The Effect of Soil Densification on the Attenuation of the Phenomenon of Soil Liquefaction in a Port Project in Morocco

Morocco, which is in a seismically active zone, is currently experiencing a significant development in terms of the realization of development and infrastructure projects. Therefore, reflection on soil liquefaction problems during project design is essential. The densification of soils by vibro compaction is a recent process of soil treatment, its effect is to improve the geo mechanical characteristics of the soil in this case the relative density and subsequently the reduction of the potential for liquefaction, it is a technique soil improvement in the mass, it is closely linked to the grain size of the soil to be treated, its percentage of fines less than 10% (going to 0.08 mm <10%), this technique gives the treated soil sufficient cohesion to avoid large increases in pore pressures during the earthquake. This article aims, through the study of a real case, to evaluate the effectiveness of vibro compaction to improve the relative density of the soil and consequently the reduction of the risk of liquefaction of the treated soil. The work focuses on the analysis of the SPT tests carried out before treatment and on the CPT tests of control of the vibro-compactge works carried out after execution. This study showed that this process generates an effect of improvement of the relative density and reduction of the compaction by inducing a reduction of the risk of liquefaction