The “Liquefaction-Induced Ground Movements Effects” workshop was held on the University of California, Berkeley campus at the Faculty Club, 2-4 November 2016. Fifty-five people participated in the workshop. Invited workshop participants included leading researchers in the area of soil liquefaction and its effects in the U.S., New Zealand, and Japan. The following New Zealand researchers participated and contributed to the workshop:
- Misko Cubrinovski (NZ Workshop Co-Chairperson; Professor, University of Canterbury, Christchurch)
- Brendon Bradley (Professor, University of Canterbury)
- Gabriele Chiaro (Lecturer, University of Canterbury)
- Jennifer Haskell (Senior Lecturer, University of Canterbury)
- Mike Jacka (Senior Geotechnical Engineer, Tonkin+Taylor, Christchurch)
- Rolando Orense (Associate Professor, University of Auckland)
- Mark Stringer (Lecturer, University of Canterbury)
- Sjoerd van Ballegooy (Technical Director, Tonkin+Taylor, Auckland)
- Liam Wotherspoon (Senior Lecturer, University of Auckland, Auckland)
The workshop provided an opportunity to take advantage of focused research activities following the recent New Zealand and Japan earthquakes to develop a path forward for an integrated understanding of how infrastructure performs with various levels of liquefaction. The objective of the workshop was to identify research thrusts offering the greatest potential for advancing our capabilities for understanding, evaluating, and mitigating the effects of liquefaction-induced ground movements on structures and lifelines. The workshop also advanced the development of younger researchers by identifying promising research opportunities and approaches, and promoting future collaborations among participants.
Initially, the workshop report was to be organized similar to the workshop organization with chapters focused on each of the challenges that remain in understanding and assessing the effects of soil liquefaction (i.e., liquefaction-induced flow slides, liquefaction-induced lateral spreading effects, and liquefaction-induced settlement effects). However, the conduct of the workshop identified five cross-cutting research priorities that hold the greatest potential for advancing insights and procedures for evaluating the effects of liquefaction-induced ground deformations on structures and lifelines. The attached workshop report (PEER Report No. 2017/02) was therefore organized into five key chapters around these research priorities:
- Chapter 2: Case history data
- Chapter 3: Integrated site characterization
- Chapter 4: Numerical analysis
- Chapter 5: Challenging soils
- Chapter 6: Effects and mitigation of liquefaction in the built environment and communities
The workshop presented a great opportunity to New Zealand researchers to contribute to the development of an important document and output that would significantly influence the research and engineering practice in the next decade or so. This workshop report will be of great value to both researchers and the profession at large in tackling the most important issues associated with soil liquefaction.