Comparison Between Liquefaction Potential EstimatedBased on the SPT and CPT Data in Southern Parts of Iran

The geotechnical characteristics of the soil layers is one of the main factors influencing liquefaction potential of the ground. The standard penetration test (SPT) had been extensively used to measure the in-situ soil properties due to its simplicity and availability all over the world in the majority of the liquefaction studies. Nevertheless, it suffers from some shortcomings in comparison with another in -situ test called cone penetration test (CPT). In order to compare the liquefaction potentials based on the SPT data with those based on the CPT data, some sites in the southern parts of Iran have been selected and studied. The geotechnical characteristics of these sites have been measured both from SPT and CPT methods, and for the same seismicity condition, the liquefaction potential were estimated using the SPT and CPT based evaluation methods. At the end some correlations were derived between the obtained results and their validities were discussed and justified. Although the correlation factor was found to be very small and the results were highly scattered, it could be concluded that the liquefaction evaluation methods based on the SPT data show more conservative results compared with those based on the CPT data.