Effect of Fines Type and Content of Sand on Correlation Between Shear Wave Velocity and Liquefaction Resistance

The use of shear wave velocity (Vs) measurements as an in situ test for evaluation of liquefaction potential has increased substantially due to its advantages. Relatively large numbers of studies have been performed to establish the correlation between Vs and liquefaction resistance (CRR) of clean sands. Usually, natural sands contain silt and/or clay, and previous studies have shown that both the amount of fines and their nature influence the values of CRR as well as Vs. Therefore, the CRR–Vs correlations may also be affected by fines content and type of sandy soils. However, effect of fines content and especially fines type of sandy soils on the correlation between Vs and CRR is inadequately addressed in the literature. In this study, cyclic triaxial and bender element tests were conducted on samples of sand containing various amounts of different types of fines, and the effects of fines on the values of CRR and Vs are investigated. The results show that G0 and CRR reduce even when small amounts of fines are added to sand. Therefore, use of plasticity index (PI) of the fines fraction is better than the PI of the overall soil when trying to assess the effects of fines. Using obtained experimental data as well as the established semiempirical CRR–Vs relationship, the CRR–Vs correlation was developed for all the tested soils, and the effect of fines type on the correlation is also examined. Based on the results obtained in this study, CRR–Vs correlation is affected by both the amount and the plasticity of the fines present in the sand, and this correlation is soil specific. © 2016, Springer International Publishing Switzerland.