Comparative System Reliability Analysis of Liquefaction Potential Using Standard Penetration Test and Shear Wave Velocity Data

There are different methods to assess the liquefaction potential of sandy soil sites. Meanwhile, the comparison of these methods in terms of the effect of soil heterogeneity and based on the system reliability index has received less attention. This study of sandy soil liquefaction potential using two different approaches, which are the standard penetration test (SPT) and shear wave velocity (Vs) have been analyzed stochastically. For this purpose, a real saturated site with ten heterogeneous soil layers and three boreholes was considered. The site was networking and SPT and Vs data in areas other than borehole’s locations were predicted using the kriging method via a codded computer program in MATLAB. In the next step, each column of the assumed network is considered to be a borehole and using the predicted SPT-N and Vs data, and Monte Carlo Simulation (MCS) the reliability index of the system of the site by Sequential Compounding Method (SCM) were determined. The results show that for the assigned site the determined system reliability index using SPT-N data was larger than the Vs data which confirms that the SPT approach is more conservative.