The Effects of Band-Limited White Noise Excitation on Liquefaction Potential in Large-Scale Tests.

During earthquakes, ground movement can cause soils to lose strength or stiffness resulting in structures settling and embankments sliding. A phenomenon contributing to this loss in strength and subsequent failures is called soil liquefaction. This title, however, does not refer to a single well-defined event, but rather to a complex set of interrelated phenomena which contribute to the occurrence of damage and and failures during an earthquake. Numerous investigators have tried to model and predict the potential and probability of liquefaction occurring in soils. Since the early 1960s considerable attention has been given to the development of laboratory testing procedures to provide improved methods of characterizing the liquefaction properties of soils. Various test apparatus have been designed or modified in an attempt to provide an accurate representation of the stress state generated in-situ by earthquakes. To this end a number of experimental devices including the cyclic triaxial, and cyclic simple shear with repeatable representation of conditions in-situ during an actual earthquake.