Fuzzy logic based assessment of seismic soil liquefaction potential and its application to foundations of bridge piers

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Cavus, Ugur S.^a | Kilit, Murat^b | Zorluer, İsmail^{b; *} | Edil, Tuncer B.^c

Affiliations: [a] Civil Engineering Department, Technology Faculty of Isparta Applied Sciences University, Isparta, Turkey | [b] Civil Engineering Department, Engineering Faculty of Afyon Kocatepe University, Afyonkarahisar, Turkey | [c] Civil & Environmental Engineering, College of Engineering, University of Wisconsin, Madison, USA

Correspondence: [*] Corresponding author. İsmail Zorluer, Civil Engineering Department, Engineering Faculty of Afyon Kocatepe University, Afyonkarahisar, Turkey. Tel.: +90 272 228 23 00/Ext. 2381; Fax: +90 272 2181422; E-mail: izorluer@aku.edu.tr.

Abstract: Liquefaction is an important damage potential event after earthquakes. Therefore, liquefaction potential of soil should be estimated correctly to decrease these damages. It has been developed a lot of methods for liquefaction estimation based on semi-empirical simplified procedure. In this study, fuzzy logic soil liquefaction potential determination method was first described and then compared with both field observations and other semi-empirical simplified soil liquefaction determination methods. 250 site observations given in the literature were used in both methods. Soil liquefaction potential was predicted successfully using this both methods for the 220 cases out of 250. It was made comparison using these methods for remaining 30 cases. The fuzzy soil liquefaction assessment with certain probabilities provided the authors involved in the design and construction stages to make a flexible decision. Then fuzzy logic liquefaction determination method is applied on the Sirt bridge case in Afyonkarahisar /Turkey. It was decided to construct a sufficient amount of piles under the Sirt bridge foundation for the purpose of decreasing the effects of a possible soil liquefaction occurrence.

Keywords: Earthquake, soil liquefaction, fuzzy logic, bridge foundation

DOI: 10.3233/JIFS-181795

Journal: Journal of Intelligent & Fuzzy Systems, vol. 36, no. 6, pp. 6001-6011, 2019