Equivalent Number of Uniform Cycles Versus Earthquake Magnitude Relationships For Fine-Grained Soils

Page 1 of 49
For personal use only. This Just-IN manuscript is the accepted manuscript prior to copy editing and page composition. It may differ from the final official version of record.
Equivalent number of uniform cycles versus earthquake magnitude

relationships for fine-grained soils
Can. Geotech. J. Downloaded from www.nrcresearchpress.com by UNIVERSITY OF RHODE ISLAND on 12/01/18
By
First Author – Priyesh Verma

Ph.D. Candidate
Department of Civil Engineering
University of British Columbia
Vancouver, British Columbia
Canada V6T 1Z4
Email: priyesh.verma.88@civil.ubc.ca
Second Author – Ainur Seidalinova

Geotechnical Engineer
Klohn Crippen Berger
Vancouver, British Columbia
Canada V5M 4X6
Email: aseidalinova@klohn.com
Corresponding and Third Author – Dharma Wijewickreme, Ph.D., P.Eng.

Professor of Civil Engineering
University of British Columbia
Vancouver, B.C., Canada, V6T 1Z4
Tel.: +1 604 822 5112
Fax: +1 (604)-822-6901
E-mail: dharmaw@civil.ubc.ca
Manuscript Submitted for

Possible Publication as an Article
in the Canadian Geotechnical Journal
November 26, 2018
1
For personal use only. This Just-IN manuscript is the accepted manuscript prior to copy editing and page composition. It may differ from the final official version of record. Page 2 of 49
Abstract
In the current geotechnical seismic design practice, the empirical correlation between equivalent
number of uniform cycles (Neq) of shaking and earthquake magnitude (Mw) forms an integral
part of liquefaction potential evaluation. The relationship, in turn, is used to derive the magnitude
scaling factors that are commonly used in the field-based liquefaction evaluation procedures.
The equivalent number of uniform cycles (Neq) versus earthquake magnitude (Mw) relationships
for liquefaction assessment was examined for fine-grained soils using time-histories ranging
from 5 < Mw ≤ 9 especially including the strong ground motion time histories from latest
subduction zone earthquakes with Mw > 8.0. The experimental database available from cyclic
direct simple shear (DSS) tests conducted on natural fine-grained soils retrieved from
undisturbed soil sampling was used to obtain the cyclic shear resistance weighting curves for the
study. The work presented herein has contributed to further improving the current models used
to represent magnitude scaling factor (MSF) values for large earthquake magnitudes and the
functional dependency of this parameter on soil type. The MSF-Mw curve derived for low-plastic
Fraser River Delta silt lies in-between the MSF curves derived for clean sand and clay,
resonating with the inferences that have been made that the silt behavior can neither be
considered sand-like nor clay-like.
Keywords: equivalent number of uniform cycles, low-plastic silts, liquefaction, fine-grained

soils, magnitude scaling factor.
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Introduction
In the seismic liquefaction assessment of soils, the irregular cyclic loading history from the real-
life earthquake is converted to the occurrence of some equivalent number of constant-amplitude
sinusoidal uniform loading cycles using a damage-based weighting curve. In their original work
on this subject, Seed and Idriss (1971) established that equivalent number of uniform cycles
(Neq) can be correlated with earthquake magnitude (Mw), and this in turn, formed the basis for
the magnitude (duration) scaling factors (MSFs) which are used in the field-based liquefaction
evaluations of soil deposits (Idriss 1999). The Neq versus Mw relationships and MSFs formed on
the above basis have been further studied by a number of researchers over the past two decades
(e.g., Liu et al. 2001; Boulanger and Idriss 2004; Green and Terri 2005) with respect to sands
without considering the potential for functional dependence of these relations on any soil
property. In recognition of such limitations and considering the findings from Idriss (1999),
Boulanger and Idriss (2007), Dahl (2011), and Kishida and Tsai (2014) as the basis, Boulanger
and Idriss (2015) further examined the results from cyclic shear testing for a range of soil types
and densities and proposed the new revised MSF relationships for use in practice. In this,
Boulanger and Idriss (2015) emphasized the need for additional validation of the observed trends
considering the dependency with respect to soil type and properties (e.g., considering fine-
grained soils and soil plasticity), particularly highlighting the value of employing data from
laboratory cyclic shear testing of undisturbed field samples for such validations.
In consideration of the above, it was judged appropriate to further examine the relationship
between Neq and Mw and the associated MSFs, using the weighting curves generated from the
laboratory cyclic direct simple shear (DSS) testing undertaken at the University of British
3
Columbia (UBC) with respect to a number of fine-grained natural soils, and this paper presents
the key findings from this work. The earthquake ground motions available from current
databases for the magnitude range 5 < Mw ≤ 9 were used in this exercise; in particular, the strong
ground motions available from recent subduction zone earthquakes with Mw > 8.0 were included,
thus covering a wider magnitude range compared to those used in the previous studies. The
above extended ground motion database was also used to validate/calibrate the extrapolation of
the current MSF relationships for sands, which have been developed using time histories for
earthquakes with Mw < 8.0.
In the following sections, the concepts pertaining to the development of Neq versus Mw
relationships is initially presented; this is followed by information on the cyclic resistance ratio
(CRR) characteristics available from the UBC experimental data on fine-grained soils. The
details on the earthquake time histories for developing equivalent number of uniform cycles and
algorithm used for computing equivalent number of uniform cycles are then described. A
detailed discussion of the findings with reference to Neq versus Mw relationships for different soil
types, the effect of soil parameters on these relationships, and the implication of the findings
with respect to the resulting MSF versus Mw relationships are presented in the subsequent
sections.
Representation of irregular earthquake as uniform cyclic loading
The cyclic shear resistance of a given material from laboratory element tests is typically
expressed as a relationship between the applied cyclic stress ratio (CSR) versus number of
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loading cycles (NL) to reach a certain cyclic strain amplitude criterion to define “liquefaction”
(the cyclic strain amplitude criterion for NL is defined later in the text); this relationship also
serves as the weighting curve for converting the irregular series of earthquake-induced cyclic
stresses into an “equivalently” damaging sinusoidal uniform stress cycles to evaluate the
liquefaction triggering potential of soils (Seed et al. 1975). As proposed by Seed et al. (1975),
CSR is defined as: CSR = τcyc/σ'v0, where: (a) τcyc is defined (as a reference shear stress level)
equal to 65% of the peak cyclic shear stress arising on a given soil element from the loading
from an earthquake time history. In laboratory cyclic tests, τcyc would be equal to the constant
amplitude of sinusoidal loading applied on a given soil specimen; and (b) σ'v0 is the initial
vertical effective confining stress of the respective soil element in the field, or that applied to the
laboratory soil specimen of interest. The CSR versus NL relationship can be approximated using
a power law as:
CSR = a × (NL) ―b [1]
where a and b depend on the soil type, and b essentially represents the slope of the curve. The
Neq value determined for a given ground motion is strongly dependent on this slope of the
weighting curve.
As also explained by Boulanger and Idriss (2004), if two individual stress cycles having
different stress amplitudes named CSR1 and CSR2 are considered, then using equation [1], the
ratio of relative number of loading cycles NL(1) and NL(2), respectively, to cause liquefaction at
these two stress ratios can be expressed as,
1
NL(2)
NL(1) = ( )
CSR1
CSR2
b
[2]
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Since the laboratory-based CSR versus NL relationship is established using the identical strain-
based definition of unacceptable performance (typically the achievement of a shear strain
criterion in a cyclic shear test), it is rational to assume that the damage caused by one (1) cycle of
stress at CSR1 is equivalent to the damage caused by N cycles at CSR2. This would lead to the
following expression,
N= ( ) (1 cycle)
CSR1
CSR2
b
[3]
This simple mathematical expression can, therefore, be used to convert an individual stress
cycle into an equivalent number of uniform cycles at the selected reference stress level (here
shown by CSR2). A similar mathematical approach is also suggested by Boulanger and Idriss
(2004). It is apparent from equation (3) that the slope of the relationship between CSR and NL
(i.e., the value of exponent-b) plays an important role in making these determinations.
Recognizing this factor, Seed et al. (1975) recommended deriving the slope of the weighting
curve by means of a series of simple shear tests (as it can closely mimic the earthquake loading)
for a particular soil type under investigation. After examining the laboratory cyclic shear test
data performed by Yoshimi et al. (1984) on Niigata sand obtained using high-quality frozen
sampling techniques, Boulanger and Idriss (2004) determined that an exponent-b of 0.337 would
be suitable for clean sands. For clays and plastic silts, they suggested an exponent-b of 0.135
would be appropriate based on an average value determined by using data from limited direct
simple shear test results. At that time, they developed this relationship without including the
functional dependency on any soil property. Kishida and Tsai (2014) more recently developed a
predictive model for Neq as a function of earthquake magnitude, peak ground acceleration, and
soil property. The strong effect of soil properties on Neq versus Mw relationships was also noted
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by Boulanger and Idriss (2015). After careful review of the available experimental data on wide
range of plastic fine-grained soils in the literature, they showed that the average slope of the
weighting curve could vary between 0.1 to 0.135 for fines content ranging from 45% to 100%
and plasticity index (PI) from 2 to 30, in turn, affecting the Neq versus Mw relationships for fine-
grained soils. They also emphasized the need for additional validation of the trends for the slope
of the weighting curve obtained from laboratory cyclic shear testing of low-plasticity fine-
grained soils.
The work by Boulanger and Idriss (2015) have well advanced this topic further; the relevant
findings from their work are specifically considered in the evaluations in the next sections, and
they are not presented herein for brevity.
Cyclic resistance ratio (CRR) characterized from experimental data on fine-
grained soils
The comprehensive experimental database developed from advanced laboratory testing of
undisturbed field samples on fine-grained soils at UBC was used to select the appropriate
weighting curves for the current investigation. The database was developed from the laboratory
tests conducted using the UBC-DSS test apparatus. This device is a modified Marshall-Silver-
NGI-type DSS device (Silver and Seed 1971) that uses a cylindrical soil specimen and follows
the DSS testing methodology as described by Bjerrum and Landva (1966). The DSS test
apparatus was considered appropriate as it can effectively mimic the anticipated stress conditions
the soil mass would undergo during the earthquake loading (Finn et al. 1978). More specific
7
details about the UBC-DSS device is available in Soysa (2015). The particle size distribution and
the average index properties of fine-grained soils for which the test results were available from
the UBC database are shown in Fig. 1 and Table 1, respectively.

Sanin (2010) conducted a series of constant-volume cyclic DSS tests on normally
consolidated undisturbed Fraser River Delta silt at different initial confining stress levels of 85,
100, 200, 300 and 400 kPa, and at different cyclic stress ratios (CSRs). Fig. 2 shows the
relationship between the applied CSR and the number of loading cycles to reach a single
amplitude limiting horizontal shear strain (γ) of 3.75%, NL (hereinafter referred to as shear strain
criterion). In cyclic shear tests, the attainment of the strain criterion is commonly used to define
the onset of “liquefaction” or unacceptable performance. Keeping in accord with the NRC (1985)
recommendations, the number of loading cycles to reach a single amplitude horizontal shear
strain (γ) of 3.75% under a given applied cyclic shear stress ratio has been used as the shear
strain criterion herein. The plotted data points for Fraser River silt fell within a single trend line
(slope with exponent-b of 0.154) and were found to be relatively insensitive to the confining
pressures. Sanin (2010) also conducted three constant-volume cyclic DSS tests on undisturbed
field samples of Kitimat clay of PI = 17. The exponent-b was found to be 0.129 for this material
(Fig. 3).
Similarly, Soysa (2015) conducted a series of constant-volume cyclic DSS tests on normally
consolidated undisturbed low-plastic natural silt specimens retrieved from Serpentine River
sediments in Lower Mainland of British Columbia with a PI of 7. Fig. 4 shows the plot between
the applied CSR and the number of loading cycles to reach a single amplitude horizontal shear
strain (γ) of 3.75% for the tested silt material. The exponent-b was found to be 0.118, which is
significantly less steep than the exponent-b obtained for the Fraser River Delta silt. As per the
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available surficial geological information (Armstrong 1984), while both these soils were
deposited during the Holocene period, the upper layer zones of Serpentine River sediments
comprise of thick sequences of moderately to highly compressible fine-grained sediments with
localized organic soils and peat deposits of variable thickness, compared to the Fraser River
Delta silt that originated from a buried channel-fill deposit. Although a specific reason cannot be
given, it is possible that the differences in the depositional mechanism could contribute to the
differences in soil particle fabric/microstructure for these deposits which in turn, may have led to
the differences in the exponent-b values with respect to cyclic shear resistance.
In essence, the CRR versus NL curves derived from experimental data compiled from the
UBC’s database as per above suggest that the exponent-b ranges from 0.118 - 0.154 for the
tested fine-grained soils. Boulanger and Idriss (2004) examined the cyclic test data from the
previous researchers (Moriwaki et al. 1982; Andersen et al. 1988; Azzouz et al. 1989; Lefebvre
and Pfendler 1996) and suggested an exponent-b of 0.135 for clays and plastic silts. They
suggested this value after averaging the exponent-b values derived from direct simple shear test
results on clays. Although a reasonable scatter in the exponent-b has been observed in the
literature, they used the averaged value for clay-like material for the sake of its practical
simplicity. More recently, Boulanger and Idriss (2015) studied the effect of exponent-b on Neq by
using the cyclic test data compiled by Dahl (2011) for a wide range of plastic fine-grained soils.
The study was made using a total of 42 ground motions between Mw ranging from 7.3 - 7.6.
After carefully analyzing the data, they found a general trend that the average exponent-b value
ranged from 0.1 to 0.135 for soils with a PI range from 2 to 30.
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These observations suggest that it is of significant practical value to examine the relationship
between Neq as a function of the b-exponent for different earthquake magnitude range and further
calibrate/validate the relationships developed by Boulanger and Idriss (2015).

Earthquake time histories for developing equivalent number of uniform cycles
The earthquake database used in this study consists of a randomly selected 410 time histories
recorded from 31 different earthquakes with 5 < Mw ≤ 9 and site-to-source distance < 200 km.
These ground motions are from shallow crustal, and subduction earthquakes from worldwide
events including the recent Chile and Tohoku earthquakes. These earthquakes, in order of
increasing Mw, and other relevant information used in this study are shown in Table 2. A typical
earthquake ground motion is described using three orthogonal components of translational
acceleration time histories – i.e., using two horizontal and one vertical component. For this
study, only the horizontal components of the ground motions were used; the vertical component
of the ground motions was excluded. The shallow crustal earthquake time histories (Mw ~ 5 - 8)
used in this study were retrieved from the extensive database available on the website of the
Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research (PEER) center (www.peer.berkeley.edu). The
subduction earthquake time histories (Mw ~ 8 - 9) were downloaded from the Center for
Engineering Strong Motion Data (CESMD) website (www.strongmotioncenter.org). The records
downloaded from CESMD database were baseline corrected with a linear function and filtered
with a 4-th order band-pass Butterworth filter with cut-off frequencies of 0.10 and 25 Hz before
application in this study. This filtering process was considered in this study to remove the noise
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that is apparent in an actual raw earthquake time history data; the noise can arise due to deviation
from the baseline, high/low frequency contamination, and other trend errors. This approach of
processing the earthquake time histories to be more representative of the actual event has been
commonly used by number of researchers (e.g., Hudson 1979; Wilson 1998) including those at
UBC (e.g., Amirzehni 2016; Bebamzadeh et al. 2016). No alteration in the original ground
motions was considered necessary for the records downloaded from PEER database as they were
already filtered, and baseline corrected by the owner.
For this study, all the selected earthquake ground motions were considered to be sufficiently
close to the free-field ground surface conditions. The effect of the variation of Neq with the depth
of soil profile was studied by Lee and Chan (1972). They showed that the computed Neq value for
any one site and earthquake remains approximately constant with depth. Therefore, the
earthquake time histories recorded at or near the ground surface were used and considered
reasonable to determine Neq for liquefaction analysis.
Algorithm for computing equivalent number of uniform cycles from
earthquake time histories
A computer code developed at the University of California, Davis, United States using
Mathcad2.0 (PTC Mathcad 2014) software was generously made available for this study by
Boulanger (2016). The provided code was modified and automated by the first two authors using
MATLAB2010a (MathWorks 2016) software to run multiple ground motions at the same time
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and to compute its corresponding Neq. Fig. 5 shows the flowchart of the algorithm used to
determine Neq in this study.
In its basic form, the code initially loads the irregular acceleration time series from the
earthquake data file and then normalizes it with respect to its absolute maximum acceleration
value │Amax│. This ratio of acceleration at ground surface (A) with absolute maximum
acceleration at the ground surface (A /│Amax│) can also be interpreted as the ratio of cyclic
stress ratio to maximum induced cyclic stress ratio (CSR / CSRmax) for a given acceleration time
series from an earthquake (Green and Terri 2005). An acceleration time series normalized based
on this approach is presented in Fig. 6 to serve as an example.
It is important to note that the normalized absolute acceleration values below 10% of the
maximum were not considered in the present analysis. These acceleration values are considered
sufficiently low that their contribution in determining Neq can be neglected without significant
error. A similar cut-off was adopted by Boulanger and Idriss (2004). Lee and Chan (1972) also
avoided the use of ground motions having A /│Amax│< 0.1 g in their study. They stated that the
use of these small ground motions would unnecessarily mask the significant trend between Neq
and earthquake magnitude. Seed et al. (1975), however, recommended neglecting the
acceleration values below 30% of the maximum in their analysis.
The code, in the next step, removes all the data points leaving only the positive and negative
peaks of the normalized acceleration time series; the normalized acceleration time series with
positive and negative peaks derived from the time history in Fig. 6 are shown in Fig. 7. At this
point, the user can input the exponent-b value and the reference stress level (CSRref) required to
compute the Neq. Seed and Idriss (1971) and Seed et al. (1975) suggested to use a reference stress
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level (CSRref) at 65% of CSRmax and this reference CSR has been used for all the Neq
computations in this paper.
In the final step, the code computes the equivalent number of uniform stress cycles at the
reference stress level by summing the corresponding absolute value for each peak (e.g., as shown
in Fig. 7) considered as a half cycle as shown in the equation below,
[( ]
CSRi b
)
│(|CSR |)│
1 i = all peaks max
Neq = ∑
2 i=1 CSRref [4]
As a way of cross-checking and verifying, the modified code was executed to reproduce the
previous results by Boulanger and Idriss (2004) using the same exponent-b values, CSRref, and
earthquake ground motions. The derived relationship between Mw and Neq from this study are
compared with those from Boulanger and Idriss (2004) in Fig. 8. For example, at Mw = 7.5,
Boulanger and Idriss (2004) estimated the equivalent number of uniform cycles for sand
(exponent-b = 0.337) to be 16.2 and for clay (exponent-b = 0.135) to be 30.8. At the same
magnitude, after exponential curve fitting, the algorithm used herein estimated the equivalent
number of uniform cycles for sand as 16.0 and for clay as 30.5. The small discrepancies in the
estimated Neq are believed to be due to some earthquake ground motions that were substituted for
the verification run. Nonetheless, the closeness in the estimated results confirmed that the new
code is performing to meet the intended purpose.
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Results and discussion
Using the approach defined above, the Neq values were derived for each of the available ground
surface accelerograms, using the corresponding exponent-b values for different soil types
computed from the UBC experimental data as well as from available literature (for comparison).
An exponential trendline that would best-fit the generated data points was considered to obtain
the Neq versus Mw relationships.
Both the horizontal components of ground motions corresponding to a given earthquake event
were used as two separate input time histories in these computations; the vertical component of
the motion was not included. No consistent pattern was recognized in the computed values of Neq
between the two horizontal components of ground motion, and as such, both the derived Neq
values were used to derive the relationship between Neq and Mw.
The overall findings from this study are summarized in the following sections.
Effect of the selected Mw range on the Neq versus Mw relationships
The Neq versus Mw relationships derived for clean sand (exponent-b value = 0.337), clay
(exponent-b value = 0.135), and Fraser River Delta silt (exponent-b value = 0.154) are shown in
Figs. 9 through 11, respectively. Fig. 9 presents the curves with the data points to get an
appreciation for the scatter. Figs. 10 and 11 have been plotted without the data points for clarity.
It is important to be mindful of the effects this scatter has on these “curve-fitted” relationships
when they are chosen for engineering analysis and design.
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In a given figure, the best-fit curves obtained for Neq versus Mw relationships considering
different Mw ranges (of 7 < Mw < 8, 7 < Mw ≤ 9, and 5 < Mw ≤ 9) are depicted. The Neq versus
Mw relationships derived for all soil types are found to be sensitive to the different earthquake
magnitude range considered in the curve fitting exercise. Table 3 presents the Neq computed from
the trend lines at Mw = 7.5 for different soil types. It is of value to note that the difference in the
Neq values obtained at Mw = 7.5 for a given soil-type are not significant for the curves drawn
with the magnitude ranges 7 < Mw < 8 and 7 < Mw ≤ 9, however, for the magnitude range 5 < Mw
≤ 9 the computed Neq values at Mw = 7.5 seems to higher for a given soil-type.
In spite of considerable scatter in the data (see Fig. 9), as expected, the general trend suggests
that Neq would increase with increasing Mw regardless of the soil type or the chosen magnitude
range. This correlation is also consistent with the findings from the previous researchers (e.g.,
Lee and Chan 1972; Seed et al. 1975; Idriss 1999; Boulanger and Idriss 2004, 2015).
As per Figs. 9 through 11, the current study predicts a lower rate of increase in the Neq with
respect to Mw when the earthquake magnitude range between 5 < Mw ≤ 9 is considered in
drawing the trend curve when compared with that for the 7 < Mw < 8 range. For clays (exponent-
b = 0.135), the lower rate of increase in the Neq values for magnitude range 5-9 could be
observed more prominently (see Fig. 10). In other words, the inclusion of subduction zone
ground motion with Mw > 8 in developing the Neq versus Mw correlation reduces the rate at
which Neq increase with Mw.
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Effect of soil type (exponent-b) on equivalent number of uniform cycles
It is of interest to further examine the effect of different soil types (i.e., exponent-b values) on the
Neq versus Mw relationships as shown in Fig. 12. The curves shown in Fig. 12 were obtained by
exponential curve-fitting for the Neq values derived for the earthquake magnitude range 5 < Mw ≤
9.
The trend from the fitted curves suggests that for a given earthquake magnitude, the value of
Neq would generally decrease with increasing exponent-b value. Again, as expected, for all soil
types, the Neq would increase gradually with increasing earthquake magnitude. Clearly, the
strong dependency of the Neq - Mw relationship to the soil types is well illustrated.
In Fig. 13, the effect of exponent-b value on Neq from this study is compared with the results
from Kishida and Tsai (2014) and Boulanger and Idriss (2015), for the case of Mw = 7.5. As may
be noted, the values derived from this study match well with the mean values estimated by
Kishida and Tsai (2014), and they are slightly higher than those predicted by Boulanger and
Idriss (2015). The values for Neq for Mw = 7.5 decreased progressively and approached a
relatively constant value asymptotically with increasing exponent-b value.
It is of practical interest herein to examine the variation of Neq with the exponent-b for
different Mw levels as shown in Fig. 14. For example, this will allow the estimation of
approximate values of Neq for different design earthquakes corresponding to a particular soil type
in analysis.
The data from the present study also provides an opportunity to explore the potential
relationship between the index properties of the fine-grained soils from this study with the
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exponent-b parameter. Fig. 15(a) and 15(b) shows the variation of exponent-b values with the
plasticity index (PI) and fines content, respectively, of different soil types from the present study.
The same relationship examined previously by Dahl (2011), considering cyclic DSS test data on
a range of plastic natural fine-grained soils, are also superimposed on Fig. 15(a) and 15(b) for
comparison purposes. Using this work by Dahl (2011), Boulanger and Idriss (2014) identified
that the average slope of the weighting curve for “clay-like” fine-grained soils could vary
between 0.1 to 0.135 for fines content ranging from 45% to 100% and plasticity index from 2 to
30. Evaluating the data from the present study, it appears that the exponent-b parameter of Fraser
River Delta silt (exponent-b = 0.154, PI = 4.1, fines content = 94%) is above the range identified
by Boulanger and Idriss (2014) for “clay-like” fine-grained soils but below than the “sand-like”
soils (exponent-b = 0.337). The other two fine-grained soils from the present study, the
Serpentine River sediments (exponent-b = 0.118, PI = 7, fines content = 98%) and the Kitimat
clay (exponent-b = 0.129, PI = 17, fines content = 100%), are within the general trend identified
by Boulanger and Idriss (2014) for “clay-like” fine-grained soils.
Fig. 15 (c through g) displays the variation of exponent-b parameter with the liquid limit (LL),
activity, water content to liquid limit ratio (Wc/LL), plastic limit (PL), and clay fraction,
respectively, of different soil types from the present study. As notable from Fig. 15(c), 15(d), and
15(e), the exponent-b parameter seems to decrease with increasing liquid limit (LL) and activity
[PI / clay fraction (%)] while it appears to increase with increasing (Wc/LL) of the soil types used
in this study. No definitive trend was noticeable for the exponent-b parameter with plastic limit
and clay content of the soil types used [Fig. 15(f) and 15(g)]. These observations made are based
on the data generated from limited number of soil types and more testing of other natural fine-
grained soils is required to arrive at robust conclusions.
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Neq versus Mw relationships for clean sand from different approaches

The computed values of Neq from this study for clean sands (exponent-b value = 0.337 and 5 <
Mw ≤ 9) are compared in Fig. 16 with those from previous studies by Idriss (1999), Liu et al.
(2001), Boulanger and Idriss (2004), and Kishida and Tsai (2014). The assessed Neq values from
the present study lie in-between the values suggested by Liu et al. (2001) and Kishida and Tsai
(2014) for 5 < Mw < 8, and slightly higher than those proposed by Boulanger and Idriss (2004)
considering 7 < Mw < 8. Beyond this magnitude range (i.e., for Mw > 8), the current study would
estimate lower Neq values when compared with those extrapolated from studies by Idriss (1999),
Liu et al. (2001), Boulanger and Idriss (2004), and Kishida and Tsai (2014).
Implications for magnitude scaling factor
Using the computed values of Neq versus Mw from this study for different soil types
(considering different exponent-b values determined for the range 5 < Mw ≤ 9 as shown in Fig.
12), the values of MSF could be estimated as per Idriss and Boulanger (2008). Fig. 17 presents
the variation of MSF against Mw derived for clean sand (exponent-b = 0.337) and clay
(exponent-b = 0.135), and other low-plastic fine-grained soils from the present study. The MSF
curves derived from this study have slightly less steep curves than those derived by Kishida and
Tsai (2014) and Boulanger and Idriss (2015). The MSF versus Mw curve derived for low-plastic
Fraser River Delta silt lies in-between the MSF curves derived for clean sand and clay, in turn,
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resonating with the inferences that have been made that the silt behavior can neither be
Boulanger and Idriss (2015) used a total of 42 shallow crustal ground motions ranging from
magnitude 7 < Mw < 8 to derive Neq versus Mw relationships for clean sand and the magnitude
scaling factors (MSFs) that are commonly used in the routine field-based liquefaction triggering
analysis. Using the computed values of Neq versus Mw from this study for clean sand (exponent-b
value = 0.337 for the range 5 < Mw ≤ 9 as shown in Fig. 16), the values of MSF could be
estimated. Fig. 18 compares these MSF values with those from Idriss (1999), Liu et al. (2001),
Boulanger and Idriss (2004, 2015), Cetin et al. (2004), and Kishida and Tsai (2014) for sand. As
may be noted, the effect of the differences in the Neq versus Mw relationships on the MSF values
are clearly visible; the MSF relationship for clean sand (exponent-b = 0.337) from this study
(taking into account the latest subduction ground motions) is less steep when compared with the
extrapolated MSF relationship by Boulanger and Idriss (2004, 2015).
Conclusions
The equivalent number of uniform cycles (Neq) versus earthquake magnitude (Mw) relationships
for liquefaction assessment was examined for fine-grained soils using time-histories ranging
from 5 < Mw ≤ 9; the strong ground motion time histories from latest subduction zone
earthquakes (Mw > 8.0) were specifically included. The experimental database available from
cyclic direct simple shear (DSS) tests conducted on natural fine-grained soils retrieved from
19
undisturbed soil sampling established at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
was used to obtain the cyclic shear resistance weighting curves for the study.
The effect of the considered earthquake magnitude range and soil type on the Neq versus Mw
relations were examined. For a given earthquake magnitude, Neq values were found to decrease
with increasing “slope” of the laboratory cyclic shear resistance curves (i.e., exponent-b value of
the weighting curve) revealing a strong dependency of Neq on different soil types.
It was found that the exponent-b parameter of Fraser River Delta silt was above the general
range of exponent-b values identified by Boulanger and Idriss (2014) for “clay-like” fine-grained
soils but less than “sand-like” soil (exponent-b = 0.337). As such, the MSF-Mw curve derived for
low-plastic Fraser River Delta silt lies in-between the MSF curves derived for clean sand and
clay, resonating with the inferences that have been made that the silt behavior can neither be
The work presented herein has contributed to further improving the current models used to
represent magnitude scaling effects in liquefaction assessments. In particular, the outcomes
provide insight into the MSF values for large earthquake magnitudes and the functional
dependency of this parameter on soil type.
The MSF relationship for clean sand (exponent-b = 0.337) from this study (taking into
account the latest subduction ground motions) is less steep when compared with the extrapolated
MSF relationship by Boulanger and Idriss (2004, 2015). It is important to note that these MSF
relations are based on Neq versus Mw relationships developed by curve-fitting to results from
analyses that provides a significant scatter.
20
Page 21 of 49
Acknowledgments
Experimental data presented and used for the analysis in this study were developed from the
cyclic DSS tests conducted in the geotechnical research laboratory facility at the University of
British Columbia by M. V. Sanin, and A. N. Soysa as a part of their graduate research work
under the supervision of the third author. We would also like to express our gratitude to Dr. Ross
W. Boulanger, Professor, Department of Civil and Environment Engineering, University of
California, Davis for generously providing the Mathcad computer code in support of this study.
The research funding provided by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of
Canada (NSERC) is also gratefully acknowledged.
References
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Department of Civil Engineering, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.
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Armstrong, J.E. 1984. Environmental and engineering application of the surficial geology of the
Fraser lowlands, British Columbia. In Geological Survey of Canada, Paper 83-23.
Azzouz, A.S., Malek, A.M., and Baligh, M.M. 1989. Cyclic behavior of clays in undrained
simple shear. Journal of Geotechnical Engineering, 115(5): 637–657.
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Boulanger, R.W. 2016. Personal Communication.
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Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, Univerisity of California, Davis, United
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Boulanger, R.W., and Idriss, I.M. 2007. Evaluation of cyclic softening in silts and clays. Journal
of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering, 133(6): 641–652.
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Report No. UCD/CGM-14/01, Center for Geotechnical Modeling, Department of Civil &
Environmental Engineering, Univerisity of California, Davis, United States, (April): 134 pp.
Boulanger, R.W., and Idriss, I.M. 2015. Magnitude scaling factors in liquefaction triggering
procedures. Soil Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering, 79: 296–303.
doi:10.1016/j.soildyn.2015.01.004.
Cetin, K.O., Seed, R.B., Der Kiureghian, A., Tokimatsu, K., Harder, L.F., Kayen, R.E., and
Moss, R.E.S. 2004. Standard penetration test-based probabilistic and deterministic
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Thesis, Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California, Davis, US.
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number of cycles for probabilistic seismic hazard analysis. Journal of Geotechnical and
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strength of a dense Niigata sand. Soils and Foundations, 24(4): 131–145.
23
List of symbols
Neq = equivalent number of uniform cycles

Mw = earthquake magnitude
NL = number of loading cycles to reach a single amplitude horizontal shear strain of 3.75%
γ = single amplitude horizontal shear strain

τcyc = constant amplitude of sinusoidal loading
σ'v0 = initial vertical effective confining stress
Gs = specific gravity
Wc = water content
A = acceleration at ground surface
Amax = maximum acceleration value at ground surface
24
Page 25 of 49
List of abbreviations
CESMD = Center for Engineering Strong Motion Data

CRR = Cyclic resistance ratio
CSR = Cyclic stress ratio
CSRref = reference stress level

CSRmax = maximum induced cyclic stress ratio
DSS = Direct simple shear
LL = Liquid limit
MSF = Magnitude scaling factor
NGI = Norwegian Geotechnical Institute
PEER = Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research
PI = Plasticity index
PL = Plastic limit
UBC = University of British Columbia
25
List of tables
(exponent-b values).
Table 2. List of earthquake ground motions used in this study.
Table 1. Index parameters of fine-grained soils used in this study.
26
Table 3. Neq computed from the trend lines at selected Mw = 7.5 for different soil types
Page 26 of 49
Page 27 of 49
List of figures
Fig. 1. Particle size distribution of fine-grained soils considered in this study.
Fig. 2. Cyclic stress ratio versus NL from constant-volume cyclic DSS tests on undisturbed
specimens prepared from normally consolidated Fraser River Delta silt at various initial
confining stress levels – extracted from Sanin (2010).
specimens prepared from normally consolidated Kitimat clay at σ'v0 = 80 kPa – extracted from
Sanin (2010).
specimens prepared from normally consolidated natural silt – extracted from Soysa (2015).
Fig. 5. Flowchart of the algorithm used to determine Neq in this study.
Fig. 6. An example of a normalized acceleration time history – 2002 Denali Earthquake, Alaska
(Mw = 7.9) K204 Station (360°) – downloaded from PEER database (www.peer.berkeley.edu).
Fig. 7. An example of a normalized acceleration time history with positive and negative peaks
after neglecting the amplitudes less than 10% of │Amax│for the time history shown in Fig. 6.
Fig. 8. Relationship between Mw and Neq from this study (left) compared with the results
obtained by Boulanger and Idriss (2004) (right). (Note: Nsand = Neq computed for sand with
exponent-b = 0.337 and Nclay = Neq computed for clay with exponent-b = 0.135).
Fig. 9. The equivalent number of uniform cycles (Neq) versus earthquake magnitude (Mw)
relationships derived for clean sand (exponent-b value = 0.337) considering different magnitude
ranges.
relationships derived for clay (exponent-b value = 0.135) considering different magnitude
ranges.
relationships derived for Fraser River Delta silt (exponent-b value = 0.154) considering different
magnitude ranges.
relationships derived for different soil types (shown by different exponent-b values) considering
5 < Mw ≤ 9 range.
Fig. 13. The effect of exponent-b on the equivalent number of uniform cycles for earthquake
magnitude Mw = 7.5 considering 5 < Mw ≤ 9.
27
Fig. 14. The Neq and exponent-b relationship developed for various earthquake magnitude
considering 5 < Mw ≤ 9.
Fig. 15. Variation of exponent-b parameter with index properties of the fine-grained soils from
this study.
Fig. 16. Neq versus Mw relationships for clean sand (exponent-b = 0.337) from different
approaches.
Fig. 17. Variation of magnitude scaling factors against earthquake magnitude for clean sand,
clay, and other low-plastic fine-grained soils considering 5 < Mw ≤ 9.
Fig. 18. The variation of magnitude scaling factors against earthquake magnitude for sand.
28
Page 29 of 49
Table 1. Index parameters of fine-grained soils used in this study.

Fraser River Delta silt Kitimat clay Serpentine River sediments
Soil Property
(Sanin 2010) (Sanin 2010) (Soysa 2015)
Water Content, Wc (%) 35 – 40 35 -38 38 – 53
Liquid Limit, LL (%) 30.4a 37a 41a
Plastic Limit, PL (%) 26.3a 10a 34a
Plasticity Index, PI (%) 4.1a 17a 7a
Unified Soil Classification ML CL ML

Specific Gravity, Gs 2.69 2.70 2.77
a – average values
Table 2. List of earthquake ground motions used in this study.
Number of Site-to-source
Earthquake (year of occurrence) Mw
Stations* Distance# (km)
Imperial Valley-07 (1979) 5.01 16 10 – 50
San Francisco (1957) 5.28 1 11
Lytle Creek (1970) 5.33 9 12 – 104
Point Mugu (1973) 5.65 1 18

Coyote Lake (1979) 5.74 10 3 – 21
Livermore-01 (1980) 5.8 4 17 – 36
Oroville (1975) 5.89 1 8
Norcia, Italy (1979) 5.9 3 4 – 32
Friuli, Italy-02 (1976) 5.91 4 11 – 42
Santa Barbara (1978) 5.92 1 27
Parkfield (1966) 6.19 4 9 – 18
Managua, Nicaragua-01 (1972) 6.24 1 4
Friuli, Italy-01 (1976) 6.5 4 33 – 103
San Fernando (1971) 6.61 35 1 – 194
Borrego Mtn (1968) 6.63 1 129
Cape Mendocino, CA (1992) 7.1 2 16 – 42
Hector Mine, CA (1999) 7.13 2 56 – 66
Duzce, Turkey (1999) 7.14 6 6 – 169
Calidran, Turkey (1976) 7.21 1 51
Landers, California (1992) 7.28 9 21 – 90
SMART1(45) (1986) 7.3 2 39
Tabas, Iran (1978) 7.35 2 2 – 14
Kern Country, California (1952) 7.36 1 115
Manjil, Iran (1990) 7.37 6 50 – 175
Kocaeli, Turkey (1999) 7.51 7 4 – 146
St. Elias, Alaska (1979) 7.54 2 5 – 72
Chi-Chi, Taiwan (1999) 7.62 12 12 – 102
Denali, Alaska (2002) 7.9 4 43 – 140
Chile Iquique Offshore (2014) 8.2 1 170
Chile Earthquake (2010) 8.8 6 69 – 171
Tohoku Earthquake (2011) 9 47 75 – 196
* - Two horizontal components of the ground motions per station;
# - Site-to-Source distance range
Page 31 of 49
Table 3. Neq computed from the trend lines at selected Mw = 7.5 for different soil types (exponent-b
values).
Mw Range
Soil Type
7 < Mw < 8 7 < Mw ≤ 9 5 < Mw ≤ 9
Clean sand (b = 0.337) * 15.0 15.0 18.0
Clays (b = 0.135) * 29.4 29.0 32.0
Fraser River Delta silt (b = 0.154) # 22.6 22.6 25.2

* - exponent-b values as suggested by Boulanger and Idriss (2004);
# - exponent-b values from this study
Percent Finer (%)
20
40
60
80
0
100
0.001
Clay
0.01
Silt
0.1
Sand
1
Particle Size (mm)
10
River
Delta Silt
Sediments
Serpentine
Fraser River
Kitimat Clay
100
Fig. 1. Particle size distribution of fine-grained soils considered in this study.
1
Page 32 of 49
Page 33 of 49
0.4
Cyclic Stress Ratio [τcyc /σ'v0], CSR

85 kPa
100kPa
0.3 200 kPa
300 kPa
400 kPa
0.2
0.1
exponent-b = 0.154
0
0.1 1 10 100 1000
Number of Loading Cycles for γ = 3.75%, NL
specimens prepared from normally consolidated Fraser River Delta silt at various initial
confining stress levels – extracted from Sanin (2010).
2
0.4

80 kPa
Series4
0.3
0.2
0.1
exponent-b = 0.129
0.0
0.1 1 10 100 1000
specimens prepared from normally consolidated Kitimat clay at σ'v0 = 80 kPa – extracted from
Sanin (2010).
3
0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.1
1
10
Soysa (2015).
100
Curve
200 kPa
150 kPa
100 kPa
exponent-b = 0.118
1000
Fig. 4. Cyclic stress ratio versus NL from constant-volume cyclic DSS tests on
undisturbed specimens prepared from normally consolidated natural silt – extracted from
4
Fig. 5. Flowchart of the algorithm used to determine Neq in this study.
5
Page 36 of 49
Normalized Ground
Acceleration, (A /│Amax│)
-0.6
-0.2
-1
0.2
0.6
1
0
50
100
150
Time (seconds)
(www.peer.berkeley.edu).
200
250
300
Alaska (Mw = 7.9) K204 Station (360°) – downloaded from PEER database
Fig. 6. An example of a normalized acceleration time history – 2002 Denali Earthquake,
6
Normalized Ground
Acceleration (A /│Amax│)
-0.6
-0.2
-1
0.2
0.6
1
0
50
100
150
shown in Fig. 6.
Time (seconds)
200
250
Positive Peaks
Negative Peaks
300
peaks after neglecting the amplitudes less than 10% of │Amax│ for the time history
Fig. 7. An example of a normalized acceleration time history with positive and negative
7
Page 38 of 49
Page 39 of 49
100
Nsand
10
1
7 7.2 7.4 7.6 7.8 8
Earthquake Magnitude, Mw
100
Nclay
10
1
7 7.2 7.4 7.6 7.8 8
Fig. 8. Relationship between Mw and Neq from this study (left) compared with the results obtained
by Boulanger and Idriss (2004) (right). (Note: Nsand = Neq computed for sand with exponent-b =
0.337 and Nclay = Neq computed for clay with exponent-b = 0.135).
8
50
45
Expon. w≤ 9
5 < M(Magnitude 5-9)
Equivalent Number of Uniform

7 < M(Magnitude
Expon. w< 8 7-8)
40 Expon. w≤ 9
7 < M(Magnitude 7-9)
35
Cycles, Neq
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
5 5.5 6 6.5 7 7.5 8 8.5 9
relationships derived for clean sand (exponent-b value = 0.337) considering different
magnitude ranges.
9
Page 41 of 49
50
45
Expon. w
≤9
5 < M(Magnitude 5 to 9)
Equivalent Number of Uniorm

7 < M(Magnitude
Expon. w
< 8 7-8)
40
Expon. w
≤ 9
35
Cycles, Neq
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
5 5.5 6 6.5 7 7.5 8 8.5 9
Fig. 10. The equivalent number of uniform cycles (Neq) versus earthquake magnitude
(Mw) relationships derived for clay (exponent-b value = 0.135) considering different
magnitude ranges.
10
50
Expon. ≤9

45 w
7 < M(Magnitude
Expon. w
<8 7-8)
40
Expon. w
≤9
35
Cycles, Neq
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
5 5.5 6 6.5 7 7.5 8 8.5 9
(Mw) relationships derived for Fraser River Delta silt (exponent-b value = 0.154)
considering different magnitude ranges.
11
Page 43 of 49
100
Expon. (Natural
Serpentine Siltsediments
River (b = 0.118) UBC experimental
(exponent-b database)
= 0.118) UBC data
90

Expon. (Kitimat
Kitimat Clay (b = 0.129)
clay (exponent-b UBC
= 0.129) UBCexperimental
data database)
80 Expon. (Clay (b = 0.135)
Clay (exponent-b Boulanger
= 0.135) andand
Boulanger Idriss 2015)
Idriss (2004)
Fraser(Fraser
Expon. River Delta
Riversilt (exponent-b
Delta = 0.154)
Silt (b =0.154) UBC UBC data
experimental database)
70
Clean (Sand
Expon. sand (exponent-b = 0.337) Boulanger
(b = 0.337) Boulanger and Idrissand Idriss (2004)
2015)
Cycles, Neq
60
50
40
30
20
10
CSRref = 0.65(CSRmax)
0
5 5.5 6 6.5 7 7.5 8 8.5 9
(Mw) relationships derived for different soil types (shown by different exponent-b
values) considering 5 < Mw ≤ 9 range.
12

Cycles, Neq
10
1
1000
100
0
0.1
0.2
Exponent-b
This Study
0.3
magnitude, Mw = 7.5 considering 5 < Mw ≤ 9.

Kishida and Tsai (2014)
Boulanger and Idriss (2015)
0.4
Fig. 13. The effect of exponent-b on the equivalent number of uniform cycles for earthquake
13
Page 44 of 49

Cycles, Neq
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
0
0
0.1
0.2
Exponent-b
considering 5 < Mw ≤ 9.
0.3
Magnitude 9.0
Magnitude 8.0
Magnitude 7.5
Magnitude 7.0
Magnitude 6.0
Magnitude 5.0
0.4
Fig. 14. The Neq and exponent-b relationship developed for various earthquake magnitude
14
0.2 0.2 0.2

(a) (b) (c)
Exponent-b 0.16 0.16 0.16
0.12 0.12 0.12
0.08 0.08 0.08

0.04 This study 0.04 This Study

This Study 0.04
Dahl (2011) Series2
Dahl (2011) Series1
This Study
0 0 0
0 10 20 30 0 50 100 0 20 40 60
Plasticity Index, PI Fines Content (%) Liquid Limit, LL (%)
0.2 0.2 0.2
(d) (e) (f)
0.16 0.16 0.16
Exponent-b
0.12 0.12 0.12
0.08 0.08 0.08
0.04 0.04 0.04

Series1
This Study Series1
This Study Series1
This Study
0 0 0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0 0.5 1 1.5 0 10 20 30 40
Activity Wc/LL Plastic Limit, PL (%)
0.2
(g)
0.16
Exponent-b
0.12
0.08
0.04
Series1
This Study
0
0 20 40 60
Clay Fraction (%)
Fig. 15. Variation of exponent-b parameter with index properties of the fine-grained soils from this study.
15
Page 47 of 49
80
Kishida
Kishida and
andTsai (2014)
Tsai (2014)
70 Idriss
Idriss(1999)
(1999)
Equivalent Number of Uniform Cycles, Neq

Liu
Liuet et
al.al.
(2001)
(2001)
Expon. (This (410
This Study Studytime
(410histories)
Ground Motions))
60 Expon. (Boulanger
Boulanger and (2004)
and Idriss Idriss (2004))
50
40
30
20
10
0
4 4.5 5 5.5 6 6.5 7 7.5 8 8.5 9
Fig. 16. Neq versus Mw relationships for clean sand (exponent-b = 0.337) from different approaches.
16
1.6
Clean sand (exponent-b = 0.337)
1.5 Fraser River Delta Silt (exponent-b = 0.154)
Clay (exponent-b = 0.135)
1.4 Serpentine River sediments (exponent-b = 0.118)
Magnitude Scaling Factor, MSF

1.3
1.2
1.1
0.9
0.8
0.7
0.6
5 5.5 6 6.5 7 7.5 8 8.5 9
Fig. 17. Variation of magnitude scaling factors against earthquake magnitude for clean sand,
clay, and other low-plastic fine-grained soils considering 5 < Mw ≤ 9.
17
Page 49 of 49
2.5
This study (exponent-b = 0.337); 5 < Mw ≤ 9
Idriss (1999); 5 < Mw < 8.5
Liu et al. (2001); 4.7 < Mw < 7.6
2 Boulanger and Idriss (2004); 7 < Mw < 8
Cetin et al. (2004); 5 < Mw < 8
Magnitude Scaling Factor, MSF
Kishida and Tsai (2014); 4 < Mw < 8

1.5 Boulanger and Idriss (2015); 7 < Mw < 8
0.5
0
5 5.5 6 6.5 7 7.5 8 8.5 9
Fig. 18. The variation of magnitude scaling factors against earthquake magnitude for sand.
18

Equivalent Number of Uniform Cycles Versus Earthquake Magnitude Relationships For Fine-Grained Soils

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Page 1 of 49

Equivalent number of uniform cycles versus earthquake magnitude

First Author – Priyesh Verma

Second Author – Ainur Seidalinova

Corresponding and Third Author – Dharma Wijewickreme, Ph.D., P.Eng.

Manuscript Submitted for

November 26, 2018

Keywords: equivalent number of uniform cycles, low-plastic silts, liquefaction, fine-grained

life earthquake is converted to the occurrence of some equivalent number of constant-amplitude

earthquakes with Mw < 8.0.

Representation of irregular earthquake as uniform cyclic loading

a power law as:

CSR = a × (NL) ―b [1]

these two stress ratios can be expressed as,

based definition of unacceptable performance (typically the achievement of a shear strain

they are not presented herein for brevity.

Cyclic resistance ratio (CRR) characterized from experimental data on fine-

The comprehensive experimental database developed from advanced laboratory testing of

the UBC database are shown in Fig. 1 and Table 1, respectively.

Sanin (2010) conducted a series of constant-volume cyclic DSS tests on normally

comprise of thick sequences of moderately to highly compressible fine-grained sediments with

calibrate/validate the relationships developed by Boulanger and Idriss (2015).

Earthquake time histories for developing equivalent number of uniform cycles

earthquake ground motion is described using three orthogonal components of translational

Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research (PEER) center (www.peer.berkeley.edu). The

Engineering Strong Motion Data (CESMD) website (www.strongmotioncenter.org). The records

already filtered, and baseline corrected by the owner.

reasonable to determine Neq for liquefaction analysis.

Algorithm for computing equivalent number of uniform cycles from

earthquake time histories

determine Neq in this study.

on this approach is presented in Fig. 6 to serve as an example.

acceleration values below 30% of the maximum in their analysis.

computations in this paper.

in Fig. 7) considered as a half cycle as shown in the equation below,

code is performing to meet the intended purpose.

Results and discussion

the Neq versus Mw relationships.

Effect of the selected Mw range on the Neq versus Mw relationships

when they are chosen for engineering analysis and design.

respect to Mw when the earthquake magnitude range between 5 < Mw ≤ 9 is considered in

which Neq increase with Mw.

Effect of soil type (exponent-b) on equivalent number of uniform cycles

relatively constant value asymptotically with increasing exponent-b value.

by Boulanger and Idriss (2014) for “clay-like” fine-grained soils.

grained soils is required to arrive at robust conclusions.

Neq versus Mw relationships for clean sand from different approaches

Implications for magnitude scaling factor

considered sand-like nor clay-like.

extrapolated MSF relationship by Boulanger and Idriss (2004, 2015).

considered sand-like nor clay-like.

represent magnitude scaling effects in liquefaction assessments. In particular, the outcomes

dependency of this parameter on soil type.

analyses that provides a significant scatter.

W. Boulanger, Professor, Department of Civil and Environment Engineering, University of

Canada (NSERC) is also gratefully acknowledged.

States,: 129 pp.

clay. Journal of Geotechnical Engineering, 122(1): 21–26. doi:10.1061/(ASCE)0733-

Neq = equivalent number of uniform cycles

γ = single amplitude horizontal shear strain

CESMD = Center for Engineering Strong Motion Data

CSRref = reference stress level