Comparing In-situ Liquefaction Triggering Procedures for Sites in Arkansas

There currently exists a significant amount of uncertainty when designing piles for bridge foundations in liquefiable soil. Currently ARDOT engineers use a Standard Penetration Test (SPT) based liquefaction spreadsheet developed 10 years ago to evaluate liquefaction triggering. Since this spreadsheet was developed, updates to the liquefaction triggering procedures have been published making the spreadsheet out-of-date. Moreover, additional methods of liquefaction evaluation using cone penetration test (CPT) and shear wave velocity (Vs) provide added means of evaluating liquefaction potential. This thesis updates ARDOT's liquefaction triggering evaluation methodology with the newest procedures and incorporates additional empirical liquefaction hazard estimates such as the liquefaction potential index (LPI). This will provide ARDOT with the tools necessary to evaluate liquefaction triggering using the most up-to-date guidance and methods. These liquefaction spreadsheets are used to determine the differences between the procedures using constant inputs (SPT-N, qC, VS). In addition, Co-located SPT, CPT, and Vs data are used to evaluate the differences between the various in-situ methods for two sites in Arkansas.