Experimental study on liquefaction flow characteristics of saturated coral sand considering the influence of particle gradation

Experimental study on liquefaction flow characteristics of saturated coral sand considering the influence of particle gradation | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Experimental study on liquefaction flow characteristics of saturated coral sand considering the influence of particle gradation Zhenglong Zhou, Ziyi Ye, Zhengyang Zhang, Qi Wu, Guoxing Chen, and 1 more This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-6588833/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Under seismic loading, saturated coral sand is prone to liquefaction, leading to damage of structures on coral reefs. Due to hydraulic sorting, coral sand in different sites often has varying particle gradations. This study reinterprets liquefiable coral sand as a non-Newtonian fluid and systematically investigates the rheological characteristics controlled by mean particle size ( d 50 ), coefficient of uniformity ( C u ), and fines content ( F c ) through undrained cyclic triaxial tests. Experimental results show that apparent viscosity ( η ) correlated with the number of cyclic loading cycles ( N ) are significantly influenced by particle gradation. The decay rate of the η - N curve decelerate with increasing d 50 , accelerate with increasing C u , and initially accelerate then decelerate with increasing F c . When F c = 30%, the rates are highest. The apparent viscosity gradient (∆ η / η ) initially remain steady, then rapidly increase, and sharply decrease with increasing excess pore water pressure ratio ( r u ). When r u reaches about 0.9, the saturated coral sand changes from solid-liquid phase transition state to fully liquid state. This transition process is not influenced by particle gradation. It is suggested that a value of r u reaching 0.9 be adopted as the liquefaction criterion of coral sand sites. Saturated coral sand Particle gradation Undrained cyclic triaxial test Liquefaction flow Apparent viscosity Full Text Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. 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Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-6588833","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":453658592,"identity":"172783b9-a943-44b2-9ef0-3686044e5394","order_by":0,"name":"Zhenglong Zhou","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAA9klEQVRIiWNgGAWjYDACCSBmbACxmEGkDQ8/fwPRWsBkmozkjAOkaTlsY9CQgF+H/OzmY5I/d9jkMfAvbHxc8Os8jwHDAcYPH3Nwa2GccyxNQvJMWjGDxMNm45l9t3nMmRuYJWduw62FWSLHTMKw7XBig8TBNmnents8lg0H2Jh58WhhA2lJbPsP03KOx+BAAn4tPCAtB9sOJDbwN7ZJ8/w4QFiLhERasmVjW3JimwRjszFvQzKP5IyDzXj9Ij8j+eDNn212if38hw8+5vljZ8/P33zww0c8WpA8lQAMvzYQExJNRAD+A0DiD5GKR8EoGAWjYEQBAJ34URM0kGfoAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0009-0009-6750-1014","institution":"Nanjing Tech University","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Zhenglong","middleName":"","lastName":"Zhou","suffix":""},{"id":453658593,"identity":"8e134dc4-1204-4ca1-9a96-8e1388d2d7bf","order_by":1,"name":"Ziyi Ye","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Nanjing Tech University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Ziyi","middleName":"","lastName":"Ye","suffix":""},{"id":453658594,"identity":"2f3e1ded-86e9-4d6d-8c3c-8c179e1c6aff","order_by":2,"name":"Zhengyang Zhang","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Nanjing Tech University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Zhengyang","middleName":"","lastName":"Zhang","suffix":""},{"id":453658595,"identity":"af19c950-3a4f-4ef7-b20e-74d65e229ad3","order_by":3,"name":"Qi Wu","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Nanjing Tech University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Qi","middleName":"","lastName":"Wu","suffix":""},{"id":453658596,"identity":"862db8ad-8853-4507-97b9-13b07c393b44","order_by":4,"name":"Guoxing Chen","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Nanjing Tech University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Guoxing","middleName":"","lastName":"Chen","suffix":""},{"id":453658597,"identity":"9d284f91-a2bb-4dac-aafc-6c9662af5640","order_by":5,"name":"Bin Ruan","email":"","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8095-7245","institution":"Huazhong University of Science and Technology","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Bin","middleName":"","lastName":"Ruan","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2025-05-04 14:14:35","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-6588833/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-6588833/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":87634529,"identity":"59524594-6e6e-4feb-9a60-c1de845f42bc","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-07-26 10:58:12","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":1036586,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"Manuscript.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-6588833/v1_covered_e48929a3-16c2-4cde-a750-3a7d3e887cd7.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"","formattedTitle":"Experimental study on liquefaction flow characteristics of saturated coral sand considering the influence of particle gradation","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":false,"hideJournal":true,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"Saturated coral sand, Particle gradation, Undrained cyclic triaxial test, Liquefaction flow, Apparent viscosity","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-6588833/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-6588833/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003eUnder seismic loading, saturated coral sand is prone to liquefaction, leading to damage of structures on coral reefs. Due to hydraulic sorting, coral sand in different sites often has varying particle gradations. This study reinterprets liquefiable coral sand as a non-Newtonian fluid and systematically investigates the rheological characteristics controlled by mean particle size (\u003cem\u003ed\u003c/em\u003e\u003csub\u003e50\u003c/sub\u003e), coefficient of uniformity (\u003cem\u003eC\u003c/em\u003e\u003csub\u003eu\u003c/sub\u003e), and fines content (\u003cem\u003eF\u003c/em\u003e\u003csub\u003ec\u003c/sub\u003e) through undrained cyclic triaxial tests. Experimental results show that apparent viscosity (\u003cem\u003eη\u003c/em\u003e) correlated with the number of cyclic loading cycles (\u003cem\u003eN\u003c/em\u003e) are significantly influenced by particle gradation. The decay rate of the \u003cem\u003eη\u003c/em\u003e-\u003cem\u003eN\u003c/em\u003e curve decelerate with increasing \u003cem\u003ed\u003c/em\u003e\u003csub\u003e50\u003c/sub\u003e, accelerate with increasing \u003cem\u003eC\u003c/em\u003e\u003csub\u003eu\u003c/sub\u003e, and initially accelerate then decelerate with increasing \u003cem\u003eF\u003c/em\u003e\u003csub\u003ec\u003c/sub\u003e. When \u003cem\u003eF\u003c/em\u003e\u003csub\u003ec\u003c/sub\u003e = 30%, the rates are highest. The apparent viscosity gradient (∆\u003cem\u003eη\u003c/em\u003e/\u003cem\u003eη\u003c/em\u003e) initially remain steady, then rapidly increase, and sharply decrease with increasing excess pore water pressure ratio (\u003cem\u003er\u003c/em\u003e\u003csub\u003eu\u003c/sub\u003e). When \u003cem\u003er\u003c/em\u003e\u003csub\u003eu\u003c/sub\u003e reaches about 0.9, the saturated coral sand changes from solid-liquid phase transition state to fully liquid state. This transition process is not influenced by particle gradation. It is suggested that a value of \u003cem\u003er\u003c/em\u003e\u003csub\u003eu\u003c/sub\u003e reaching 0.9 be adopted as the liquefaction criterion of coral sand sites.\u003c/p\u003e","manuscriptTitle":"Experimental study on liquefaction flow characteristics of saturated coral sand considering the influence of particle gradation","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2025-05-13 11:39:50","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-6588833/v1","editorialEvents":[{"type":"communityComments","content":0}],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"60e78e2a-889b-4c93-a8bc-96796f1abaf4","owner":[],"postedDate":"May 13th, 2025","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"posted","subjectAreas":[],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2025-07-26T10:50:03+00:00","versionOfRecord":[],"versionCreatedAt":"2025-05-13 11:39:50","video":"","vorDoi":"","vorDoiUrl":"","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-6588833","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-6588833","identity":"rs-6588833","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"XKTyCvWXoU3ODBz1xrDgd","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}