Devastating effects of ground failure, due to liquefaction of water saturated sands, on the built environment has been widely observed during most moderate to large size earthquakes. There is an urgent need to develop a cost effective liquefaction prevention method that can be applied to new sites as well as sites with existing structures. Researchers at Northeastern University, the University of Texas at Austin, Boise State University, the University of California at Santa Barbara, the University at Buffalo and the USGS will collaborate to develop an innovative and practical field technique for liquefaction mitigation by inducing partial saturation (IPS) in otherwise fully saturated liquefiable sands. The goals of this research are twofold: 1) to conduct fundamental research exploring the feasibility of inducing partial saturation under field conditions, by injecting very low concentration of sodium percarbonate solution, and through transport and reactivity slowly generate oxygen gas bubbles in sands; and, 2) to demonstrate the effectiveness of IPS in preventing the occurrence of liquefaction. The research will take advantage of unique experimental and field facilities of NSF's Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation (NEES) to acquire fundamental knowledge on the behavior of partially saturated sands and to develop enabling technologies to verify the effectiveness of IPS as a liquefaction prevention method. The research program will achieve its goal by integrating small- and large-scale laboratory investigations, field tests and numerical simulation. NEES facilities to be utilized are the 1-g laminar box at NEES@Buffalo, the T-Rex shaker at NEES@Utexas and the wildlife field site at NEES@UCSB.
