This experiment reproduces the conditions that lead to soil liquefaction. For this reason, a container filled with fine sand and water is placed on a shaking table together with three different metal objects. At the beginning of the experiment, the shear strength of the soil is large enough to sustain the weight of the steel objects without collapsing. However, as the shaking table starts to vibrate, excess pore water pressure is generated causing a reduction in the effective stresses in the soil causing it to fail and resulting in a loss of equilibrium between the soil and the metal objects." This is part of the Open Educational Resources Initiative by the Faculty of Civil Engineering of the RWTH Aachen University. |