Comparison of simplified and more refined analyses of seismic settlements

The expected seismic settlement of a thick layer of reworked sands calculated using CPT data and the method suggested by Zhang et al. (2002) is compared with the expected settlement calculated using site specific laboratory test data and bi-directional nonlinear effective stress site response analyses using site specific acceleration histories. The smaller settlements obtained using the more refined calculation had a significant impact on the economics of the proposed development.