SGER: A Thermomechanical Framework for the Analysis of Liquefaction

Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station, College Station TX

Investigators

Abstract

0234009, K.R. Rajagopal, Texas A&M University "A Thermomechanical Framework for the Analysis of Soil Liquefaction " This action supports a new approach to modeling the phenomenon of soil liquefaction due to earthquake excitation. The liquefaction of saturated cohesionless soils involves a change in soil behavior from solid-like to fluid-like. The new approach involves the application of a general thermodynamic framework that has been quite successful in describing very diverse dissipative processes. This thermodynamic framework is particularly suited to describing the inelastic response of materials, and is very appropriate for describing the transition from solid-like to fluid-like behavior. It has been used to describe both solid-to-solid and liquid-to-solid phase transitions, as well as plasticity and viscoelasticity. In applying this framework to soil liquefaction, the soil is modeled as a mixture of a granular material and a liquid, capable of undergoing large reversible and irreversible deformations. After the framework has been developed to describe soil liquefaction, specific initial-boundary value problems of soil liquefaction will be studied.