Tutorial 12 Liquefaction Analysis

• Liquefaction input data

• Liquefaction analysis options
• Graphing liquefaction results
Settle3D v.4.0 Tutorial Manual Tutorial 12: Liquefaction Analysis

Defining the Model

Start the Settle3D program.

Project Settings
Open the Project Settings dialog from the Analysis menu. Keep the default Stress unit =
Metric, stress as kPa and Settlement = Millimeters as shown.

Click on the Liquefaction tab. Turn Liquefaction on. A dialog will pop up indicating that the
Groundwater option will be turned on, since it is required for liquefaction analyses. Click
OK.

Leave the Insitu Data as Standard Penetration Test (SPT).

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Settle3D v.4.0 Tutorial Manual Tutorial 12: Liquefaction Analysis

Click OK to close the dialog.

Soil Properties
A liquefaction analysis can be run independent of the total settlement analysis. In this
tutorial we will use four different materials to illustrate the graphing options, but we will
keep the default material properties for each.

Select Soil Properties from the Soils menu, and the Soil Properties dialog will appear.

Click on the Liquefaction button, near the bottom of the dialog. The Liquefaction
Parameters dialog will pop up, where you can specify Fines Content (%) and D50 (mm)
values. There is also a Prone to Liquefaction checkbox which indicates whether or not to
include the layer in the liquefaction calculations. We will keep the default values for all
layers in this tutorial.

Click OK to close the dialog.

Soil Layers
Select Soil Layers from the Soils menu, and the Soil Layers dialog will appear.

Click on Insert Layer Below three times. The layers will fill in with the correct names
automatically.

Specify the following layers:

Click OK to close the dialog.

Groundwater Input Data

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Settle3D v.4.0 Tutorial Manual Tutorial 12: Liquefaction Analysis

Select Add Piezometric Line from the Groundwater menu. In the dialog box that appears,
set Depth (m) = 1 and press Enter. Select the four material types used, and click OK.

Liquefaction Analysis
Now that we have defined the soil strata we will enter the input required for the
liquefaction analysis.

Input Data
Select Options from the Liquefaction menu and the Liquefaction Options dialog will pop up.
Note that this dialog is tailored to the Insitu Data type selected in the Project Settings.

In the General tab, we will use the default earthquake data:

Max. Earthquake Acceleration = 0.5g

Earthquake Magnitude = 7.5
Distance from Fault = 15km
Slope Angle = 0 degrees

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Settle3D v.4.0 Tutorial Manual Tutorial 12: Liquefaction Analysis

Go to the Input Data tab and enter the depth and SPT data shown in the table. You have the
option to use custom fines content. We will not use that option in this tutorial.

Depth SPT (N) Depth SPT (N)

(m) (m)
0.5 5 12.5 30
1 8 13 27
1.5 12 13.5 23
2 10 14 25
2.5 13 14.5 27
3 15 15 28
3.5 20 15.5 33
4 28 16 35
4.5 32 16.5 37
5 30 17 34
5.5 30 17.5 31
6 25 18 35
6.5 26 18.5 30
7 24 19 33
7.5 22 19.5 36
8 25 20 38
8.5 26 20.5 40
9 22 21 36
9.5 25 21.5 40
10 25 22 35
10.5 27 22.5 42
11 28 23 37
11.5 30 23.5 40
12 35 24 45

Note that you can also import your set of SPT data from a .lfn file, or you can copy and
paste into the dialog.

The dialog should appear as below.

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In the
Depth Correction tab, you specify the sampling method used as well as the depth correction
method to use.

Correction factors are also provided for Borehole Diameter (Cb) and Hammer Energy Ratio
(Ce). Click on the icons beside each factor and a dialog of typical values for each factor will
pop up.

If you select Use Cetin et al. (Cr), the Rod Length Above Ground input will be greyed out.

For this tutorial, click on the Depth Correction (Cn) and Sampling Method (Cs) checkboxes.
Click on the dropdown menus to see the numerous methods that are available. For this
tutorial, we will use the default methods.

In the Advanced tab, the remainder of the scaling factors are selected. Select the scaling
factors to match those shown in the picture below.

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Settle3D v.4.0 Tutorial Manual Tutorial 12: Liquefaction Analysis

Click OK to close the dialog box.

Liquefaction Analysis Options

Select Analysis Options from the Liquefaction menu. In the dialog that pops up you will
select the Triggering, Settlement, and Lateral Displacement calculation methods. It can be
useful to use the Select All option for each of these, since in the liquefaction graph you can
hide any of the analysis options that you don’t want to see.

Click Select All for all three, and click OK to close the dialog.

Graphing Liquefaction Data

In Settle3D you need to insert a Query Point in order to be able to carry out liquefaction
analyses.

Select Add Query Point from the Query menu. Keep the default choice of Automatic
selected for Number of Vertical Points. Click OK to close the dialog. Click anywhere in the
centre of the screen to insert the query point.

Right-click on the query and select Graph Liquefaction. The Plot Liquefaction dialog will
appear. Keep the default settings, but notice that you can choose to plot liquefaction for
more than one stage.

Click OK to graph the liquefaction results.

Another window will open with the liquefaction analysis results. There will be three tabs:
Data, Triggering, and Post Triggering. Each of these tabs has three graphs. The graphs are all
fully customizable. On the right side of the tab are the Chart Controls, where all the
customization options are located.

In the Chart Options section of Chart Controls notice the Show Soil Layers checkbox. When
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this is selected, the soil layers are displayed behind the plotted results.

In the Data tab, the SPT N Value, Stress Reduction Coefficient, and Relative Density (%) are
graphed.

Click on the Triggering tab to view graphs of CSR and CRR, Factor of Safety, and Probability
of Liquefaction.

When you open the Triggering tab, the Triggering Series options in Chart Controls appear.

First look at the Factor of Safety Value (default value = 1) and the red dotted line that is
drawn on the Factor of Safety graph. Change the Factor of Safety to 0.8 and notice that the
dotted line moves to that value. Set the Factor of Safety to 1. The next option, Factor of
Safety Threshold, is used to draw the Factor of Safety Bands. The Factor of Safety Bands
extend from (Factor of Safety Value – Factor of Safety Threshold) to (Factor of Safety Value
+ Factor of Safety Threshold). Change the Factor of Safety Threshold a few times to see
what happens. Note that the Factor of Safety Bands can also be turned off.
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Settle3D v.4.0 Tutorial Manual Tutorial 12: Liquefaction Analysis

Looking at the Probability of Liquefaction (%) graph, you have the option to turn on/off the
Probability of Liquefaction Bands. By default, these bands are turned on, and Probability of
Liquefaction Upper Limit = 70% while Probability of Liquefaction Lower Limit = 30%. You can
change these values, but we will keep the default values in this tutorial.

The remainder of the options in the Triggering Series section of Chart Controls are for the
different calculation methods.

Click on the Post Triggering tab to view graphs of Max Shear Strain (%), Lateral
Displacement Index (cm), and Settlement (cm).

The Post Liquefaction Series display options are now shown in Chart Controls.

The first option is the Method to Calculate Post Liquefaction Parameters. Click on the
currently used option Seed (1983) to open the dropdown menu. A total of five methods are
available.

The rest of the options are checkboxes which control the plotted calculation methods.

This concludes the Liquefaction Tutorial.

Further Exercises
In this tutorial we examined liquefaction without any load. Add a load, and observe the
effect it has on the analysis results.

References
Idriss, I.M., and Boulanger, R.W. 2008 Soil Liquefaction During Earthquakes. EERI.

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