Comparison of different liquefaction assessment methods with data from the 2010-2011 Canterbury Earthquake sequence

Soil liquefaction has caused substantial infrastructure damage in recent earthquakes. For instance, during the 2010-2011 Canterbury Earthquake Sequence (CES), in New Zealand, liquefaction-induced damage to buried cables resulted in service interruption of the telecommunication network. Being part of a broader investigation of the seismic risk of buried infrastructure, this paper aims to investigate the geotechnical data collected after the CES. First, using geotechnical information published in the New Zealand Geotechnical database (NZGD), a comparison between several semi-empirical liquefaction triggering assessment methods available in the literature is carried. Then, using a FLAC software, different soil profiles are analysed adopting the Martin et al.(1975) constitutive model for the sandy soil behaviour, which takes into account the accumulated volumetric strains with the cyclic loading. Finally, the numerical simulation results are compared with the ones obtained from the empirical analysis, the existing liquefaction investigations maps and field observations collected in the aftermath of the sequence.