Design of Substation Foundations for Liquefaction

Burton, Pete; Buhr, Craig; ,

Design of Substation Foundations for Liquefaction

by Pete Burton, Burns & McDonnell, Kansas City, United States,
Craig Buhr, Burns & McDonnell, Kansas City, United States,

Document Type: Proceeding Paper

Part of: Lifeline Earthquake Engineering

Abstract:

When substation foundations penetrate liquefiable strata within risk prone seismic regions, the potential loss of support must be evaluated with state-of-the-art methods to determine foundation reliability during critical earthquake events. Drilled shaft foundations subject to relatively large overturning moments, compression loads, and uplift loads at the Bennettsville 230/69-kV substation in Marlboro County, South Carolina were designed to accommodate the corresponding loss in soil strength resulting from liquefaction of underlying, loose, saturated sands. The LIQUEFY2 program was used to predict which strata are prone to liquefaction. Additional substation locations in South Carolina have been evaluated for this same regional electric utility client. However, not all of these sites have been found to contain liquefiable soils. Liquefaction risk analysis and reliable foundation design are subject to site specific design requirements.

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