Stress-density model validation: Free-field liquefaction analysis.

Liquefaction has caused severe damage to buildings and infrastructure during numerous earthquakes, leading researchers to develop constitutive models that can capture complex soil behaviour in liquefaction-induced phenomena. Constitutive models require validation against laboratory or real-world data to assess their capability. This paper first discusses the recent implementation of the stress-density (S-D) model in the OpenSees finite element platform. Subsequently, calibration and validation phases evaluate the performance of the S-D model against two previously conducted centrifuge tests. Single-element simulations of cyclic simple shear tests inform the parameter calibration for the Nevada sand, which comprises the two main layers in the centrifuge tests. The validation phase consists of eight 1-D site response analyses in OpenSees compared to the centrifuge tests in terms of accelerations, spectral accelerations, pore water pressures, and settlements. The current study shows that the model reasonably predicts the soil behaviour in terms of acceleration and pore water pressure, particularly in the liquefiable layer. • Validation analysis of stress-density model in OpenSees. • Models for single-element cyclic shear and centrifuge 1D site response. • Shear strain saturation evident in single-element calibration. • Reasonable prediction of pore pressure by S-D model in the liquefiable layer. • Underestimation of volumetric settlements by S-D and PM4Sand models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]