SOIL ADDITIVE CAN REDUCE LIQUEFACTION

摘要

The members of a research team at Purdue University have determined that adding a small amount of bentonite to the sand in soils can eliminate or significantly reduce the chance that the soil will liquefy during an earthquake. Liquefaction reduces the strength of soils and can cause the collapse of any structures founded in them. Sponsored by the National Science Foundation, the research showed that by introducing 3 to 5 percent bentonite by dry mass of the sand into the sand's pore spaces, liquefaction can be eliminated or reduced to the point where it would take hundreds of earthquake cycles to cause it. The study revealed that, even when liquefaction does occur, the soil does not lose all of its shear strength and can, in effect, heal itself. What is more, the addition of the bentonite in such small quantities does not seem to diminish the soil's ability to carry static loads.