Determination of Liquefaction Potential of Tabriz City, Northwest of Iran

Abstract

The city of Tabriz, located in Northwestern Iran, is one of the seismo-tectonically active regions of Iran. Historical earthquake sequences of this area show that the recurrence interval of earthquakes with M>6 can be estimated equal to 250 years (while some larger earthquakes with M>7 have been reported in the literature). Based on this knowledge, the occurrence of a large earthquake in the city of Tabriz is expected for upcoming decades. Therefore, evaluating the potential of liquefaction (as one of the significant hazards induced by earthquakes) and providing an appropriate hazard zonation map for this city is necessary for pre-crisis management. To this aim, different methods are applied to assess the potential of liquefaction in the study area and a comparison between their results is presented in this paper. Methods based on the standard penetration test and fully coupled finite element site response modeling are employed to investigate the potential of liquefaction. In this study, it has been shown that some populated areas of the studied city have been built in liquefiable regions and therefore necessary measures should be taken by city authorities for these regions.

Keywords

• Finite element
• Liquefaction
• Site response
• Tabriz

Tebriz Şehrinin Sıvılaşma Potansiyelinin Belirlenmesi, İran'ın Kuzeybatısı

Öz

İranın Kuzeybatısında bulunan Tebriz şehri, sismotektonik olarak İranın aktif bölgelerinden biridir. Bu bölgedeki tarihsel depremlere bakıldığında büyüklüğü 6 ‘ın üzerinde olan depremlerin tekrarlanma sıklığının 250 yıla eşit olarak tahmin edilebileceğini görülmektedir (literatürde büyüklüğü 7’ den fazla olan bazı büyük depremler bildirilmiştir). Bu bilgilere ışığında, önümüzdeki yıllarda Tebriz şehrinde büyük bir depremin meydana gelmesi beklenmektedir. Bu nedenle, sıvılaşma potansiyelini (depremlerin neden olduğu önemli tehlikelerden biri olarak) değerlendirmek ve şehir için uygun bir tehlike haritası oluşturmak önem arz etmektedir. Bu amaçla bu makalede, çalışma alanındaki sıvılaşma potansiyelini değerlendirmek için literatürde yer alan farklı yöntemler uygulanmış ve elde edilen sonuçlar karşılaştırılmıştır. Sıvılaşma potansiyelini araştırmak için standart penetrasyon deneyi ve saha tepki analizlerine dayanan sonlu elemanlar yöntemi kullanılmıştır. Bu çalışmada, Tebriz’de nüfusun kalabalık olduğu bazı bölgelerin sıvılaşabilir olduğu gösterilmiştir. Bu veriler ışığında vakit kaybetmeden gerekli tedbirlerin alınması gerektiği sonucuna ulaşılmıştır.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• Sonlu elemanlar
• Sıvılaşma
• Saha tepkisi
• Tabriz

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