Swedish Weight Sounding: A prospective portable soil investigation tools for liquefaction assessment of residential houses in Indonesia

¹ Civil Engineering Department, University of Riau, Pekanbaru, 28294, Indonesia
² Civil and Structural Engineering, University of Sheffield, Sheffield S13JD, United Kingdom

^* Corresponding author: m.yusa@eng.unri.ac.id

Abstract

National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB) statistics show that the majority of earthquake affected buildings are residential houses, whereas in practice, soil investigation is rarely conducted for residential houses in Indonesia. This study is preliminary work on the prospective of Swedish Weight Sounding (SWST) for liquefaction assessment for residential houses. Material used is poorly graded sand. The number of half turns from SWST (NSW) per meter for very loose and loose clean fine sand ranges from 4 to 168 (equivalent to SPT 0-30). Liquefaction potential was assessed using an indirect method by converting NSW into equivalent NSPT and direct method. In general, the factor of safety obtained from the direct method is more conservative (thus giving lower liquefaction potential index) than the indirect method. Torque measured for material in this study ranged from 6-54 Nm, equivalent to a specific energy range from 7-70 N/mm2. Liquefaction assessment using SWST data with torque measurement also indicated the soil is liquefiable. SWST also may be able to detect sand ageing. In summary SWS has a good prospect as a highly portable and low cost investigation tool for liquefaction assessment of residential houses in Indonesia.