Liquefaction potential of non-plastic silty sand

This paper is to introduce research progress on liquefaction potential of undisturbed high fines content non-plastic silty sand. A new sampling technique that was applied to the field allowing sensitive and high fines content silty sand material to be retrieved in sounding condition is described. Laboratory tests on the liquefaction resistance of non-plastic silty sand that emphasized on the influence of fines content percentages were conducted. It concludes that soil liquefaction would occur in non-plastic silty sand deposits even with high nonplastic fines contents. Both fines contents and void ratios have deterministic influences to the cyclic resistance of such silty sand material. Most importantly, disturbance effect would have great influence on cyclic resistances and post liquefaction volumetric strains of non-plastic silty sand. Results of this study is hoped to improve engineers' understanding on liquefaction potential of non-plastic silty sand.