The current practice in New Zealand for seismic design of shallow foundations is to ensure the LRFD inequality is satisfied, meaning not all of the available bearing strength is mobilised. However, the occurrence of bearing failure may be acceptable, provided the resulting permanent displacements are also…
Abstract Pumice materials, which are problematic from an engineering viewpoint, are widespread in many parts of the North Island. Following the 2010-2011 Christchurch earthquakes, a clear understanding of their properties under earthquake loading is necessary. For example, the 1987 Edgecumbe earthquake showed evidence of localised…
Abstract Expansive soil has been well recognised as a problematic soil due to its swelling and shrinkage behaviour during wetting and drying cycles. The swelling pressure developed upon wetting is often investigated by placing an initially unsaturated soil specimen into an oedometric cell modified to…
Abstract It is widely acknowledged that soil-structure interaction (SSI) has an important effect on foundation performance during earthquake loading. The standard way of handling this is to assume elastic behaviour of the soil beneath and around the foundation. For shallow foundation response there are three…
Abstract The moment-rotation response of shallow foundations is inherently nonlinear being controlled by the “elastic” stiffness at small rotations and the moment capacity of the foundation at larger rotations. Simple elastic soil structure interaction (SSI) does not model this rotational response and elastic radiation damping…
Abstract The maximum shear modulus and liquefaction resistance of soils are fundamental input parameters in the non-linear dynamic analyses of soil structures. This paper focuses on the dynamic behaviour of natural pumiceous soils, which originated from a series of volcanic eruptions centred in the Taupo…
There is increasing awareness in earthquake engineering of the need to consider the structure, foundation, and underlying soil in an integrated fashion. The traditional design scenario, where the geotechnical and structural considerations are dealt with separately, results in inefficient and sometimes less effective foundation systems. Integrated numerical models…
The town of Kaiapoi, 17 km north of the city of Christchurch, suffered significant liquefaction induced damage during the Canterbury earthquake sequence. Severe lateral spreading and large volumes of ejecta were present throughout the town and surrounding region after multiple earthquakes in this sequence. This…
Pumiceous deposits exist in many areas of the North Island, and pose a particular challenge to engineering projects due to the difficulties associated with characterizing these materials. Key characteristics of pumice grains are their high crushability, their low density and the presence of voids, both…
Pumice materials, which are problematic from engineering viewpoint, are widely spread in many parts of North Island. Following the 2010-2011 Christchurch earthquakes, a clear understanding of their properties under earthquake loading is necessary. For example, the 1987 Edgecumbe Earthquake showed occurrences of localised liquefaction in…
