Mechanical instability of saturated soils sampled in the Oran coast, Algeria.

Bousmaha, Mohammed; Bensoula, Mohamed; Toussaint, Renaud

Journal of Materials and Engineering Structures
Volume 7, Numéro 1, Pages 5-14
2020-03-30

Mechanical Instability Of Saturated Soils Sampled In The Oran Coast, Algeria.

Auteurs : Bousmaha Mohammed . Bensoula Mohamed . Toussaint Renaud .

Résumé

Soil liquefaction is a significant natural hazard associated with earthquakes. Some of its devastating effects include tilting and sinking of buildings and bridges, and destruction of pipelines. Conventional geotechnical engineering assumes liquefaction occurs via elevated pore pressure. We show, using simulations and experiments, another mechanism for liquefaction in saturated sandy soils, without high pore fluid pressure. In this work, the objective is to follow and characterize the vertical displacement of an intruder on a saturated mass of soil in laboratory experiments. The liquefaction is shown to have a direct impact on the vertical displacement of intruders. It can be concluded that the movement of the intruder depends essentially on the imposed acceleration and the relative density of soil.