Oscillatory soil response and liquefaction in an unsaturated layered seabed

The subject of wave-induced soil response in a real seabed has attracted the attention of geotechnical and coastal engineers over the last three decades, for which several basic theories have been developed. However, the evaluation of soil liquefaction has not been attempted theoretically in a seabed with multiple sub-layers, in which homogeneity in soil properties can be assumed within each layer. In this study, a semi-analytical approach is presented for obtaining solutions for the pore pressure and effective stresses in a non-cohesive layered seabed of finite thickness subject to a system of three-dimensional waves. Based on the numerical results for a layered seabed, influences of soil characteristics (relative layer thickness, permeability ratio and shear modulus) on seabed responses are described. Special attention is given to the effect of placing a coarser material as a top layer for protecting an underlayer of finer sediment. Although only a three-layered seabed is explicitly solved in this study, the procedure outlined can readily be extended to a multi-layered soil system. The three-dimensional solutions can also be applied to the two-dimensional progressive or standing wave systems.