Liquefaction assessment of silty sands: Experimental characterization and numerical calibration

The main goal of this paper is to assess the reliability of a nonlinear hysteretic model to capture the behavior of saturated silty sand mixtures under cyclic loading conditions. The parameters governing the liquefaction triggering are identified using the results of standard laboratory tests (monotonic and cyclic consolidated undrained triaxial tests as well as resonant column tests) undertaken for reconstituted soil samples. Consequently, the uncertainty related with collected samples is reduced. The numerical results, obtained after calibration of the constitutive model, are in good agreement with the experimental ones and they are analyzed through the effects of relative density, fine content, and confining pressure in the liquefaction resistance of silty sands.