Authors

The authors of this database are Jacquelyn Allmond (University of California, Davis), Bruce Lloyd Kutter (University of California, Davis), Jonathan Bray (University of California, Berkeley) and Connor Hayden (University of California, Berkeley). The database was published at NEEShub on November 09 2014 and has been reproduced here (at DataCenterHub) to preserve the data and ensure continued access.

Note: The NEEShub links in this database now point to warehouse project locations at DesignSafe.

Database

DOI: 10.4231/D3M61BQ73

The consequences of seismically induced liquefaction have been intensely studied through case histories, numerical simulations, and many experiments involving shallow foundations on liquefiable soil (e.g., Whitman and Lambe 1988, Liu and Dobry 1997, Bouckovalas et al. 1991, Hausler 2002). In recent years, additional, sophisticated centrifuge experiments with model buildings with various foundations overlying a layer of loose, liquefiable sand have been performed to investigate key aspects of liquefaction that affect building performance. For each test series, soil profiles, structural properties, and ground motions are varied to study specific liquefaction and soil-structure interaction phenomena. Each test contributes to the larger goal of understanding and predicting ground and building performance during liquefaction.

This database contains data of these recent centrifuge experiments. The database includes 9 large-scale centrifuge tests, with 49 stations (either a building of various types or a free-field site), and over 60 shaking events, totaling 405 event model case histories. The database allows users to access information from many centrifuge tests, and is capable of allowing similar data to be added in the future. Analyzing these and future tests as a whole instead of looking inward at individual experiments gives a broader understanding of liquefaction principles and will aid in building on geotechnical earthquake engineering understanding of liquefaction.

DATABASE ORGANIZATION

Each row in the database describes a single station-event, where a station-event represents the response of a specific station (either a building or free-field site) to a single ground motion (shaking event). For example, if one model container includes a sequence of 4 input ground motions and has 3 structure stations and 1 free-field station in the container, that experiment produces a total of 16 station-events. Typically, the single free-field station represents the average of several free-field monitoring displacement gauges, and the response of a structure station is captured by several accelerometers and displacement transducers.

Event Number	Test Name	Input Motions	Structures	Free Field	Total Events
1-16	T6-30	4	3	1	16
17-32	T3-30	4	3	1	16
33-48	T3-30-SILT	4	3	1	16
39-68	T3-50	5	3	1	20
69-156	T3.9-50	11	6	2	88
157-221	T2.5-55	13	4	1	65
222-261	T2.3-70	8	4	1	40
262-349	T4.5-50	11	7	1	88
350-405	T4.6-40	8	6	1	56
--	TOTAL	68	39	10	405

The columns of the database provide the supplemental information for each station-event and are categorized by Event, Soil Properties, Structural Properties, Base Motion, Surface Motion, Results, and Miscellaneous.

Database Column Definitions

Each column of data is categorized and color shaded by data type as follows:

• Informational (Info, grey) - a broad category of any supplemental information which was not directly measured or calculated (e.g. test name, soil material type, structure name).

• Measured (M, green) - values which were directly measured in the lab or during testing without manipulation (e.g. soil layer thickness, footing width, peak base acceleration).

• Derived (D, orange) - calculated using a known expression or equation to manipulate measured data (e.g., Arias intensity, foundation settlement, foundation bearing pressure).

• Inferred (I, red) - data required either engineering judgment with known properties during testing, or was derived using several methods (e.g. relative density is best assessed employing calibrated air pluviation procedures and checked using cone penetration testing with correlations).

SOIL PROPERTIES

The soil properties for each material used in the test can be found using the link below. This table includes material properties, resources, and methods.

Soil Properties

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) through the George E. Brown, Jr. Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation (NEES), and the Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research Center (PEER). The authors gratefully acknowledge the assistance of Daniel Wilson, Chad Justice, Anatoliy Ganchenko, Lars Pederson, Peter Rojas, Ray Gerhard, Tom Kohnke, and the other staff at the Center for Geotechnical Modeling at UC Davis, along with support from Ann Christine Catlin and Sudheera Fernando, and the other NEEShub DataStore developers. We acknowledge Josh Zupan who assisted in data review and validation of the database input. Finally, we acknowledge the contributions of the principal investigators and other researchers involved in the various stages of all the centrifuge experiments: S. Dashti, J. Pestana, M. Riemer, T. Hutchinson, G. Fiegel, C. Bolisetti, D. Paez, A. Whittaker, H. Mason, N. Trombetta, H. Puangnak, M. Stringer, L. Deng, M. Hakhamaneshi, R. Reitherman, I. Rawlings, C. Hilliard, and D. Zhao.

REFERENCES

Jacquelyn Allmond, Bruce Kutter (2014). "JDA01: Centrifuge Testing of Rocking Foundations on Saturated and Submerged Sand." Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation (distributor), Dataset, DOI:10.4231/D3C53F17M

Jacquelyn Allmond, Bruce Kutter (2014). "JDA02: Centrifuge Testing of Rocking Foundations on Saturated and Submerged Sand." Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation (distributor), Dataset, DOI:10.4231/D37D2Q74Z

Shideh Dashti, Jonathan Bray, Michael Riemer, Dan Wilson (2008). "NEESR-II Project: Towards Developing an Engineering Procedure for Evaluating Building Performance on Softened Ground, Centrifuge Test Plan for Test Series SHD01." SHD01_DataReport.pdf, DesignSafe-CI (distributor), Dataset, https://www.designsafe-ci.org/data/browser/public/nees.public/NEES-2006-0224.groups/Documentation.

Shideh Dashti, Jonathan Bray, Michael Riemer, Dan Wilson (2008). "NEESR-II Project: Towards Developing an Engineering Procedure for Evaluating Building Performance on Softened Ground, Centrifuge Test Plan for Test Series SHD02." SHD02_DataReport.pdf, DesignSafe-CI (distributor), Dataset, https://www.designsafe-ci.org/data/browser/public/nees.public/NEES-2006-0224.groups/Documentation

Shideh Dashti, Jonathan Bray, Juan Pestana, Michael Riemer, Dan Wilson (2008). "NEESR-II Project: Towards Developing an Engineering Procedure for Evaluating Building Performance on Softened Ground, Centrifuge Test Plan for Test Series SHD03." SHD03_DataReport.pdf, DesignSafe-CI (distributor), Dataset, https://www.designsafe-ci.org/data/browser/public/nees.public/NEES-2006-0224.groups/Documentation.

Shideh Dashti, Jonathan Bray, Juan Pestana, Michael Riemer, Dan Wilson (2009). "NEESR-II Project: Towards Developing an Engineering Procedure for Evaluating Building Performance on Softened Ground, Centrifuge Test Plan for Test Series SHD04." SHD04_DataReport.pdf, DesignSafe-CI (distributor), Dataset, https://www.designsafe-ci.org/data/browser/public/nees.public/NEES-2006-0224.groups/Documentation

Connor Hayden, Jacquelyn Allmond, Isabelle Rawlings, Bruce Kutter, Jonathan Bray, Tara Hutchinson, Gregg Fiegel, Joshua Zupan, Andrew Whittaker (2014). "Test-6: Six Elastic Model Structures on a Layered, Saturated Soil Profile." Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation (distributor), Dataset, DOI:10.4231/D3QF8JJ99

Joshua Zupan, Nick Trombetta, Hamilton Puangnak, D. Paez, Jonathan Bray, Bruce Kutter, Tara Hutchinson, Gregg Fiegel, Chandrakanth Bolisetti, Andrew Whittaker (2013). "Test-5: Seven Elastic Model Structures on a Layered, Saturated Soil Profile." Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation (distributor), Dataset, DOI:10.4231/D39W08Z6N

Researchers should cite this work as follows:

• Jacquelyn Allmond, Bruce Lloyd Kutter, Jonathan Bray and Connor Hayden (2015), "NEES : FLIQ: Foundation and Ground Performance in Liquefaction Experiments," https://datacenterhub.org/resources/269. DOI: 10.4231/D3M61BQ73