Flagship Programme 2

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Liquefaction Impacts on Land and Infrastructure

Leader: Misko Cubrinovski
Deputy Leader: Rolando Orense & Sjoerd van Ballegooy
Industry Representative:
Sjoerd van Ballegooy

This flagship will develop new approaches and methodologies for quantification of impacts of soil liquefaction on land and infrastructure through a fundamental understanding of onset and consequences of liquefaction; and use these methods to assess liquefaction impacts throughout Aotearoa New Zealand and their potential to be mitigated.  These novel methods will represent a major advance in the field, and will provide means for a robust assessment and treatment of liquefaction hazards at both site-specific and regional levels.


Key Thrust Areas

 
 

1: Liquefaction Evaluation: Beyond Current State-of-Art-and-Practice

Development and improvement of liquefaction assessment methods (Liquefaction Evaluation: Beyond Current State-of-Art and Practice). Utilise the exceptional databases compiled during Canterbury and Kaikoura Earthquakes, and obtain additional high-quality data where needed, to develop new or improve existing liquefaction evaluation procedures (field, laboratory and analytical tools and methodologies) that will adequately address current and future society needs for performance of land and infrastructure during earthquakes.

    • Deliverable 1.1: 100%
    • Develop methodologies for assessment of liquefaction susceptibility and triggering; liquefaction-induced ground deformation.
      Timeline: 1/01/2016 - 31/12/2020
    • Deliverable 1.2: 100%
    • Integrate field, laboratory and computational tools to develop next-generation liquefaction methods and procedures.
      Timeline: 1/01/2016 - 31/12/2020
 

2: Liquefaction Vulnerability of New Zealand Land and Infrastructure

Identify critical issues and ground conditions related to liquefaction impacts on infrastructure, including characterisation of important but challenging Aotearoa New Zealand soils, and the development of adequate assessment procedures and cost-effective mitigation strategies.

    • Deliverable 2.1: 100%
    • Examine, through field and laboratory investigation, typical Aotearoa New Zealand soils that are challenging for liquefaction assessment (silty soils, pumiceous soils and gravelly soils; soil composition, soil micro-structure, ground conditions, details, overall deposit characteristics).
      Timeline: 1/01/2016 - 31/12/2019
    • Deliverable 2.1: 100%
    • Examine, through field and laboratory investigation, typical Aotearoa New Zealand soils that are challenging for liquefaction assessment (silty soils, pumiceous soils and gravelly soils; soil composition, soil micro-structure, ground conditions, details, overall deposit characteristics).
      Timeline: 1/01/2016 - 31/12/2019
    • Deliverable 2.3: 100%
    • Develop liquefaction assessment procedures for challenging soils.
      Timeline: 1/01/2018 - 31/12/2020
    • Deliverable 2.4: 100%
    • Enhance observations from Canterbury and Kaikoura Earthquakes with experimental and analytical studies to improve performance assessment of characteristic infrastructure.
      Timeline: 1/01/2016 - 31/12/2020
 

3: Liquefaction Assessment and Mitigation: Systems Approach

Development of performance based criteria for micro systems (e.g. soil deposits; soil-foundation-building systems) and macro systems (urban areas; land use and development) and lifeline networks, integrating geotechnical engineering know-how within cross-disciplinary tools and methodologies.

    • Deliverable 3.1: 100%
    • Develop assessment methodologies for micro and macro systems: Soil-foundation-building system (shallow and pile foundations); building-soil-building systems; bridge system .
      Timeline: 1/01/2017 - 31/12/2020
    • Deliverable 3.2: 100%
    • Evaluate liquefaction impacts on spatially distributed systems and networks (transportation networks; pipe networks).
      Timeline: 1/01/2019 - 31/12/2020
    • Deliverable 3.3: 100%
    • Develop a framework for performance based criteria incorporating planning, management, operational, owner and user’s perspectives in engineering evaluations of liquefaction impacts.
      Timeline: 1/01/2019 - 31/12/2020