1,572.0 1,620.0 0.97 196.2 41.20 20.0
4 1,569.0 1,615.0 0.97 196.2 40.22 52.0
5 1,567.0 1,616.0 0.97 196.2 39.24 175.0
Set No. 4 1 1,571.0 1,620.0 0.97 294.3 54.94 7.5
2 1,570.0 1,617.0 0.97 294.3 52.97 10.0
3 1,571.0 1,619.0 0.97 294.3 49.05 25.0
4 1,569.0 1,618.0 0.97 294.3 45.13 46.0
5 1,568.0 1,617.0 0.97 294.3 44.15 70.0
Set No. 5 1 1,572.0 1,617.0 0.97 392.4 72.59 5.0
2 1,571.0 1,616.0 0.97 392.4 63.77 10.0
3 1,570.0 1,619.0 0.97 392.4 60.82 30.0
4 1,570.0 1,617.0 0.97 392.4 54.94 93.0

±0.02 g and then kept in glass cups. Two sets of the samples with degrees
of saturation of 100% and 99.5%, respectively, are obtained by soaking those
sand samples in their cups with distilled water for 2 hours and then putting
them into a vacuum pump to deair with a vacuum pressure of —0.74 m
mercury for 3 hours, and 1/2 hours, respectively. Another set of samples,
with 9 9 . 1 % saturation, is obtained by only soaking them in their cups with
distilled water for 2 hours—no vacuum pressure is applied. The last set of
samples, with 97.8% saturation, are simply obtained by soaking them in
their cups with common running water for about 20 min. All the samples
are formed in three layers in an open brass sample mold, each layer of sand
is uniformly compacted. A very thin and good-quality latex membrane is
used to keep the sample in shape and separate it from the air pressure. The
four sets of sand samples have the pore pressure coefficients B = 1.0, 0.928,
0.857, and 0.714, respectively. The net weight of dry sand used for each
sample is obtained by weighing the remaining part of the sand left after the
sample is formed in a calibrated bottle, then deducting that value from the
total weight of the dry sand used. The initial volume of each sample before
consolidation is obtained by carefully measuring the average height and di-
ameter of the sample prior to the setting of the triaxial compression cell.
The volume of each sample after consolidation is obtained by deducting the
amount of drainage water from the initial volume of the sample. The initial
dry unit weight, as well as the dry unit weight after consolidation, are then

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 3L
2C
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0.28

0.24

0.20

1 3 S 10 20 50 100 200 "

FIG. 2. Effect of Degree of Saturation

calculated. The initial liquefaction criterion is used (i.e., the residual pore
pressure is equal to the all-around pressure). The liquefaction resistance curves
\<jd/2/a'x versus log AO of the tested sand are given in Fig. 2 for the dif-
ferent degrees of saturation.
The pore pressure coefficients B are obtained by measuring the value of
pore pressure produced by the all-around pressure 0-30
The relationship between pore pressure coefficient B and degree of satu-
ration is associated with the density of the sample, the compressibility of
soil skeleton, and the compressibility of voids (water-air system) (Skempton
1954). Theoretically speaking, this relationship can be easily derived. How-
ever, the compressibility of the soil skeleton is quite unpredictable because
the stress-strain curve of the soil is not a straight line. This curve would
also be obviously different even if the same test conditions are maintained
but only, a new soil sample is used. A good suggestion is to use the reloaded
modulus of the soil, which will give a comparatively stable value for the
compressibility of the soil corresponding to the quite small value of applied
loads. If it is possible, the best way to get the degree of saturation with
respect to the different pore pressure coefficients B is no doubtfully to mea-
sure the water content of the typical samples directly. However, this is not
the case for the present problem, because the very close values of degree of
saturation for all test samples cannot be discriminated clearly by directly
measuring the water contents of samples. Therefore the theoretical relation-
ship is adopted with a slight empirical modification. That part of the work
is presented in Appendix I.
The corresponding approximate degrees of saturation for the four curves
shown in Fig. 2 are about 100%, 99.5%, 99.1%, and 97.8%, respectively,
which are calculated in Table 1 by using the method in Appendix I.

Tests with Different Backpressures

The sample preparation follows the same procedures as that for the tests
with degrees of saturation of 100% and 99.5% in the previous section, ex-
cept that all the five sets of samples for the back-pressure tests are uniformly
deaired in the vacuum pump for 1-1/2 hours so that all the samples in back-
pressure tests have the same initial degree of saturation of about 99.8%,
which corresponds to a pore pressure coefficient B = 0.97.
Much caution is needed to conduct the back-pressure tests in order to make
the test results reliable and consistent. For the cyclic triaxial apparatus used
in this work, the back-pressure device that is built as a part of the equipment
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 JWVWMWW f
/
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1 U i

1
FIG. 3(a). Typical Oscillogram Recording: ad = 34.34 kPa, ed = 19.00%, N = 6.5,
P = 0.0 kPa

is connected to the sample by small brass tubes, which can apply an incre-
ment of static water pressure to the sample through the hole for the pore
pressure transducer at the lower platen as shown in Fig. 1. Conventionally,
on such equipment, back pressure is applied by following these steps: the
all-around pressure is firstly applied on the testing sample by equally pro-
viding the same amount of ambient pressure and axial pressure through a
separate controlling system, then the sample is allowed to consolidate for a
certain time period by releasing the two drainage valves that connect to the
top and bottom of the sample, respectively. After the consolidation proce-
dure is completed, the two drainage valves are to be shut off and the ap-
plication of back pressure begins. Only a small amount of back pressure can
be applied for each time. To apply each small amount of back pressure AP,
the increments of the same amount of axial pressure and ambient pressure
will also need to be applied onto the sample simultaneously with the back
pressure. After the application of back pressure is completed, the back pres-
sure valve should be shut off before the dynamic loading can be applied.
This often causes a slight change of the applied back pressure due to the
possible uncontrolled water flow that can happen at the same instant. There-
fore, it is realized that the following two problems are to be solved before
carrying out the cyclic back-pressure tests: (1) Sand samples should not undergo
the disturbance that is different from the disturbance caused in the usual
consolidation process; and (2) the accumulation process of the dynamic pore
pressure inside the testing sample should not be affected by the external
systems that are irrelevant to the cyclic loading. It was found that in liq-
uefaction tests, a slight disturbance on the tested sample leads to much higher
liquefaction resistance than the sand possesses (Miura and Toki 1982; Mori
et al. 1978). For those reasons, the back-pressure device on this equipment
cannot be used because the water flow into the sample from the back-pres-
sure system is not fully controllable, and it is also impossible to apply the
back pressure and the required equal amount of increment of the axial pres-
sure and the ambient pressure onto the sample absolutely simultaneously.
All of those may produce irrational disturbances on the tested sample.
In the present work, the pore pressure that is spontaneously generated
during the application of all-around pressure is used as the back pressure.
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FIG. 3(b). Typical Oscillogram Recording: ad = 39.24 kPa, <.d = 14.50%, N = 6.5,
P = 98.1 kPa

FIG. 3(c). Typical Oscillogram Recording: ad 63.77 kPa, e„ = 9.80%, N = 10.0,

P = 392.4 kPa

.SL
2 0,'r
0.38
P (KPa)
0.34 A 382.4
o 298.3
0.30 X 196.2
0.26 • 98.1

0.22
^ ^ - A 0.0
"V*^. ~~^*—~, _
0.18
^ 1 -•
0.14 - I *
3 5 10 20 50 100 200

FIG. 4. Effect of Back Pressure

The following procedures are used to obtain the back pressures. For the first
set of samples with zero back pressure, 98.1 kPa of ambient and axial pres-
sures are applied onto the samples simultaneously, then a 15 min consoli-
dation is provided by releasing the drainage valves. The sample gains an
equal amount of 98.1 kPa effective axial stress a[c and effective ambient

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J. Geotech. Engrg., 1991, 117(9): 1347-1362

 stress ar3c during this step. After 15 min, shut off the drainage valves and
apply the dynamic loading. For the other four sets of samples with back
pressures of 98.1, 196.2, 298.3, and 392.4 kPa, respectively, apply the am-
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bient pressure and axial pressure simultaneously to an equal amount between

88.29 and 93.20 kPa, measuring the pore pressure coefficient B that should
be 0.97, then consolidate the sample for 15 min. After that, shutting off the
drainage valves, increase the ambient and axial pressures simultaneously in
equal amounts to 196.2, 294.3, 392.4, and 490.5 kPa, respectively, for dif-
ferent four sets of samples. Then the four sets of samples have effective all-
around pressure of 98.1 kPa with back pressures of 98.1, 196.2, 298.3, and
392.4 kPa, respectively. For all samples, only the initial degree of saturation
is obtained by using the method in Appendix I. The degree of saturation
after applying back pressures is not measured directly. However, the pore
pressure coefficients B are measured to be 1.0 after the samples are applied
with a back pressure over 49.1 kPa. This may indicate that all the samples
with back pressures greater than 98.1 kPa have degree of saturation of about
100%. The oscillogram recordings of dynamic loading, pore pressure in-
crease, and axial displacement of samples with respect to three typical back
pressures are illustrated in Figs. 3(a), 3(b), and 3(c).
In all those figures, the processes of axial displacements (which can rep-
resent the changes of dynamic axial strains) show that the amplitudes of axial
displacements decrease as the values of back pressures increase, and it tends
to be similar to that of sand of higher density.
Fig. 4 shows the liquefaction resistance of the five sets of samples. The
relationship between the number of cycles of dynamic loading N and the
dynamic stress ratio (Td/2/cr^c is also determined according to the definition
of initial liquefaction.

TEST RESULTS ANALYSES

Some important properties of the tested sand can be revealed if exami-

nation is made about the test data that are summarized in Figs. 2, 3(a), 3(b),
3(c), and 4.
Fig. 2 shows that (1) A slight decrease of degree of saturation from 100%
causes a very remarkable increase of the liquefaction resistance of the tested
sand, as from 100% to 99.5%, only 0.5% lower in the degree of saturation,
the ratio of <jd/2/cr'ic increases abruptly; and (2) the decrease of the degree
of saturation of the sand does not cause such a sensitive increase of lique-
faction resistance of the sand after the degree of saturation of the sand is
below a certain amount (say 99%). It can be considered that the ratio of
crrf/2/o-3C increases linearly with the decrease of the degree of saturation for
the case from 99.5% to 97.8% in Fig. 2.
From Fig. 2, we may wonder what the results would look like if the back
pressures are applied to the samples and make them fully saturated. Fig. 4
shows the tests with back pressures. It is found that the liquefaction resis-
tance of the tested sand increases conspicuously with the increase of back
pressures. In other words, although the degree of saturation of the tested
samples is enhanced and even up to 100%, this does not decrease the liq-
uefaction resistance of the sand as it may be expected. On the other hand,
it makes the liquefaction resistance of the sand much higher.
Fig. 2 shows that the sand used in the tests is very sensitive to the changes
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 gic- ox
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J
3C

FIG. 5(a). Effective Dynamic Stress Path: ov = 34.34 kPa, N = 6.5, P = 0.0 kPa

of the degrees of saturation. It is expected that the application of back pres-

sures would enhance the degrees of saturation of the sand and as a result,
it would make the test results identical to the results of the samples not back
pressured but initially fully saturated, as such in usual static tests for soils.
However, the results in Fig. 4 for the samples with back pressures are much
to the contrary. The liquefaction resistance of the sand does not decrease as
it should for higher degree of saturation, but increases significantly with the
higher values of back pressures. It even becomes much higher than the liq-
uefaction resistance for the samples without back pressures. Such phenom-
enon cannot be ascribed to the differences of samples because all samples
are formed identically as much as possible. All five sets of samples are tested
under the same effective stress states with all-around effective pressure equal
to 98.1 kPa. Therefore there is no possibility to argue that the discrepancy
of the static effective stress affects the liquefaction resistance of different
sets of samples. To check the dynamic effective stresses, two typical dy-
namic effective stress paths corresponding to one sample with no back pres-
sure and another sample with back pressure of 392.4 kPa are plotted in Figs.
5(a) and 5(b).
Together with Figs. 3(a), (b), and (c), which show the oscillogram re-
cordings of the tests, it suffices to say that the application of back pressures
changes the dynamic effective stress very obviously. For the higher values

FIG. 5(b). Effective Dynamic Stress Path: <jd 63.77 kPa, N = 10.0, P =
392.4 kPa

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 of back pressures, the effective dynamic stress path as in Fig. 5(b), as well
as the pore pressure increase process and the amplitudes of the dynamic axial
displacement as in Fig. 3(c), display similar shapes of those of denser sand
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compared with the corresponding diagrams with lower or zero back pressure
as showed in the Fig. 5(a) and Fig. 3(a). However the densities of all sam-
ples are strictly controlled during tests. Because the spontaneously rising
pore pressures are used as the back pressures, there is little possibility to
change the densities of samples significantly. The differences of the lique-
faction resistance can only be possibly ascribed to the back pressure itself.
Since the application of back pressure does not change the values of the
static effective stress states, how can the liquefaction resistance be affected
by the back pressure? According to Terzaghi's effective stress principle, the
stress states of the soil skeleton determines the mechanical properties of soil
element. It is usually understood that no matter what the current general
stress states (CT1,a2,o-3) would be for a soil element, if the current effective
stress states (ST[,<T2,<J'3) are the same in values and directions for the soil
element, then the soil element can be considered to be in the same current
stress state and it will display the identical properties (the same stress-strain
relationship, the same strength, etc.) if the same kind of loading is applied.
However, although the same effective stress states are kept for all back-
pressure tests before applying dynamic loading, the mechanical properties
relating to liquefaction of this sand has been apparently changed as in Figs.
4, 5(a), and 5(b). It contradicts Terzaghi's effective stress principle. This
means that the back-pressure technique based on Terzaghi's effective stress
principle is invalid in liquefaction tests. Although this method maintains the
same static effective stress state for all tests with different values of back
pressures, it seems to have changed the liquefaction potential of those sam-
ples. The extra hydrostatic pressure on the samples tends to give additional
confinement to the movement of the sand particles. Therefore when the same
value of dynamic axial load is applied, this dynamic load appears not to
cause the same movement of sand particles. As a result, the increment of
pore pressure in the sample caused in each cycle of the dynamic loading
will be different, and thus leads to different dynamic effective stress paths.
How does the extra hydrostatic pressure (back pressure) provide the addi-
tional confinement to the samples and consequently strengthen the samples?
A possible explanation can be given according to the microstates of the ef-
fective stresses. The microforce conditions inside samples have been changed
by back pressure. Those force conditions are referred to as the actions of
microforces among particles. They include the values of the interparticle
forces; the way the interparticle forces transfer (through what kind of con-
tacts—which can be point, line, or surface contacts); and the way the in-
terparticle forces interact (frictional actions or push actions). Application of
back-pressure does not change the macroeffective stress states that are mea-
sured on the surfaces of samples, but it may change those microconditions
of the interna] particle forces. It may be possible that back pressure affects
the liquefaction properties of samples by changing those conditions, at the
same time the resultant forces on the soil skeleton are still kept unchanged.
From this point of view, Terzaghi's effective stress principle should have
additional conditions for the interparticle actions of soil. The effective stress
principle will only be valid if all those additional conditions are also kept
the same. For the tests herein, if those additional conditions were kept the

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 Uiiilii Uliiiili
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FIG. 6. Types of Contacts for Two Particles: (a) Surface Contact; and (b) Point
or Line Contact

same too, the application of back pressure might have no influence on the
properties of liquefaction of the sand.
However, for materials like sand, it is almost impossible for it to satisfy
those additional conditions. Under different values of back pressure, the ways
the interparticle forces act are very different from one another, because of
the irregular shapes of the sand particles. For the sand used in this paper,
the surface of its particles is composed of irregular multiplane faces. If the
plane face of a hemisphere is used to represent one of the faces a sand
particle possesses, the types of contact that may happen between any two
faces of adjacent sand particles are illustrated in Figs. 6(a) and (b). Although
a sand particle may not have the perfect plane face as is shown in those
figures, the explanation here can still be valuable to illustrate the contacts
between two particles.
For the case as in Fig. 6(a), it is a surface contact. When the hydrostatic
pressure is increased by an amount of back pressure P as in Fig. 7(a), then
the interaction force on the contacting face between A hemisphere and B
hemisphere is also increased by the amount of P. Therefore it can be said
that the interparticle force has been changed in value. Such increase of push
action also increases the frictional resistance between the interfaces. For the
case of point or line contact as in Fig. 6(b), there is a clear wedge space
between the two faces of the two particles. Usually this space is very small.
Therefore the influence of the viscous property of water and the molecular
forces in the absorbed water layer cannot be totally ignored. The water con-
strained in this space is not free water. It is known that only free water can
carry the hydraulic pressure equally and simultaneously in all directions pro-
vided that the water is in an enclosed system. Therefore, when the hydro-
static pressure is increased by a back pressure of P as in Fig. 7(b), this kind

iiimu IUHIII
\AU/.
p
3 /
•flttt
(o)
(b) (c)

FIG. 7. Contact Changes after Back Pressure Is Applied

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 of pressure increment cannot be transmitted equally and simultaneously onto
the two faces of the two particles through the wedge space because of the
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constrained water, then the forces are not in equilibrium. The resultant force
may compel the two hemispheres to push together or may enlarge the wedge
space between the two faces, as in Fig. 7(c).
However, no matter what case happens, the back pressure has changed
the interparticle forces in value, direction, and ways those microforces trans-
fer and act, as well as changed the arrays of sand particles.
The mechanism of sand liquefaction is due to the sliding of some particles
over others, and therefore causes the shrinkage of the soil skeleton. The
dynamic pore pressure is generated due to the offsetting of such shrinkage
happening in soil skeleton. The changes of the interparticle forces by the
back pressure in the aforementioned cases will drastically change the shrink-
age property of the soil skeleton, therefore leading to different liquefaction
resistances.

CONCLUSIONS

A fine sand is tested in a cyclic triaxial apparatus for investigating its

liquefaction resistance with various degrees of saturation and with the ap-
plication of different back pressures. The analyses lead to the following con-
clusions.

1. An apparent effect of the degrees of saturation on the liquefaction resis-

tance of the tested sand is observed.
2. Back pressures have a significant effect on the liquefaction resistance of
the tested sand. It is suggested that in liquefaction tests, the back-pressure tech-
nique cannot be used to enhance the degrees of saturation of the tested sand.
3. The observed phenomenon of the effect of back pressures can be sum-
marized as: the higher the applied back pressure, the higher the liquefaction
resistance of the sand.
4. Terzaghi's effective stress principle should not only be understood as "if
only <T\, 02, 0-3 are not changed the soil will display the identical properties,"
but also should include additional conditions that the actions of interparticle forces
are not to be changed if soil undergoes the different general stress states.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

This research program is sponsored under the fund offered to the writers
from Natural Science Research Foundation, Academia Sinica. The writers
are very thankful for this support.

APPENDIX I. CALCULATION OF DEGREE OF SATURATION

In all tests, Skempton's pore pressure coefficient B is measured, which

can partially indicate the state of saturation for sand. The relationship be-
tween the coefficient B and the degree of saturation Sr can be derived very
easily as it will be shown later. However, the involvement of the bulk mod-
ulus value of the soil skeleton makes this relationship very unpredictable
since the bulk modulus of the soil skeleton cannot be measured with good
accuracy. In this paper, the reloaded modulus in drained repeated tests with

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 the application of repeated uniform all-around pressure is used to get the
bulk modulus of the soil skeleton because it is judged that value can better
represent the elastic bulk modulus of soil skeleton at very small stress level.
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Skempton (1954) stated that the following relationship exists for soil:
1
B = (1)
1 + n It

where B = the Skempton's pore pressure coefficient; Ks = the bulk modulus

of the soil skeleton; Ka„ = the bulk modulus of the voids (air-water phase);
and n = the porosity of soil.
Kaw can be obtained by following Richart et al. (1970) and can be written
as

JS _
K„
(2)

where K„ = 2,142,790 kPa, the bulk modulus of water; K„ = 143.8 kPa,

the bulk modulus of air; Va = the volume of air; V = the total volume of
air-water body, which is equivalent to Vv (the volume of voids) here.
Noting the degree of saturation Sr = Vw/Vv, (2) can be written as

Kw
K„, (3)
1 + (1 - Sr)\ ^ - 1
Kn
We also have

Id
n = 1 (4)

in which yw = 1,000.0 kg/m 3 is the unit weight of water. Substituting (3)

and (4) into (1), the following relationship is derived

Kv
1
1 - - 1 (5)
Kw
l--^-|*.
K„
7..A.
where Ks is obtained by conducting the repeated loading test on three sam-
ples in drained conditions. The repeated all-around pressure is 490.5 kPa.
A specially designed electric capacitance volume change transducer is used
to measure the volume changes. This transducer is made of one string of
Tantalum wire and one string of silver wire as shown in Fig. 8.
The water-level change in the tube will cause the change of the electric
capacitance between those two wires. The signals sensed by this transducer
is amplified by a dynamic strain gauge and is recorded on the oscillograph.
It is found that the volume changes in the first three cycles due to the

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 Tantalum wire
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Silver wire

Water flow
^

Wire trminals

FIG. 8. Volume Change Transducer

repeated all-around pressure of the same amplitude are accompanied by very

large values of plastic volume changes. However, those plastic volume changes
drop drastically with the number of cycles of the repeated loading that in
the fifth cycle and the cycles after, the plastic volume changes can be ne-
glected compared with the amount of elastic volume changes of the sand.
Therefore, the average amplitude of volume changes in the fifth cycle for
the tested three samples is used to get the bulk modulus of the soil skeleton.
The measured averaged amplitude of volume changes in the fifth cycle is
AV = 0.1229 X 10~6 m 3 , and the volumetric strain is calculated to be
0.054614%. The bulk modulus of the sand is
Ks = 9,155.2 kg/cm 2 = 898,125 kPa
By introducing all the values of parameters into (5), the following is ob-
tained:

Sr = I - 0.0097592
2.385857
(H (6)

The maximum degree of saturation from (6) is

Srnax = 1.0097592
Empirically, the following modification to (6) is used to get the values of
degree of saturation

S0 =
Sr
= 0.9903351 - 0.0996487
2.385857
(H (7)
°rmai y*
ywG,

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 The calculation for the degree of saturation for each tested samples is
shown in Table 1.
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APPENDIX II. REFERENCES

Miura, S., and Toki, S. (1982). "A sample preparation method and its effect on
static and cyclic deformation-strength properties of sand." Soils and Foundations,
22(1), 61-77.
Mori, K., Seed, H. B., and Chan, C. K. (1978). "Influence of sample disturbance
on sand response to cyclic loading." J. Geotech. Engrg. Div., ASCE, 104(3),
323-339.
Skempton, A. W. (1954). "The pore pressure coefficient A and B." Geotechnique,
London, England, 4, 143-147.
Richart, F. E., Jr., Hall, J. R., Jr., and Woods, R. D. (1970). Vibrations of soils
and foundations. Prentice-Hall, Inc., Englewood Cliffs, N.J., 129-132.

APPENDIX III. NOTATION

The following symbols are used in this paper:

B = Skempton's pore pressure coefficient;

c = coefficient of uniformity for soil;
Du 50 = median grain size of soil particle;
Gs = specific gravity of soil;
Ka = bulk modulus of air;
A
fllV = bulk modulus of the voids for soil;
Kw = bulk modulus of water;
N = number of cycles of dynamic loading;
P = back pressure;
S0 = modified degree of saturation;
•^rmax = calculated maximum degree of saturation;
Sr = calculated degree of saturation;
ud = measured dynamic pore pressure;
V = total volume of air-water body;
va = volume of air;
Vv = volume of voids;
vw = volume of water;
Id = dry unit weight of soil after consolidation;
IdO = dry unit weight of soil before consolidation;
y» = 1,000.0 kg/m 3 , unit weight of water;
AP = increment of back pressure;
Au = increment of pore pressure;
AV = volume changes;
ACT^ C = increment of all-around consolidating pressure;
e<* = measured axial dynamic strain;
0"3C = all-around consolidating pressure;
°3C0 = initial all-around consolidating pressure;
CTrf = applied axial dynamic stress;
O-l:, o- 2 , a n d o-3 = general principal stresses; and
o-i,, CT2, a n d 0-3 = effective principal stresses.

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