Liquefaction case studies of gravelly soils during the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake

Abstract The 2008 Wenchuan earthquake caused widespread liquefaction of gravelly soils (i.e., gravelly sands and sandy gravels), which phenomena show many differences compared to those of typical sands. To study the liquefaction mechanism and triggering evaluation of gravelly soils during this event, comprehensive case studies with measurement of shear wave velocity on both liquefied and non-liquefied sites were carried out according to a suite of recommended procedures for site investigation, field testing and data processing. Three typical cases were provided to illustrate the distinct characteristics of ground motion, liquefaction manifestation, soil profiles and field testing, and explore the possible mechanisms of liquefaction. Eighty-one well identified case histories were obtained, which feature the updated estimation of ground motion parameters from the USGS ShakeMap and the probabilistic treatment of the datasets. The preliminary analyses on liquefaction triggering boundary curves, shear wave velocities of these case histories and the applicability of the Ishihara criterion (1985) indicate that the gravel content plays a key role in the liquefaction mechanism and the consequences of gravelly soil deposits, and the liquefaction evaluation of gravelly sands and sandy gravels should be treated separately.