Numerical simulation of observed liquefaction phenomena from the 2011 Christchurch (New Zealand) event

Abstract

Soil liquefaction at the ground often cause damages to various infrastructure assets. Its consequences have been widely made evident by the performance of the Telecommunication Network Services during the 2010-2011 Canterbury Earthquake Sequence (CES) which stroke the Canterbury region in New Zealand. Despite the relevance of loss of functionality of the telecommunication system, especially during the post-event recovery phase, studies in the literature on the network performance about damages due to liquefaction are still limited. Exploring an unprecedented database of in-situ geotechnical inspections collected after the CES, this research first compares alternative empirical liquefaction-triggering models available in the literature with observation maps. Then, a soil column profile is evaluated adopting a constitutive model based on generalised plasticity (‘modified Pastor-Zienkiewicz’) through a Finite Element based home-developed code. The obtained results from the numerical models are finally crosschecked with the empirical analyses, the existing liquefaction investigation maps and field observations collected in the aftermath of the CES