Seismic activity during the 2010/2011 Canterbury Earthquake Sequence (CES) caused widespread damage to sloping ground in residential areas on the Port Hills in Christchurch. Much of the damage manifested as cracking and displacement of the ground surface. While actions were taken to repair some damage, it was largely…
This paper describes the development of a new depth weighted assessment methodology, which produces a dimensionless number termed the Liquefaction Severity Number (LSN), to assess vulnerability of land to liquefaction-induced damage. This methodology has been developed by comparing measured attributes from the properties damaged by…
Several methods are available in the literature to estimate the extent of liquefaction induced lateral spreading at a given site, the most commonly used being that of Zhang et al (2004). During the 2010-2011 sequence of earthquakes in Canterbury, lateral spreading occurred extensively across the…
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…
Wendover Retirement Village is located in Papanui, Christchurch, adjacent to a minor tributary of Dudley Creek on the edge of a drained peat swamp. The site suffered damage as a result of the recent major seismic activity in Canterbury, including ground settlement and lateral spreading….
Liquefaction induced lateral spreading associated with the Canterbury earthquakes of 2010 and 2011 has resulted in significant damage to numerous riverside properties in Christchurch. A number of methods for mitigating lateral spreading risk exist; these often involve ground improvement adjacent to the free face. Preliminary design using a…
Nanoparticles are now becoming a common material and currently produced in bulk worldwide to warrant possible use in construction and for improvement of infrastructures. This paper presents an experimental study on the use of nano-copper to enhance the shrinkage and expansive behaviour of soils. This…
The Amethyst hydro scheme aims to address the increasing demand for power in the area. It involves diverting water from the Amethyst Ravine through penstocks in a 1040 m tunnel to a powerhouse on the floodplain of the Wanganui River. The 3.5 x 3.5 m…
This paper presents insights from recent advanced laboratory testing of undisturbed and reconstituted specimens of Christchurch silty-sands. The purpose of the testing was to establish the cyclic strength of silty-sands from sites in the Central Business District (CBD), where liquefaction was observed in 4 September…
Because of their lightweight, highly crushable and compressible nature, pumiceous sands are problematic from engineering and construction viewpoint. There has been very little information on their liquefaction characteristics and most empirical procedures available in evaluating the liquefaction potential of sands are derived primarily from hard-grained sands. To understand the…