Liquefaction mitigation using secant piles wall under a large water tank

•2D and 3D FE models were developed to evaluate a liquefaction mitigation strategy.•The seismic response was evaluated in terms of the differential settlements.•The mitigation strategy tends to uniform the settlements under the tank.•The results from the 3D analyses confirm the ones obtained with the 2D approach.

Two-dimensional and three-dimensional numerical models were developed to evaluate the effectiveness of a foundation perimeter wall on the mitigation of the effects of liquefaction in a 64 m diameter, reinforced-concrete water tank. The seismic response of the tank was evaluated in terms of differential settlements induced by an actual earthquake recording by comparing the situations with and without a mitigation strategy consisting of 20 m-long, 1 m-diameter secant piles wall. Although the mitigation strategy did not significantly reduce the liquefaction-induced settlements, it enforced a relatively homogeneous distribution of these settlements, leading to less structural damage.