Geotechnical Centrifuge Test of a Pile-Supported Wharf in Silt (Test AEP01)

There have been many documented cases in the U.S. and elsewhere of failure to ports, wharves, and bridges during seismic events due to liquefaction of soils adjacent to foundations. The major design guidelines for surface and maritime transportation structures, such as those offered in ASCE 61-14, Port of Anchorage Seismic Design Manual (POA 2017), AASHTO (2020), Caltrans (2012), and many others, differ considerably on the recommendations for combining the expected inertial and kinematic loads on the pile system. This knowledge gap becomes wider for pile foundations embedded in low plasticity silt, as varying opinions exist on the appropriate characterization of its cyclic behavior (Boulanger and Idriss 2006; Bray and Sancio 2006). To investigate the response of a pile-supported wharf embedded in silty soil and subjected to inertial and kinematic loading, via the dynamic response of the wharf deck and the liquefaction-induced lateral spreading of the surrounding soils, respectively, a full-scale centrifuge test (AEP01) was performed at the Center for Geotechnical Modeling (CGM) at the University of California Davis (UCD). This centrifuge model was built and tested between July and October of 2024 and contained over 120 sensors to monitor various soil behaviors and structural mechanisms during the application of several ground motions. All data collected from this test will be made available through the Natural Hazard Engineering Research Infrastructure (NHERI) DesignSafe website.