Soil Liquefaction Mitigation Using Sustainable Additives and Recycled Materials by Rolando Orense
Missed the evening lecture, or want to watch it again? The recording of the 2025 Geomechanics Lecture is now available for NZGS members to view on demand. 2025 GEOMECHANICS LECTURE – RECORDING – New Zealand Geotechnical Society
In this year’s lecture, Professor Rolando Orense explores emerging, lower-impact approaches to reducing soil liquefaction risk during earthquakes – especially in built-up areas where many traditional ground improvement methods can be difficult to apply.
About the lecture
Soil liquefaction remains one of the leading causes of severe earthquake damage. While understanding and mitigation have advanced, liquefaction still poses a major threat—particularly in dense urban environments where conventional remediation can be disruptive. Many standard techniques create high noise and vibration, rely on high‑pressure injection of toxic chemicals, or require significant energy input, resulting in a large carbon footprint. With accelerating urbanisation and increasing focus on low‑carbon outcomes, there is a growing need for innovative, non-disruptive and environmentally responsible mitigation methods.
This presentation investigates the use of alternative and recycled materials as soil amendments to improve liquefaction resistance. Drawing on advances in materials science and interdisciplinary engineering, the lecture presents laboratory research on sustainable additives including:
- Tyre chips
- Coal ash
- Biochar
- Nanoparticles such as laponite, carbon nanotubes, and polymerised waste glass powder
The findings highlight the potential of these materials to support low‑carbon geotechnical hazard mitigation, and outline key directions for future research.