Seismic simulation of liquefaction-induced uplift behavior of a hollow cylinder structure buried in shallow ground

• Numerical analysis for uplift behavior of a buried structure was performed.
• The seismic simulation was compared with centrifuge modeling tests.
• The structure began to lift up when backfill was liquefied during shaking.
• It was compared with a simplified method to predict the uplift displacement.
• The ability to overcome the limitations of the simplified method was verified.

When designing buried structures using a performance-based framework, it is important to estimate their uplift displacement. A simplified method is proposed for predicting the uplift displacement of a hollow cylinder structure buried in shallow backfill based on the equilibrium of vertical forces acting on the structure during earthquakes. However, this method only provides the maximum value, which frequently is overestimated in practical applications. To offset this limitation, first, the uplift behavior of buried hollow cylinder structures subjected to strong earthquake motions was simulated. Then, two-dimensional effective stress analyses based on the multiple shear mechanism for soil were conducted, and the results were compared with the centrifuge test data. The soil parameters were evaluated based on laboratory test results. The seismic response data from 20 g centrifuge tests were analyzed, and the results were generally consistent with the results of centrifuge model tests. In particular, the effective stress model showed a reasonable ability to reproduce the varying degrees of uplift displacement depending on the geotechnical conditions of trench soils adjacent to the hollow cylinder structures buried in shallow ground.

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