Mitigation of earthquake-induced liquefaction and lateral spread deformation by applying ground granulated blast furnace slag

In recent years, the rapid growth of steel production has accelerated the generation of ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBFS). To reduce the environmental problems caused by the excessive accumulation of GGBFS, this study examined the potential of using GGBFS for soil improvement to mitigate earthquake-induced soil liquefaction. Twenty-nine stress-controlled undrained cyclic triaxial tests were conducted on saturated sands reinforced with and without GGBFS. The influence of the GGBFS content, cyclic stress ratio, and effective confining pressure on the liquefaction behavior of improved and unimproved sands was investigated. The experimental results showed that as the GGBFS content increased, the rate of improvement in liquefaction resistance increased, and the largest liquefaction resistance improvement rate of the sample with 17.5 % GGBFS content reached 1060 %. Besides, the reinforcement effect of GGBFS applied to mildly sloping liquefiable ground was also studied by numerical modeling method. The numerical simulation results further indicated that the liquefaction-induced lateral spread deformations can indeed be reduced due to the presence of GGBFS.