Proceedings of Indian Geotechnical Conference 2020

December 17-19, 2020, Andhra University, Visakhapatnam

Visakhapatnam Chapter

Performance Evaluation and Dynamic behavior of High-

rise building by considering Soil Liquefaction due to
Quake loads

1[0000-1111-2222-3333]
and Second Author2[1111-2222-3333-4444]
1
Princeton University, Princeton NJ 08544, USA
2
Springer Heidelberg, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg, Germany
lncs@springer.com

Abstract. Present work aims to study the damages during liquefaction

phenomena.  Liquefaction is a phenomenon in which the strength and stiffness
of a soil is reduced by earthquake shaking or other rapid loading. Liquefaction
and related phenomena have been responsible for tremendous amounts of
damage in structures. Liquefaction occurs in saturated soils, that is, soils in
which the space between individual particles is completely filled with water.
This water exerts a pressure on the soil particles that influences how tightly the
particles themselves are pressed together. A typical High-rise G+10 story
building is considered with different foundation soil properties and is modeled
in sophisticated FEM tool. Nonlinear dynamic analysis is performed to estimate
seismic structural deformations. The performance criteria for analysis are
generally established as spectral displacement amplitude. The seismic response
of RC building frame in terms of performance point and the effect of
earthquake forces on multi story building frame with the help Dynamic analysis
will be studied along with Post liquefaction soil conditions.

Keywords: PLAXIS 3D; STAAD; Dynamic Analysis; Finite Element Method;

Liquefaction:.

1 Introduction

When a soil loses its shear strength due to pore water pressure, the soil is said to
liquefy. In the literature, liquefaction is also associated with large strains and
deformations. In this sense, the soil does not lose its shear strength completely but is
unable to support a structure on it. The consequence of liquefaction in the field is the
collapse of the structure built on loose saturated cohesion less soil due to vibration
and cyclic loading.
Over the years, the most serious damage caused by earthquakes has been due to
soil liquefaction of soil. When an intense earthquake shakes a loose, saturated soil, the
grain structure tends to consolidate into a more compact packing. Since all these
movements happen at a very fast rate, there is no chance for the volume to reduce
 Proceedings of Indian Geotechnical Conference 2020
December 17-19, 2020, Andhra University, Visakhapatnam

through pore water dissipation. In the ideal sense, the incompressible pore water then
takes the applied pressure, the effective pressure reaches zero and becomes
"liquefied". Because the fluid does not possess shear strength, devastating results can
occur.
Seismic loading can be small pressure or large pressure load. At normal levels, the
behavior under static loading and cyclic loading are different. During cyclic loading,
soil strength can be reduced. The response varies depending on the frequency of
loading, especially in the case of saturated soils. For saturated soils, under seismic
loading, the behavior is unsatisfactory. Non-linear materials in soil have properties
with limited strength and often, this strength decreases under cyclic loading
conditions. However, most often, the soil is considered as a visco-elastic material.

The primary objective of present study is to systematically determine the seismic

response of RC building frame in terms of performance point and the effect of
earthquake forces on multi storey building frame with the help dynamic analysis with
post liquefaction soil conditions.
Maheshwari et al. (2013) investigated the dynamic properties of different soil types
by performing series of undrained cyclic triaxial tests. The authors observed that
variation in shear modulus ratio with shear strain was large for the samples collected
from deeper depth. In general, at low shear strain (0.075%), shear modulus ratio
increased and damping ratio decreased with the depth of soil sample. However, at
high shear strain (1%), difference in the shear modulus ratio for samples collected
from different depths was reduced significantly. Thus, at higher shear strains, non-
linear effects play a vital role.

Several research works have been conducted to investigate the dynamic properties
and to some extent pre- and post-cyclic response of unsaturated fine-grained soils,
mainly silts (Mun 2004; Altun and Goktepe 2006; Hoyos et al. 2008; Alla 2009;
Yasuhara et al. 2011; Ruttanaporamakul 2012; Bravo 2013; Ng et al. 2013; Wang et
al. 2013; Ng and Zhou 2014). Yang et al. (2008) and Ng et al. (2013) carried out
suction-controlled cyclic triaxial tests to measure the resilient modulus (M R) of
unsaturated soil. All the soil specimens were prepared at the same initial water
content. From the same initial state, soil specimens were dried or wetted to states with
different suctions before the application of cyclic stresses.
Because of the combination of axial- and lateral-loading on piles during or after a
seismic event as a result of superstructure inertial force and lateral soil spreading,
respectively, the influence of the axial load, P, in association with lateral loads D, is
dominated by the excessive moment caused by the P-D effect combined with lateral
forces with or without lateral spreading (Maheshwari and Sarkar 2011; Haldar and
Babu 2010; Ashour and Ardalan 2011).

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1.1 Soil Liquefaction Mechanism

To understand liquefaction, it is important to identify the conditions in the soil

deposit prior to the earthquake. A soil deposit consists of the deposition of individual
soil particles and each cell is associated with many neighboring cells. The weight of
the overlapping soil cells produces contact force between the cells - these forces hold
the individual cells and give the soil its strength.
Liquefaction occurs when the loose, saturated sand structure breaks down due to
rapid loading. As the structure breaks down, the loosely filled individual clay particles
try to move into a denser configuration. In an earthquake, there is not enough time to
squeeze water into the soil holes. Instead, water is “trapped” and prevents soil cells
from moving closer together.

1.2 Governing factors of liquefaction potential

The liquefaction potential of a site depends on

 The size of the earthquake generally measured by the surface wave

magnitude;
 The distance of the earthquake from the site measured as epicentral
distance or fault distance, preferably the fault distance;
 The SPT value of the cohesion less soil deposit;
 The position of the water table with respect to the deposit.

2 Model Description

PLAXIS 3D is a special purpose three-dimensional finite element program used to

perform deformation, stability and flow analysis for various types of geotechnical
applications. The program uses a convenient graphical user interface that enables
quick generation of a geometry model and finite element mesh.
Structures are usually much harder and stronger than clay. In many cases, the
calculation of the actual deformation and structural forces in those structures with real
strength and strength properties is still relevant to the model structures. Soil and rock
tend to behave in a highly non-linear way under load. This non-linear stress-strain
behaviour is modelled at several levels of sophistication.

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Fig 1. PLAXIS model

Fig 2. Descritization of model

System to study the dynamic behavior constituting soil model of size 80m x 80m x
10m with G+4 storey structure of area 225 square meters with footing depth 2m
modeled at top of soil in FEM analysis engine PLAXIS 3D.
Four models of Sandy and Clayey soils with Ground water table at different depths
are considered for study.

Table 1. Models description

Model 1 Sandy soil with GWT at 2m depth.
Model 2 Clayey soil with GWT at 2m depth.
Model 3 Sandy soil with GWT at 10m depth.
Model 4 Clayey soil with GWT at 10m depth.

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 Proceedings of Indian Geotechnical Conference 2020
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Soil model has been done by inputting borehole data. Fundamentally two type
damping could be considered i.e. Material damping and Rayleigh damping for soil
model. In current study Material damping with Hysteresis effect due to soil
constitutive model called HS small soil model was considered.

Fig. 3 General properties of Sand

Fig. 4. Advanced properties of Sand

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Fig.5 General properties of Clay

Fig. 6 Advanced properties of Sand

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2.1 Workflow

Typical workflow for analysis and modeling was followed here. Initially
substructure soil model was created and thereafter building model with Mat
foundation.
Overall load of structure on foundation was calculated by sophisticated structural
analysis and design tool Bentley STAAD Pro. Calculated loads have been applied at
designated locations of columns. Workflow of analysis and modeling is expressed in
fig 3 and fig 4 as below.

One of the predominant parts of analysis is consideration of stages of construction.

Current study considers mainly 3 stages of construction and is explained below.
1. Initial stage- Analysis was carried out only for soil model without loads of the
Building.
2. Phase 1 stage- Analysis was carried out with building and surface loads
3. Phase 2 stage - Analysis was carried out for Dynamic analysis with earthquake
loads.

FLOW STAGED
STRUCTU
SOIL RE MESH CONDITI CONSTRUCTI
ON ON
Fig 7. Typical Workflow of Analysis

Defination of
Construction
Stages
Defination of Model
structural
element, load and
Boundry
condition Creation of FE Mesh

Defination of Soli
Stratigraphy

Fig 8. Typical Workflow of Model making

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 Proceedings of Indian Geotechnical Conference 2020
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2.2 Time history for seismic analysis

The time-history analysis is the most accurate method to predict the force and
deformation demands at various components of the model. The computation time, the
time required for input preparation, and interpreting the voluminous output, makes the
use of the inelastic time history analysis difficult for seismic performance evaluation.
Currents study uses EI Centro earthquake Time history data to study the dynamic
behavior of Soil-Structure model. To achieve great accuracy of analytical results,
High number of steps of analysis 1400 steps with 32 seconds of maximum time of
earthquake for analysis was considered.

3 Results and Discussions

To study the effect of underlying soil and ground water table location, four models are
considered. Clayey soil with GWT at 2m depth and GWT at 10m depth, sandy soil
with GWT at 2m depth and GWT at 10m depth. The deflections, stresses and pore
water pressure developed are presented in Table 2.
The results show that the maximum pore water pressure was observed for sandy soil
when GWT was at 2 m depth. When ground water level is at shallow depth, the soil
tends to be in saturated condition and pore water pressure to build up in the saturated
soil. This results in rearrangement of soil particles and the gravity loading is
transferred from the mineral skeleton to the pore water, leading to reduction in the
capacity of the soil to resist loading.
When the groundwater level is at a deep level, the soil remains in partially
saturated state and both pore water as well as pore air pressure exist. The effective
stress is relatively larger when compared with the soil which is fully saturated. In
addition, when the degree of saturation of the soil is low, and a large amount of pore
air exists, the air can get compressed and as a result, the deformation during seismic
loads is less.
The deflection and stresses are observed to be more in the case of sandy soil with
shallow ground water table at a depth of 2 m. The defection and stresses were 108.08
mm and 313.3kN/m2. Minimum deflection of 45.6 mm and stresses of 239.7kN/m 2
were observed clayey soil with water table at 10m. below the ground level. The fine
soil present in the soil tend to occupy the voids and prevent building of porewater
pressure which helps in lessening the effect of liquefaction.

Table.2 Displacement stress and excess pore water pressure in different models
Excess Pore water
Model Name Max displacement Stresses Acceleration
Pressure

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MAX X Y
X mm Y mm kN/m2 kN/m2
kN/m2 mm/sec2 mm/sec2
Model-I 52.84 108.08 313.9 93.45 102.82 0 225.46
31.04
Model-II 61.96 269.8 76.076 80.324 0 120.238
7
Model-III 46.5 68.48 282.1 81.79 76.18 0 73.24
Model-IV 26.97 45.86 239.7 57.863 40.236 0 10.62

Max displacement
120

100
Displacement mm

80

60 X mm
Y mm
40

20

0
Model-I Model-II Model-III Model-IV
Type of Model

Fig.9 Maximum Displacement graph

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Fig.10 Maximum Displacement

Stresses
350

300

250
Stress (Kn/mm2)

200
#REF!
150 MAX

100

50

0
Model-I Model-II Model-III Model-IV
Type of model

Fig.11 Developed Stresses in Models

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Fig.12 Principal Stresses in Models

Accelaration
120

100
Accelaration (mm/sec2)

80

60 X
Y
40

20

0
Model-I Model-II Model-III Model-IV
Type of Model

Fig.13 Induced Acceleration in Models

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Excess Porewater Pressure

250

200
Stress (Kn/mm2)

150
MAX
100

50

0
Model-I Model-II Model-III Model-IV
Type of model

Fig.14 Excessive porewater pressure graph

Fig.15 Excessive porewater pressure

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4 Conclusions

 Assessment of the liquefaction potential of a soil is important for to

ensure the safety of the structure while planning a new construction.
The ground water table location plays an important role in building
excess pore water pressure leading to soil liquefaction when subjected
to ground motions.
 From analytical study results it is evident that, depth of Ground water
table has significant impact on overall dynamic behaviour of soil
deposits and liquefaction capacity of the soil.
 Study models of Sandy soil layers shows 52.84mm displacement in
lateral X-direction and 108.08mm in lateral Y-direction at ground
water table at depth of 2m whereas for ground water table at depth of
10m it experiences 46.5mm and 18.48mm in lateral X-direction and
lateral y-direction respectively.
 Considerable reductions in displacements have been observed i.e.
12% in lateral X-direction and 36.7 % in lateral Y-direction when the
GWT is at a depth of 10m below the footing level.
 The same dynamic behaviour could also be observed in study models
of clayey soil with 13.13% displacement reduction in lateral X-
direction and 25.98% displacement reduction in lateral Y-direction.
 The maximum principal stresses will be reducing as there is increase
in GWT depth. Study results shown 10.13% reduction in maximum
principal stresses for sandy soil deposits whereas 11.15% reduction in
clayey soil deposits with increment of GWT.
 The decrement in Excess pore water pressure is high with increase in
depth of GWT i.e 67.5% for sandy deposits and 91% for clayey
deposits.
 It is evident that with the decrease in depth of GWT, Excess pore
water pressure considerably increases and which intern expedites
liquefaction phenomena during strong earthquake ground motions.

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