Flagship Leader: Misko Cubrinovski (misko.cubrinovski@canterbury.ac.nz )
Flagship Deputy: Sjoerd van Ballegooy
Flagship Summary
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 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. The key thrust areas are:
- Development and improvement of liquefaction assessment methods (Liquefaction Evaluation: Beyond Current State-of-Art and Practice). Utilize 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.
- Identify critical issues and ground conditions related to liquefaction impacts on infrastructure, including characterization of important but challenging New Zealand soils, and the development of adequate assessment procedures and cost-effective mitigation strategies.
- 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 knowhow within cross-disciplinary tools and methodologies.
Thrust Areas | Key tasks/Deliverables | Start | Finish |
FP2.1 Liquefaction Evaluation: Beyond Current State-of-Art-and-Practice | 1. Develop methodologies for assessment of liquefaction susceptibility and triggering; liquefaction-induced ground deformation | 1/01/2016 | 31/12/2020 |
2. Integrate field, laboratory and computational tools to develop next-generation liquefaction methods and procedures | 1/01/2016 | 31/12/2020 | |
FP2.2 Liquefaction Vulnerability of New Zealand Land and Infrastructure | 1. Examine, through field and laboratory investigation, typical 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) | 1/01/2016 | 31/12/2019 |
2. Compile, summarise and interpret historical evidence of liquefaction in New Zealand (paleo-liquefaction studies) | 1/01/2016 | 31/12/2018 | |
3. Develop liquefaction assessment procedures for challenging soils | 1/01/2018 | 31/12/2020 | |
4. Enhance observations from Canterbury and Kaikoura Earthquakes with experimental and analytical studies to improve performance assessment of characteristic infrastructure | 1/01/2016 | 31/12/2020 | |
FP2.3 Liquefaction Assessment and Mitigation: Systems Approach | 1. Develop assessment methodologies for micro and macro systems: Soil-foundation-building system (shallow and pile foundations); building-soil-building systems; bridge system | 1/01/2017 | 31/12/2020 |
2. Evaluate liquefaction impacts on spatially distributed systems and networks (transportation networks; pipe networks) | 1/01/2019 | 31/12/2020 | |
3. Develop a framework for performance based criteria incorporating planning, management, operational, owner and user’s perspectives in engineering evaluations of liquefaction impacts | 1/01/2019 | 31/12/2020 |
Historical Liquefaction Online GIS-based database
Records of liquefaction following large earthquakes within New Zealand have been collated and digitized into an online GIS-based database as part of FP2 project 17141/ FP2.2.2 which is now available to share
A read-only version of the QuakeCore historic liquefaction database located at:
2017
Overview
The 2010-2011 Canterbury earthquakes illustrated the severe impacts and vulnerability of New Zealand communities to liquefaction hazards (approximately 50% of the total $40B damage). Liquefaction hazards are not unique to Christchurch alone, and exist in the majority of our major cities as a result of NZs geology and geomorphologic evolution. Currently, liquefaction susceptibility, triggering, and consequences are coarsely quantified using empirical methods based on case histories. As a result, extensive investigations and analysis of the Canterbury earthquakes by QuakeCoRE PIs and their international collaborators have illustrated that such empirical methods lack sufficient precision for quantifying liquefaction impacts for the purposes of seismic mitigation and risk assessment. A key requirement in the immediate future is an improved precision in the estimation of susceptibility, triggering, and impacts of liquefaction of various soils through the use of multi-disciplinary experimental and simulation research programmes with an emphasis on fundamental physics in place of empiricism from observations.
QuakeCoRE and industry researchers have collected unprecedented geotechnical datasets from the 2010-2011 Canterbury earthquakes, which are archived on open-source community databases. Such datasets include over 18,000 cone penetrometer tests of soil strength and stiffness, high-quality “undisturbed” soil samples, ground water table depths, horizontal and vertical ground deformations from satellite imagery and airborne LiDAR, surface fissuring and lateral spreading, and foundation and underground lifeline failures due to ground deformations. The quality and quantity of these individual datasets, as well as the multitude of data from multi-disciplinary methods are unique in a world-wide context, and have provided a critical momentum that is leading to increasing investment from leading international researchers to collaborate with QuakeCoRE PIs. This Flagship will leverage on-going experimental data collection and analysis from multi-disciplinary researchers related to the Canterbury earthquakes to provide a paradigm shift in the models used to predict the susceptibility, triggering, and impacts of liquefaction with world-wide impacts. Particular attention will be devoted to understanding and modelling the liquefaction susceptibility and triggering of non-plastic fines-containing soils; the punching failure of shallow foundations in near-surface liquefaction; lateral spreading impacts on bridge abutments and pile foundations; and pipe network vulnerability. Parallel work streams will use lessons learned from the Canterbury earthquakes to better understand the impacts of soil liquefaction, and possible mitigation measures, on other urban and rural regions around NZ, in particular, the liquefaction-resistance of pumiceous- and residual-soils in Auckland and Northland, and the liquefaction of susceptibility of Wellington CBD soils.
Industry partners and Stakeholders
QuakeCoRE members are currently highly engaged in collaborative research with the geotechnical industry (e.g. Tonkin and Taylor) and stakeholders (EQC and Christchurch City Council) in the analysis of observations and data from the Canterbury earthquakes and implications for the region at large. In addition, specific relationships also exist with major utility and asset owners, for example Lyttelton Port Company, who are undertaking >$1B of earthquake damage repairs, mostly due to geotechnical failures. Through the on-going EQC-funded research on liquefaction impacts and mitigation measures, strong international links have been formed through the Flagship Leader’s membership on the expert international advisory panel overseeing EQC’s multi-million dollar land damage research work stream. Through the above partners, and also additional relevant local authorities (Wellington and Auckland councils), QuakeCoRE will advance the understanding of liquefaction hazards in our other major cities.
Impact
Our goal is to develop novel methods to improve the quantification of impacts of soil liquefaction on infrastructure through a fundamental understanding of liquefaction susceptibility, triggering, and consequences; and use these methods to assess liquefaction impacts throughout NZ and their potential to be mitigated. These novel methods will represent a major advance in the field, and will be based on the unprecedented data and internationally recognised on-going research related to soil liquefaction and related infrastructure damage in the Canterbury earthquakes.
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Projects
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17127: Liquefaction characteristics of pumiceous deposits from high-quality sampling - R. Orense (UoA), M. Stringer (UC), M. Pender (UoA), M. Cubrinovski (UC), & S. van Ballegooy (T&T)
- 17131: Characterization and Interpretation of Lateral Spreading Observations from the 2010-2011 Christchurch Earthquakes - S. Bastin (QC), M. Cubrinovski (UC), S. van Ballegooy (T&T) & J. Russell (T&T)
- 17141: Scrutiny of Simplified Liquefaction Triggering Procedures based on Historical NZ Earthquakes - S. van Ballegooy (T&T) , S. . Bastin (QC), L. Wotherspoon (UA); Brady Cox, M. Cubrinovski (UC), M. Stringer (UC), S. Rees (T+T) & A. Baki (UC)
2016 Projects
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- Effects of Partial Saturation on Liquefaction Triggering - M. Cubrinovski, M. Stringer (UC); S. van Ballegooy (T&T)
- Evaluation of liquefaction potential of pumiceous deposits through field testing - R. Orense, M. Pender, L. Wotherspoon (UA); M. Cubrinovski (UC) ; S. van Ballegooy (T&T)
- Evaluation of undisturbed sampling techniques for pumiceous soils - M. Stringer (UC), R. Orense (UA), M. Cubrinovski (UC), M. Pender (UA)
- Comparison between deterministic and probabilistic triggering assessment approaches over the Christchurch area - V. Lacrosse (T&T); B. Bradley (UC); S. van Ballegooy (T&T)
- Lateral Spreading Observations and Interpretation from the Christchurch Earthquakes - S. van Ballegooy (T&T), M. Cubrinovski (UC), J. Russell (T&T), S. Bastin (QuakeCoRE)
- Whakatane liquefaction case history from the 1987 Edgecumbe Earthquake: examination of an extensive CPT dataset supplemented by paleo-liquefaction investigations - S. van Ballegooy (T&T); S. Bastin (QuakeCoRE); R. Orense, M. Pender, L. Wotherspoon (UA)
- Characterisation of cyclic behaviour and liquefaction resistance of Wellington Port gravelly soils - G. Chiaro (UC); M. Taylor (Arup); L. Wotherspoon (UA); S. Palmer (T&T)
Related Research
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Monthly Meetings
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2020 Meetings - link to meeting agenda/ minutes
2019 Meetings - link to meeting agenda/ minutes
2018 Meetings - link to meeting agenda/ minutes
2017 Meetings
- 17 Jan 2017
- 21 Feb 2017
- 15 March 2017
- 18 April 2017 - Cancelled due to clash with NZSEE Conference
- 16 May 2017
- June 2017
- July 2017 - Cancelled due to PBDIII
- Aug 2017
- Sept 2017
- Oct 2017
- Nov 2017
2016 Meetings
- 25 Feb 2016: Video conference - Overview of FP2 funded projects
- 15 March 2016: Video conference
- 19 April 2016: Video conference
- 17 May 2016: Video conference
- 21 June 2016: Video conference
- 19 July 2016: Video conference
- 13 Sept 2016: Video conference
- 18 Oct 2016: Video conference
- 15 Nov 2016: Video conference
In the media
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Overview of trenching work in Napier associated with Historical liquefaction case study project (17141) - article and YouTube
Workshops
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- Annual meeting - FP2 workshop
Other Presentations
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Requests for Proposals
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- 2017 QuakeCoRE Collaboration Plan - This will be released mid/late-Sept following the 2016 QuakeCoRE Annual Meeting
- 2016 QuakeCoRE Collaboration Plan - See page 9-10 for GMSV priorities. Proposals are due November 20, 2015.
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