Updated liquefaction potential analysis eliminates foundation retrofitting of two critical structures

摘要

Developments in geotechnical engineering after 1970 prompted the foundations of three large nuclear material processing buildings in 1994. Concerns were raised because the subsurface conditions beneath them contain a Miocene-age clayey sand stratum with very low standard penetration resistance values. A preliminary liquefaction potential evaluation based on Seed et al. [The influence of SPT procedures in soil liquefaction resistance evaluation. Report no. UCB/EERC-84/15, October 1984] empirical procedures for Holocene-age data showed that based on the low blowcount the formation was liquefiable, and that foundation retrofitting was in order.