Chinese Dynamic Penetration Test for Liquefaction

Evaluation in Gravelly Soils

Zhenzhong Cao1; T. Leslie Youd, Dist.M.ASCE2; and Xiaoming Yuan3

Abstract: Following the 2008 Wenchuan, China earthquake, investigators from the Institute of Engineering Mechanics, China Earthquake
Administration identified 118 sites with surface liquefaction effects. Following this reconnaissance, Chinese dynamic penetration tests
(DPT) were conducted at 19 sites with liquefaction effects and 28 nearby sites without liquefaction effects. Boreholes with nearly continuous
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core samples were drilled near most DPT soundings revealing 1–4 m of clayey sediment overlying thick deposits of cobbley gravel. The DPT
readily penetrated gravelly sediments to depths of 7–15 m. Layers that liquefied at each site are identified as the layer below the water table with
the lowest average or matrix DPT resistance. DPT data are analyzed to develop probabilistic criteria for liquefaction resistance. The DPT is
a robust, efficient, and effective tool for measuring penetration resistance in gravelly soils and for liquefaction hazard analyses. With further
development, the DPT test could be useful for penetration and liquefaction evaluation of gravelly soils in the United States and other
countries where liquefaction of gravels is an important issue. DOI: 10.1061/(ASCE)GT.1943-5606.0000857. © 2013 American Society of
Civil Engineers.
CE Database subject headings: China; Earthquakes; Gravel; Soil liquefaction; Penetration tests.
Author keywords: China; Earthquake; Gravel; Liquefaction; Dynamic penetration test; Energy transfer ratio.

Introduction conducting dynamic penetration tests (DPT), drilling sites to

On May 12, 2008 a devastating earthquake (Ms 5 8:0, Mw 5 7:9),
with an epicenter in Wenchuan County, struck Sichuan Province in
southwestern China killing more than 100,000 people. The earth-
quake was the largest and most destructive to strike China since
the 1976 Tangshan earthquake (Ms 5 7:8, Mw 5 7:6), which killed
more than 240,000 people (Liu 1989). Shortly after the Wenchuan
earthquake, a team of geotechnical specialists, organized by the
Institute of Engineering Mechanics (IEM), China Earthquake Ad-
ministration (CEA) traveled to the affected area to investigate oc-
currences of liquefaction and consequent damage. Through months
of detailed field investigations, 118 liquefaction sites were identified,
effects documented, and 47 sites drilled and tested. Most of these
sites are located on the Chengdu plain or in the Mianyang area to the
northeast. Nearly all of the investigated liquefaction sites are un-
derlain by loose gravels at shallow depth. The senior writer was the
leader of the IEM team and spent 5 months conducting post-
earthquake investigations. The first 2 weeks were spent aiding
emergency response by assessing the safety of damaged buildings.
The next 2 months were spent with the IEM team identifying,
mapping, and documenting surface liquefaction effects (primarily
sand boils and ground fissures). The last 2 1/2 months were spent
1 liquefied sites were located in the Chengdu plain and 15% were
Associate Professor, Institute of Engineering Mechanics, China
Earthquake Administration, Harbin 150080, China.
2
Professor Emeritus, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Brigham
Young Univ., Provo, UT 84602 (corresponding author). E-mail: tyoud@
byu.edu
3
Professor, Institute of Engineering Mechanics, China Earthquake
Administration, Harbin 150080, China.
Note. This manuscript was submitted on February 4, 2012; approved on
October 23, 2012; published online on October 25, 2012. Discussion period
open until January 1, 2014; separate discussions must be submitted for
individual papers. This paper is part of the Journal of Geotechnical
and Geoenvironmental Engineering, Vol. 139, No. 8, August 1, 2013.
©ASCE, ISSN 1090-0241/2013/8-1320–1333/$25.00.
extract core samples and construct borehole logs, and measuring
shear wave velocities and compiling velocity profiles using multiple
channel analysis of surface wave (MASW) procedures. Results from
these investigations and tests are being published in two papers. The
first paper (Cao et al. 2011) documents the distribution and character
of gravelly soils that liquefied, develops a probabilistic shear-wave
correlation for evaluation of liquefaction resistance of gravels,
provides a case history database for future research, and provides
comparisons of results from the Wenchuan earthquake with those
from previous earthquakes. This, the second paper, describes the
Chinese DPT, presents data collected during the field DPT tests,
and develops a probabilistic DPT procedure for predicting lique-
faction resistance of gravelly soils.
Liquefaction during Wenchuan Earthquake
Following the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake, 118 liquefaction sites
(dots on Fig. 1) were documented in the Chengdu, Deyang, Mia-
nyang, Meishan, Leshan, and Suining areas of Sichuan Province; the
affected region is ∼500 km long and 200 km wide (Cao et al. 2011).
A rectangular region 160 km long and 60 km wide contains most
of the liquefied sites (Yuan et al. 2009). Statistically, 70% of the
within the Mianyang area to the northeast. Dotted lines on Fig. 1
show the boundaries of the Chengdu plain. Dash-dotted lines mark
fault ruptures on the Longmen fault. The dashed lines mark the
localities of geological cross sections plotted in Fig. 2.
The Chengdu plain is underlain by a 1–4 m thick layer of Ho-
locene clayey soil, which is in turn underlain by thick deposits of
gravelly sediment (as thick as 540 m) overlying bedrock. The gravel
layers beneath the Chengdu plain were formed as alluvial fans
along ancient courses of the Minjiang and Tuojiang Rivers. These
rivers now flow northwesterly across the plain from the Long-
men Mountains and join the Yangzi River that flows along the

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Fig. 1. Locations of liquefaction sites, surface fault ruptures, peak ground acceleration (PGA) contours, and geologic cross sections (Fig. 2) on the
Chengdu plain and Mianyang area, Sichuan Province, China

Fig. 2. Geological cross sections I–I
and II–II
beneath the Chengdu plain; locations of cross sections are marked on Fig. 1

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 northwestern edge of the plain. The topography of Chengdu plain
is composed primarily of two terraces that lie 2–3 m and 4–6 m above
present river levels, respectively.
Observed surface effects of liquefaction included sand-boil
deposits, ground fissures, lateral ground displacements, ground
settlement, and fractured, settled, or tilted structures. The liquefac-
tion sites were located primarily in agricultural areas, but some sites
were located in urban areas as well. Fields, roads, bridges, buildings,
and industrial facilities were damaged to various extents by the
effects of liquefaction. Many houses and small buildings were
damaged beyond repair, some of which collapsed.
Liquefaction Effects in Villages
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Fig. 4. Gravelly soils were not noted during excavation of the well,
indicating that the boiled-up sand and gravel originated beneath
the well.
Near Songbai village (Fig. 5), Deyang, half of a house collapsed,
largely owing to the fracture of foundations and superstructures
caused by ground fissures and ground displacements. Many sand-boil
deposits were also observed in an area 7 km long 3 3 km wide. The
sand-boil deposits in that area ranged from yellow medium sand to
gray gravelly sand.
Comparison of Wenchuan Sand Boils with those from
Previous Chinese Earthquakes
The volumes of ejected sand and gravel and the durations of sand-

Liquefaction effects and damage at several villages where sub-
surface tests were conducted are described in the following
paragraphs:
Minzhu village (Fig. 3), Mianyang is located on an alluvial fan
terrace 2–3 m above the water level of a small nearby river. Sand-boil
deposits were randomly scattered across 150 mus ð100,000 m2 Þ of
farmland. Single sand-boil deposits covered areas up to 5 m2 , with
volumes of ejected sediment ranging up to 0:5 m3 (Fig. 3). Most of
the ejected sediment was fine to coarse sand with gravel particles
ranging up to 5 cm in diameter.
At Baihutou village (Fig. 4), Mianzhu, local residents observed
sand boils with water spouts as high as 1m within an area of
100 mus ð66,700 m2 Þ. The sand boils were accompanied by ground
fissures, the largest of which was 300 m long and 3 to 5 cm wide. The
sand-boil deposits along those fissures were commonly bordered by
brown to purple fine sand ejecta. A well, 3 m deep and ∼ 1m di-
ameter was clogged with boiled up sand and gravel. Gravelly soils
cleared from the well were piled on the ground surface as shown in
boil activity during the Wenchuan earthquake were much smaller
and shorter than that observed following the 1975 Haicheng and the
1976 Tangshan earthquakes, even though shaking duration, in-
tensity, and the inflicted damage were greater during the Wenchuan
event. A possible reason for smaller sand-boil deposits following
the Wenchuan earthquake is that liquefaction occurred primarily in
gravelly layers; whereas for the Haicheng and Tangshan events,
liquefaction occurred in thick layers of fine sand. The shorter
durations and lesser volumes of sediment ejecta during the Wen-
chuan earthquake were likely a consequence of the high perme-
ability of the gravel deposits that liquefied, which allowed more
rapid dissipation of pore-water pressures; thus, the shorter durations
of eruption and the smaller volumes of ejected sediment. Other
possible reasons for smaller sand-boil deposits are larger particles
may have clogged vents and fissures, forming filters that prevented
transport of large amounts of ejecta, and thicknesses of liquefiable
layers may have been thinner beneath the Chengdu plain and other
affected areas than in the previous Chinese earthquakes.

Fig. 3. Sediment ejected onto farmer’s field because of liquefaction of subsurface gravelly layer near Minzhu village, Mianyang: (a) sand-boil deposit;
(b) close-up view of gravelly sediment

Fig. 4. Well near Baihutou village, Mianzhu, that was clogged by boiled-up gravelly sand; (a) gravelly sediment cleaned from well; (b) open well

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Fig. 5. Songbai village, Deyang: (a) collapsed house astride ground
fissure; (b) gravelly sand-boil ejecta in nearby farmland
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Need for Dynamic Penetration Tests
Because of the difficulty in extracting undisturbed samples from
gravelly soil deposits for use in laboratory shear tests, laboratory
tests have not developed as a reliable technique for measuring
liquefaction resistance of gravels. Freezing of gravel deposits before
extraction improves sample quality, but the cost is prohibitive for
routine projects. Even if undisturbed samples could be extracted,
changes of stress conditions between the field and laboratory would
limit the usefulness of laboratory test results.
For sands and fine-grained soils, standard penetration tests
(SPT) and cone penetration tests (CPT) are widely used to measure
penetration resistance for assessing liquefaction resistance, but these
tests are not generally reliable in gravelly soils because of penetra-
tion interference by large particles. In North American practice, the
Becker penetration test (BPT) has become a primary field test used
to measure the penetration resistance of gravels for liquefaction-
resistance assessments. The BPT was developed in Canada in the
late 1950s and consists of a 168-mm diameter, 3-m-long double-
walled casing, whose penetration resistance is defined as the
number of blows to drive the casing through a depth interval of
30 cm. For liquefaction-resistance evaluations, closed-end casing is
specified. Harder and Seed (1986) developed correlations between
BPT and SPT blow counts that allow extrapolation of sand criteria
for assessing liquefaction resistance of gravelly soils. These cor-
relations were primarily derived from parallel BPT and SPT at three
sandy sites (Harder and Seed 1986).
Major problems in applying BPT for liquefaction hazard inves-
tigations include the high cost of mobilization and testing (usually
thousands of dollars), uncertainty in measured BPT resistances, un-
certainties in correlations between SPT and BPT blow counts, and
friction between the driven casing and the surrounding soil. Harder
(1997) states that for normally to slightly overconsolidated low-
plasticity soils, the effect of friction is adequately accounted for in
the developed empirical correlations.
Sy et al. (1995) instrumented a short length of BPT casing with
strain gauges and accelerometers to measure driving energy near
the top of the casing and then estimated the effect of friction on the
casing from CAPWAP analyses. From the measurements with this
device, Sy et al. (1995) propose a corrective procedure to account for
friction on measured BPT blow counts. Application of the Sy and
Campanella procedure, however, leads to calculated BPT blow
counts with uncertainties as great as those of the Harder and Bolton
Seed procedure (Harder 1997).
Because of the previous factors, use of the BPT has generally
been limited to high-cost investigations, such as earth dams. The
BPT has not been applied in China or in many other parts of the
world. Thus, more reliable and more efficient in situ tests are needed
for measuring penetration resistance in gravelly soils.
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Dynamic Penetration Test (DPT)
A dynamic penetration test (DPT) apparatus was developed in
China during the early 1950s specifically for the measurement of
penetration resistance of gravels for bearing-capacity analyses.
The DPT has been used in China since that time. Over the years,
considerable test data and experience has been accumulated. Code
provisions to standardize the DPT and provide guidance for
foundation design were published in the 1970s (Design Code
1978). Since then, the DPT has been applied widely in Chinese
geotechnical practice. Because of the widespread gravelly de-
posits beneath the Chengdu plain, the DPT has gained wide used
in that region.
The DPT equipment is relatively simple, consisting of a 120 kg
hammer with a nominal free-fall height of 100 cm dropped
onto an anvil attached to 60-mm diameter drill rods, which in
turn are attached to a solid cone tip with a diameter of 74 mm and
a cone angle of 60° (Figs. 6 and 7). Fig. 8 shows a DPT apparatus
in operation at a field site on the Chengdu plain in December
2010.
During testing, the hammer is raised with a wire line winch that
is controlled manually through a set of leavers. A catching mecha-
nism at the end of the wire-line cable grasps the hammer and lifts it as
the cable is pulled into the winch spool. The hammer is restrained
from moving horizontally by a guide rod that extends upward from
the anvil. A tripping mechanism is placed at the top of the guide rod
(100 cm above the anvil), which upon contact with the rising
hammer, releases the hammer allowing it to fall freely to impact the
anvil. The tripping mechanism is not fixed to the guide rod and is
generally flung upward by the upward hammer impact. Upon release
of the hammer, the operator pulls a lever that reverses the spin of
the winch, spinning cable off the spool and dropping the grasping
mechanism, which upon contact grasps the fallen hammer for
the next lift. The operator then pulls the lever that retracts cable into
the winch, lifting the hammer again.
The DPT drill rods have a smaller diameter than the cone tip to
reduce friction between the rods and the penetrated soil. Chinese
practice indicates that rod friction is negligible for depths less than
20 m for all soils except soft clays.
The measured DPT blow count is defined by the number of
hammer drops required to advance the cone tip 10 cm into the
penetrated soil. A second penetration resistance measure, called
N120 , is specified in code applications where N120 is the number of
blows required to drive the tip 30 cm. However, N120 is simply
calculated by multiplying the measured blow count by a factor of
3, thus preserving the 10-cm detail in the penetration profile. The
30-cm drive length is specified to be consistent with the drive length
of the standard penetration test (SPT).
The following procedures are specified for conducting
DPT:
1. Inspect all of the parts to assure that the equipment is in good
repair;
2. Assemble the DPT components and tighten all threaded
connections firmly;
3. Assure that the supporting frame is vertical and has sound
bearing on the ground surface;
4. Mark the rod with tick-marks at 10-cm intervals;
5. Check that the drill and guide rods are vertical and that the
hammer drops freely; placing the cone tip on the bottom of
a shallow, uncased borehole aids in establishing rod verticality
at the beginning of a test;
6. The maximum inclination of the 60-mm diameter rod
should not be greater than 1% for test depths less than 5 m
and not be greater than 2% at depths greater than 5 m;
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Fig. 6. Sketch of Chinese dynamic penetration test (DPT) apparatus

Fig. 7. Seventy-four-mm diameter DPT cone tip

7. Check that the vertical distance between the anvil and the
base of the tripping mechanism at the top of the guide rod
(nominal drop height) is 100 6 2 cm;
8. The anvil should be at least 2 m above ground level at the
beginning of a test;
9. During a test, maintain a constant hammer drop rate of 15–30
blows per minute;
10. Record the blow count for each 10-cm increment of penetration;
11. In loose soil, the blow count may be less than 1 blow per 10 cm;
in that instance, the penetration per blow should be recorded
and then converted into a fraction of a blow per 10 cm;
12. When the cone penetrates very dense soil, large blow counts
may occur; for blow counts greater than 40 blows per 10 cm,
the penetration per 40 blows may be recorded and then pro-
portionally adjusted to blows per 10 cm; and
Fig. 8. DPT apparatus with the hammer falling to impact anvil above
PDA energy measuring device; tripping device flung upward above
guide rod caused by rising hammer impact; drillers are pulling on rope
to maintain verticality of rod
13. For soft clays or depths greater than 20 m, a cased borehole is
required to reduce rod friction with the DPT conducted below
the bottom of the casing.
Advantages of Dynamic Penetration Test
Important advantages of the DPT test are:
1. DPT equipment is simple and robust and the test is easy and
inexpensive to conduct;

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 2. The equipment can be transported in a light-weight truck;
3. The equipment can be set up and a test completed in 1–2 h after
arrival at a site;
4. Verified correlations between blow counts and foundation
design parameters are contained in Chinese codes (Design
Code 1978, 2001);
5. Continuous data are collected with depth with penetration data
recorded for each 10-cm penetration increment; and
6. The cone tip is easily driven through loose to dense gravelly to
cobbley sediments; refusal commonly occurs in very dense
cobbley layers or upon contact with boulders.
Field Tests following 2008 Wenchuan Earthquake
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Following the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake, two types of in situ field
tests were applied at gravelly sites with and without observed surface
effects of liquefaction: first, a multichannel analysis of surface
waves (MASW) to measure shear wave velocities and to construct
velocity profiles (Cao et al. 2011). And second, DPT to measure
penetration resistance and construct DPT resistance profiles. Al-
though the Chinese DPT has been in use for 50 years, tests conducted
in this study were the first tests conducted in gravelly soils that had
liquefied. Forty-seven sites were tested during 2008 and 2010, in-
cluding 19 with observed surface effects of liquefaction effects
and 28 sites without. Most of these sites were located in the Deyang
and Dujiangyan districts, which suffered extensive liquefaction
effects and damage.
The test sites are at distances ranging from 20 km to 40 km
from the ruptured Longmen (Fig. 9) fault and are characterized
by peak ground accelerations (PGA) ranging from 200 to 500 gal
(1 gal 5 1 cm=sec2 ). Most strong-motion instrument sites were
Fig. 9. Investigated sites where DPT soundings and boreholes were installed; solid dots 5 sites with surface liquefaction effects; open circles 5 sites
without liquefaction effects
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located in the Longmen mountain area, with only four in the
Deyang and Dujiangyan areas and none of those near DPT field
test sites. Because no instrumental acceleration data were recorded
near the test sites, peak accelerations were interpolated from PGA
contour maps prepared by the CEA based on data collected from the
China National Strong Motion Network (Fig. 9). The contour maps
were constructed in accordance with commonly used Chinese
procedures and were accepted in this study as the best available
estimates of PGA.
DPT were conducted at sites as marked on Fig. 9. Because
samples are not obtained with DPT, boreholes were drilled ∼ 2 m
away from most DPT soundings for soil logging purposes; nearly
continuous samples were retrieved using 90–100-mm diameter core
barrels (Fig. 10). The retrieved samples were logged to note sedi-
ment types and general grain-size properties. Intact gravel samples
were cut from the various cores, bagged, and taken to the laboratory
for grain-size and soil-classification tests. Geotechnical logs de-
veloped from extracted core samples and laboratory tests indicate
that a 4-m thick layer of clayey sediment pervasively overlies thick
beds of gravel in the area surrounding the test sites. As examples,
five borehole logs with attached DPT penetration profiles are re-
produced in Figs. 11(a–e). Layers that liquefied are marked on the
plots. The following rules were applied in identifying layers that
liquefied: (1) Fine-grained clayey soils and soils above the water
table were classed as nonliquefiable. (2) The penetrated sediments
were divided into layers based on soil type, saturation (above or
below the water table), and uniformity of N120 values. (3) For sites
with surface-liquefaction effects, the layer below the water table with
the lowest general N120 values was identified as the layer that liq-
uefied. For sites without surface-liquefaction effects, the layer below
the water table with the lowest average N120 was identified as the
most liquefiable layer, but was assumed not to have liquefied. Some
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Fig. 10. Collected core samples from bore hole drilled near DPT in the Deyang, illustrating coarse-grained nature of gravel deposits beneath Chengdu
plain (Cao et al. 2011; Reprinted from Soil Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering, Vol. 31, Issue 8, Zhenzhong Cao, T. Leslie Youd, and Xiaoming
Yuen, “Gravelly soils that liquefied during 2008 Wenchuan, China earthquake, Ms 5 8.0,” 1132–1143, Copyright 2011, with permission from Elsevier)

layers may have liquefied without generating surface-liquefaction
effects, producing false negative interpretations. Average N120 were
consistently less than 15 blows/30 cm and at depths less than 10 m in
layers marked as liquefiable. Each of the liquefaction sites was
strongly shaken by the Wenchuan earthquake with seismic in-
tensities between VII and IX (Chinese Intensity Scale) and PGA
between 0.15 and 0.45 g. The Chinese Intensity Scale is roughly
comparable to the Modified Mercalli Intensity Scale.
Nineteen intact soil samples were extracted from layers that
liquefied with an additional six intact samples extracted from layers
that did not liquefy. Grain-size distribution curves from these sam-
ples are plotted on Fig. 12. These curves provide general information
on the gravels sampled, but the grain-size distributions are not
complete because particles larger than 100 mm could not be re-
trieved with 100-mm diameter core barrels. Also, some parts of the
core were too disturbed by the coring process to yield useful samples
for grain-size testing. Mean grain size, D50 , of samples retrieved
from layers that liquefied ranged from 0.4 to 40 mm with gravel
contents (particles larger than 5 mm) ranging up to 75%. (These are
minimum values because of an exclusion of particles larger than
100 mm.) There were no distinguishable differences in grain size
between soils classed as having liquefied and those classed as having
not liquefied.
Spikes and dips in the penetration resistance profiles (Fig. 11)
reveal important aspects of DPT measurements. Narrow spikes in the
record were generally caused by the DPT tip striking a large particle
or cobble embedded in the gravel matrix. The large particle impeded
penetration of the cone tip, requiring extra blows to either fracture
the particle or push it aside. Once the tip passed the large particle,
the blow count returned to the gravel matrix value, where the DPT
matrix value is penetration resistance of the gravel without in-
terference from gravel particles or cobbles. When the tip penetrated
an extra loose or finer-grained layer, the blow count dips on the plot
and then returns to the general gravel matrix value once the soft
zone is penetrated. As the tip penetrated into denser or coarser layers,
the matrix penetration resistance increased, but the peaks and dips
continued as large particles or soft lenses were penetrated, respec-
tively. During the field investigation, the DPT readily penetrated
gravelly sediments to depths of 7 to 15 m, including all layers that
liquefied.
As noted previously, liquefaction mostly occurred in upper
layers of the gravelly deposits; these layers are the youngest
(Holocene) and loosest layers in the gravel section. Most lique-
faction sites are near rivers and are underlain by fluvial or alluvial
layers with relative low DPT blow counts. Many liquefaction sites
occurred in elongated zones that apparently marked the courses of
ancient and buried stream channels and floodplain deposits. Thus,
the sediments that liquefied followed previously noted trends of
younger, looser, and shallower sediments being more susceptible
to liquefaction than older, denser, and deeper sediments (Youd and
Perkins 1978).
Energy Transfer Ratio
An important measurement for hammer-impact penetration tests,
such as SPT and DPT, is the energy transferred from the falling
hammer to the drill rods. This measurement is usually reported as an
energy transfer ratio (ETR); that is, the ratio in percent of the energy
that passes through the rods to the potential energy of the hammer
at its assigned drop height. This measurement allows hammer cali-
bration that can be used to adjust penetration resistances for ham-
mers with different efficiencies and drop heights.
Three soundings were selected for hammer-energy measure-
ments to calibrate the hammer used for DPT measurements. ETR
were calculated for all hammer drops in soundings CD10–5RY
(737 drops), CD10–10 (458 drops), and CD10–11 (40 drops).
These tests were conducted in December 2010. Energy meas-
urements were made with a pile driving analyzer (PDA) made
available to the project through a cooperative agreement with the
United States Bureau of Reclamation. The PDA was installed at
the top of the DPT rods immediately below the anvil (Fig. 8). The
measured energy passing through the PDA is denoted as EMX. The
energy transfer ratio, ETR, is defined as (EMX/ERP)(100), in
percent, where EMR is the potential energy of a 120 kg hammer at
a 100 cm drop height or 1.18 kN-m. Fig. 13 contains frequency

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Fig. 11. Test sites where surface effects of liquefaction were and were not observed: (a) Pilu Elementary School (Site 2); (b) Banqiao School, Mianzhu
(Site 3); (c) Songbai Village, Deyang (Site 4); (d) Zipingpu, Dujiangyan (Site 39); (e) Business College, Dujiangyan

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 diagrams showing the number of ETR values in 2% ETR bins for
each sounding. Two soundings (CD10–5YR and CD10–11) were
conducted using the specified drop rate between 15 to 30 drops/
min. The third sounding was made with much slower drop rates to
better control hammer drop heights. For soundings CD10–5YR
[Fig. 13(a)] and CD10–10 [Fig. 13(b)], the mean ETR were 88%
and 91% with standard deviations, s, of 6.9% and 8.6%, re-
spectively. Many hammer drops in these two tests are characterized
by ETR greater than 100%, which should not occur. From
observations during these tests, it was noted that at normal drop
rates the hammer, raised with the manually controlled winch,
reached sufficient velocity that the upward momentum of the
hammer caused it to continue to rise after release by the tripping
mechanism. The momentum of the hammer also flung the tripping
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device upward, allowing the hammer to rise above the 100 cm level
before beginning its descent to impact the anvil (Fig. 8). Thus,
actual drop heights were variable and generally greater than 100
cm. The greater drop heights led to calculated ETR greater than that
which would have occurred with a 100-cm drop height and many
were greater than100%. A third set of ETR measurements [Fig. 13(c)]
was then made to measure ETR with a nearly exact 100-cm drop
height (sounding CD10–11). In this sounding, the hammer was
Fig. 12. Grain size distribution curves from samples of cored gravel
deposits from Deyang and Dujiangyan districts, Chengdu Plain; curves
represent layers that liquefied and those that did not
Fig. 13. Frequency diagrams showing number of hammer drops with ETR values in 2% bins: (a) CD10–5RY and (b) CD10–10 (both at normal drop
rates of 15–30 blows/min); and (c) CD10–11 (drop rate , 15 blows/min to prevent hammer rise above 1.00 m)
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J. Geotech. Geoenviron. Eng. 2013.139:1320-1333.
raised slowly so that hammer momentum was too small to cause the
hammer to rise above 100 cm (a hammer drop rate much less than
15 blows/min). At this controlled drop height, the mean ETR was
85% with a standard deviation of 2.9%. Based on an average ETR
of 85% for a drop height of 100 cm, the mean ETR in CD10–5RY
and CD10–10 of 88% and 91% indicate average drop heights of 3%
and 6% greater than 100 cm or 103 cm and 106 cm, respectively.
Drop height required to generate ETR greater than 100% are 115 cm
or greater.
Development of Dynamic Penetration Test
Liquefaction Resistance Curves for Gravels
As noted previously, DPT soundings were made at 19 sites with
observed surface-liquefaction effects and 28 sites without surface-
liquefaction effects (Fig. 9). Logs of soil type and DPT resistance
were compiled for each of those sites, including the five logs re-
produced in Fig. 11. Essential data extracted from these 47 borehole
logs and penetration profiles are listed in Table 1.
As an example of a site that liquefied, the Banqiao school campus
(Site 3) contained many surface effects of liquefaction, including
sand-boil deposits, ground settlement, and ground fissures (some of
which fractured the foundation and propagated upward through the
school building, causing the building to be condemned and re-
moved). The soil profile for that site [Fig. 11(b)] consists of a 1.5-m
thick layer of brown to yellow silty clay overlying a thick deposit of
gravel. The water table was at a depth of 3.0 m, so the upper 3 m of
soil was classed as nonliquefiable. The gravel beneath the water table
was divided into two layers, an upper layer (3.0 m–6.1 m) that had
the lowest N120 (range from 4 to 18 blows/30 cm, with an average or
matrix value of 10 blows/30 cm), which is identified as the layer that
liquefied (Table 1, Site 3). The lower layer (6.1 m–10.5 m) had
a variable of N120 ranging from 14 to 54 with an average of ap-
proximately 30. Because of the higher DPT resistance, the lower
layer was classed as too dense to liquefy. As with the standard
penetration test, a correction for overburden stress on DPT blow
counts was applied follows:

0:5
N9120 ¼ N120 100=s9v (1)
where, N9120 5 corrected DPT resistance in blows/30 cm, N120 5 the
measured DPT resistance in blows/30 cm, 100 5 atmospheric
pressure in kN/m2, and s9v 5 effective overburden stress in kN/m2.
Measured and corrected N120 are listed in Table 1 along with a brief
description of surface effects of liquefaction at each site.
 Table 1. Summary of Investigation Sites
Site Location PGA (g) CSR ds (m) dw (m) N120 N9120 Liquefaction effects Liquid?
1 Xinshi School, Mianzhu 0.34 0.33 3.0 1.0 6.3 10.4 Sand boils lasted for 1 min with a height of Y
1.5 m. Ejected material is light-gray fine sand
containing silt and clay.
2 Pilu Elementary School, 0.22 0.22 5.2 1.4 7.5 9.6 Sand boils erupted in two classrooms; ∼5 m3 Y
Guanhan of medium sand was ejected; 20–30 cm of
ground settlement occurred around and within
building areas.
3 Banqiao School, Mianzhu 0.37 0.29 4.6 3.0 10.2 12.1 Sand boils occurred in a zone 3 km long 3 Y
∼300 m wide. Playground was covered by
thickness of 3–5 cm yellow fine sand. River
embankment settled 20–30 cm and displaced
laterally 30–50 cm.
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4 Songbai village, Deyang 0.24 0.27 4.6 0.8 7.5 10.7 Sand boils occurred in a zone 7 km long 3 3 km Y
wide. Ground fissures crossed through several
rural houses, some of which collapsed. Half of
the rural houses in this area collapsed because
of liquefaction-induced ground displacements.
5 Guoyuan village, Deyang 0.21 0.15 1.9 1.5 9.0 15.9 Seven houses in this village were damaged by Y
liquefaction; reliquefaction occurred at this site
during a magnitude 6.4 aftershock.
6 Jingqiao village, Deyang 0.18 0.16 5.1 2.2 6.3 7.6 Fissures in farmland were 30–50 m long, Y
20–30 cm wide; ejected sediment ranges from
fine sand to gravel.
7 Xiangliu village, Mianzhu 0.41 0.31 4.8 3.4 17.4 19.8 Sand boils occurred in an area of ∼100,000 m2 . Y
Ejected water rose to ∼10 m in height from 7 to 8
craters, 3–4 m in diameter, and 1–2 m deep;
ejected sediment was gravelly sand.
8 Xinglong village, Mianzhu 0.42 0.40 6.8 2.4 8.7 9.4 Six houses were damaged by liquefaction; Y
widths of ground fissures were 10–20 cm;
interiors of several houses were covered by
5–10 cm of yellow gravelly sand. Nearby
houses in areas without liquefaction effects
were undamaged.
9 Shihu village, Mianzhu 0.33 0.25 4.4 2.9 11.4 13.8 One 5-m deep well was clogged with ejected Y
fine to medium sand. Fountaining of water
occurred for ∼1 h with flow heights as great
as 1 m in adjacent farmland.
10 Qifu Elementary School, 0.30 0.23 5.3 3.5 11.1 12.2 Fountaining of water lasted ∼1 h with heights Y
Mianzhu up to 30 cm leaving remnant yellow fine sand
deposits. The foundation of the school rose
5 cm on one side and settled 5 cm on the other.
The walls of the school were cracked
extensively.
11 Guihua village, Mianzhu 0.39 0.40 2.2 0.6 8.1 15.9 A 50-m long, 30-cm wide ground fissure was Y
surrounded by ejected yellow medium sand.
A house foundation rose 10 cm in front and
settled 5 cm in back.
12 Zhenjiang village, Shifan 0.29 0.28 2.4 0.9 8.7 15.7 A 100-m long 10-cm wide ground fissure Y
intersected a house that settled nonuniformly.
Sand-boil ejecta ranged from fine sand to
gravel.
13 Sanyuan village, Mianzhu 0.29 0.21 3.5 2.8 11.7 15.2 Ground fissures intersected several houses; Y
fine sand was deposited along the fissures;
sand-boil fountaining rose to heights of 1 m
for several minutes.
14 Shengli village, Deyang 0.21 0.18 3.7 1.9 8.7 12.0 A 200-m long, 20-m wide liquefaction zone Y
intersected the village; a courtyard was covered
by ∼3 cm of fine sand; a floor of a house bulged
upward ∼20 cm.

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 Table 1. (Continued.)

Site Location PGA (g) CSR ds (m) dw (m) N120 N9120 Liquefaction effects Liquid?
15 Xiaojia village, Chengdu 0.17 0.13 1.8 1.4 3.9 7.1 Sand-boil deposits were scattered randomly Y
in 1m ( ∼700 m2 ) of farmland; fountaining
to heights of 1.5 m lasted several minutes.
16 Lichun village, Pengzhou 0.24 0.19 4.1 2.4 9.0 11.5 Five-cm wide ground fissure with sand boils Y
intersected concrete pavement and caused 5 cm
settlement of house foundation; fountaining of
clean water continued for ∼1 h; additional sand
boils also occurred in nearby farmland; water 2
m below ground surface noted in well.
17 Jingxing village, Pixian 0.21 0.22 3.5 0.9 9.9 15.6 Sand-boil deposits were randomly scattered Y
across 50 m ð ∼34,000 m2 Þ of farmland; single
deposits covered areas ∼ 2 m2 , with up to
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0:5 m3 of ejected coarse sand. Fountaining

of water up to heights of 1 m occurred for
30 min; water level in a well was 0.5 m.
18 Quanshui village, 0.24 0.20 1.7 0.9 3.3 6.7 Coarse sand ejected from 10 m long, 5 cm wide Y
Dujiangyan ground fissure which intersected rural house
and surrounding concrete pavement. Several
sand-boil deposits were discovered in nearby
farmland.
19 Longqiao village, 0.25 0.20 2.1 1.4 6.3 11.0 Ground fissures with widths of 3–5 cm and Y
Dujiangyan lengths of 5–10 m occurred widely in
50 m ð ∼34,000 m2 Þ; fine to coarse sand was
deposited along the fissures; 40–50% of rural
houses collapsed; a 20 m-long single span
bridge compressed by 20–30 cm because of
lateral displacement; pier settled 10–20 cm.
20 Wulan, Deyang 0.20 0.16 9.0 5.0 13.8 12.1 No liquefaction effects. N
21 Chuanmu, Mianzhu 0.41 0.27 9.2 8.0 22.8 17.9 No liquefaction effects. N
22 Tonglin, Mianzhu 0.48 0.50 10.2 2.0 22.5 21.3 No liquefaction effects. N
23 Nangui, Deyang 0.24 0.21 11.9 4.7 14.1 11.4 No liquefaction effects. N
24 Factory, Mianzhu 0.37 0.29 5.4 3.4 14.1 15.5 No liquefaction effects. N
25 Heping, Deyang 0.18 0.16 10.8 3.7 27.0 23.3 No liquefaction effects. N
26 Quezhu, Shifan 0.26 0.20 10.5 6.0 24.6 19.8 No liquefaction effects. N
27 Bayi, Mianzhu 0.43 0.27 6.7 6.2 15.9 14.4 No liquefaction effects. N
28 Yongning, Mianzhu 0.41 0.45 10.2 1.4 37.5 36.5 No liquefaction effects. N
29 Dacheng, Deyang 0.32 0.24 6.8 4.5 23.1 22.4 No liquefaction effects. N
30 Ming’an, Deyang 0.25 0.21 8.2 3.7 17.7 16.8 No liquefaction effects. N
31 Wufan, Mianzhu 0.27 0.24 4.6 2.0 18.3 23.4 No liquefaction effects. N
32 Yangjia, Deyang 0.20 0.13 7.4 6.1 22.5 19.9 No liquefaction effects. N
33 Linfa, Mianzhu 0.47 0.35 6.3 4.3 19.5 19.5 No liquefaction effects. N
34 Business College, 0.27 0.21 3.5 2.3 18.0 24.4 No liquefaction effects. N
Dujiangyan
35 Guangkou, Chengdu 0.31 0.23 3.8 2.7 23.7 30.3 No liquefaction effects. N
36 Jushui, Mianyang 0.44 0.48 4.1 0.8 41.4 61.8 No liquefaction effects. N
37 Pengzhou 0.26 0.20 2.1 1.4 21.9 38.2 No liquefaction effects. N
38 Ruikan, Dujiangyan 0.31 0.22 6.9 5.4 48.0 44.5 No liquefaction effects. N
39 Zipingpu, Dujiangyan 0.37 0.28 4.2 3.0 23.4 28.4 No liquefaction effects. N
40 Yutang, Dujiangyan 0.32 0.24 2.0 1.5 22.5 39.2 No liquefaction effects. N
41 Youxian, Mianyang 0.20 0.15 6.1 4.1 6.3 6.4 No liquefaction effects. N
42 Sandaoyan village, Pixian 0.18 0.15 4.2 2.1 21.6 28.2 No liquefaction effects. N
43 Majiamiao village, Pixian 0.20 0.15 3.2 2.4 21.3 29.3 No liquefaction effects. N
44 Shitimiao village, Pixian 0.18 0.14 7.0 4.0 30.9 30.4 No liquefaction effects. N
45 Yongshen village, Pixian 0.17 0.15 7.1 3.4 19.5 19.7 No liquefaction effects. N
46 Jingyu village, Pixian 0.20 0.16 2.6 1.5 9.0 14.5 No liquefaction effects. N
47 Qingbaijiang Bridge, 0.21 0.15 3.7 3.0 28.2 35.4 No liquefaction effects. N
Pengzhou
Note: ds 5 depth of gravelly soils; dw 5 depth of water table.

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 Dynamic Penetration Test Liquefaction
Resistance Curves
The simplified procedure published by Seed and Idriss (1971) and
updated by Seed et al. (1985), Youd et al. (2001), Cetin et al. (2004),
and Idriss and Boulanger (2008) is the most widely used procedure,
worldwide, for evaluating liquefaction resistance of granular soils.
In this procedure, factors of safety (FS) against triggering of liq-
uefaction are defined as the cyclic resistance ratio (CRR), a capacity
function, divided by the cyclic stress ratio (CSR), a demand function.
The CSR is defined by the following equation:


CSR ¼ 0:65 ðPGA=gÞ sv =s9v rd (2)
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The probability of gravelly soil liquefaction is expressed as
  1
PL X ¼ (3)
1 þ exp½2ðu0 þ u1 x1 þ ⋯ þ un xn Þ
where x1 , x2 , and xn are significant soil property parameters that
influence liquefaction resistance; in this instance, cyclic stress ratio
CSR and corrected DPT blow count, N9120 . Even though gravel content
should be a significant factor, gravel content was excluded from this
analysis because of lack of accurate grain-size data. The vectors
u0 , u1 , . . . un are model parameters determined by logistic regression.
u0 , u1 , . . . un are estimated through maximization of the like-
lihood function L, which is given by
m
LðX; uÞ ¼ ∏ ½PL ðXÞyi ½1 2 PL ðXÞ12yi
i¼1

!yi
m
where PGA 5 peak ground acceleration, g 5 acceleration of gravity, ¼∏   1 
sv 5 total overburden pressure at the depth of the liquefiable layer, i¼1 1 þ exp 2 u0 þ u1 N9120 þ u2 lnðCSRÞ
s9v 5 effective overburden pressure at the depth of the liquefiable    !12yi
layer, and rd 5 a stress reduction coefficient that accounts for exp 2 u0 þ u1 N9120 þ u2 lnðCSRÞ
   
flexibility of the soil column above the liquefiable layer. 1 þ exp 2 u0 þ u1 N9120 þ u2 lnðCSRÞ
CRR is empirically correlated with penetration resistances of
granular soils at test sites, with and without surface effects of liq- (4)
uefaction. Originally, CRR was correlated against corrected stan- where m 5 the number of data in the sample (Table 1, 47 sites); yi 5
dard penetration resistance, ðN1 Þ60cs but has recently been correlated a binary variable equal to 1 for sites with surface-liquefaction effects
against corrected cone penetration tip resistance, qc1N , and corrected and 0 for sites without surface-liquefaction effects. To maximize
measured shear wave velocity, Vsl . In this paper, CRR is corre- LðX; uÞ, the partial derivative of ln LðX; uÞ is made equal to zero. Vectors
lated against corrected DPT penetration resistance, N9120 [Eq. (1)]. u0 , u1 , and u2 , respectively, are obtained by solving the equations
To generate a correlation between CRR and DPT, penetration
resistance, N9120 , values (column 8, Table 1) were plotted against ∂ln½LðX; uÞ
CSR values (column 4, Table 1) to generate the graph plotted in ¼0 i ¼ 0, 1, 2 (5)
∂ui
Fig. 14. On this plot, data from sites with observed liquefaction i.e.,
effects are marked with solid circles and data from sites without
observed effects are marked with open circles. As noted pre- h
i
viously, there may be some false negatives in this dataset; that is,
∂ln½LðX; uÞ P
m exp 2 u 0 þ u1 N9
1 202j þ u2 lnCSRj
sites where liquefaction occurred, but without generating surface ¼ h
i
effects. The plotted data were analyzed using logistic regression ∂u0 j¼1 1 þ exp 2 u0 þ u1 N91202j þ u2 lnCSRj
procedures (Liao et al. 1988; Youd and Noble 1997) to define
P
nm
probabilistic liquefaction resistance functions, as described in the 2 1¼0 (6)
following paragraphs. j¼1

Fig. 14. Probabilistic liquefaction triggering curves for gravelly soils

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∂ln½LðX; uÞ P m N91202j  exp 2 u0 þ u1 N91202j þ u2 ln CSRj
¼   
∂u1 j¼1 1 þ exp 2 u0 þ u1 N91202j þ u2 ln CSRj
P
nm
2 N91202j ¼ 0
j¼1
(7)
  
∂ln½LðX; uÞ P m ln CSRj exp 2 u0 þ u1 N91202j þ u2 ln CSRj
¼   
∂u2 j¼1 1 þ exp 2 u0 þ u1 N91202j þ u2 ln CSRj
P
nm
2 ln CSRj ¼ 0
j¼1
(8)
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where m 5 47, the total number of data (sites) in the dataset and nm 5
the number of nonliquefied sites (nm 5 28). N91202j 5 the corrected
dynamic penetration resistance for site number j; In CSRj 5 the
natural log of cyclic stress ratio for site j.
The vectors u0 , u1 , and u2 were obtained by solving the previous
equations, which yields the following values: u0 5 8:40, u1 5 20:35,
and u2 5 2:12.
From this analysis, the probability function for liquefaction can
be expressed as
PL ¼   1  (9)
1 þ exp 2 8:40 2 0:35N9120 þ 2:12 ln ðCSRÞ
or
ln½PL =ð1 2 PL Þ ¼ 28:40 þ 0:35N9120 2 2:12 ln ðCSRÞ (10)
The logistic correlation, Eq. (10), is generally corroborated by the
following facts: Data from 15 of 19 sites with surface liquefaction
effects (79%) plot on or above the PL 5 50% curve; similarly, data
from 17 out of 19 (89%) liquefaction sites plot on or above the PL 5
30% curve. Data from 23 of 28 (82%) sites without surface liq-
uefaction effects plot on or below the PL 5 50% curve and 26 of 28
nonliquefaction sites (93%) plot on or below the PL 5 70% curve.
Thus, the probabilistic correlation is generally verified for gravelly
soils beneath the Chengdu plain area shaken by the 2008 Wenchuan
earthquake (M 5 7:9).
This relationship may be used for other sites underlain by
gravelly soils with soil types similar to the soils that liquefied
during the Wenchuan earthquake, i.e., gravels of Holocene
age ( ∼ 7,000 years old) and an earthquake with a of magnitude
of 7.9.
Conclusions
Following the 2008 Wenchuan, China, earthquake (Ms 5 8:0,
Mw 5 7:9), investigators from the Institute of Engineering Me-
chanics (IEM), China Earthquake Administration (CEA) observed
118 sites with surface-liquefaction effects, mostly on the Chengdu
plain and in the Mianyang area to the northeast. Following the
reconnaissance, two types of field tests [multiple channel analysis
of surface waves (MASW)] (Cao et al. 2011) and dynamic pene-
tration tests (DPT) (this paper) were conducted at 19 sites with
liquefaction effects and 28 nearby sites without liquefaction effects.
Because soil samples are not obtained with DPT, boreholes with
continuous core sampling were drilled near many DPT sounding
to define the soil profile. Nearly all of the tested sites are underlain
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J. Geotech. Geoenviron. Eng. 2013.139:1320-1333.
by gravel. The results from this investigation lead to the following
findings:
1. Chinese DPT, which has been in use in China for more than
50 years, was used for the first time to measure penetration
resistance of gravelly soils that liquefied. Results from these
tests were used to develop probabilistic criteria for estimation
of liquefaction resistance of the gravelly soils (Fig. 14).
2. Data from 79% of sites with surface liquefaction effects plot
above the 50% probability curve (Fig. 14) and 82% of data
from sites without surface-liquefaction effects plot below the
50% probability curve, corroborating that Eq. (10) is generally
valid for gravels beneath the Chengdu plain.
3. For sites with surface-liquefaction effects, the layers that
liquefied were identified as the layer below the water table
with the lowest average DPT penetration resistance. For sites
without surface-liquefaction effects, the layer below the water
table with the lowest average DPT resistance was identified as
the most liquefiable layer, but those layers were assumed not to
have liquefied during the Wenchuan earthquake.
4. The investigated sites were underlain primarily by cobbley
gravels with mean grain sizes ranging from 1 mm to more
than 30 mm.
5. The DPT readily penetrated gravelly sediments to depths of
7 m–15 m, including all tested gravel layers that liquefied.
6. The DPT is a robust, efficient, and effective test for measure-
ment of penetration resistance in gravelly soils for liquefaction
hazard investigations. With further development, the DPT
could become a useful test for measurement of penetration
resistance of gravelly soils in other parts of the world, in-
cluding the United States and other countries where liquefac-
tion resistance of gravels is an important issue.
Acknowledgments
This research was jointly supported by the National Natural
Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 41272357, 51208477)
and the International Collaborative Project of Ministry of Science
and Technology of People’s Republic of China (Grant No.
2009DFA71720). The US Bureau of Reclamation provided the pile
driving analyzer (PDA) used in this study.
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