Soil liquefaction prevention by electro-osmosis during an earthquake event
AssigneeGolder Sierra LLC
InventorGrant Hocking
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method and system of preventing soil liquefaction beneath a structure during an earthquake event, by monitoring local seismic precursor events, such as early arrival ground motion using an accelerometer, predicting the onset of a major earthquake tremor, and energizing conductors in the ground by a d-c power source for moving the ground water by electro-osmosis away from the foundation of the structure or to a series of pressure relief wells, whereby lowering the soil pore water pressure and preventing liquefaction of the soil beneath the structure.
Claims14
A method of preventing liquefaction of soil beneath a structure during an earthquake event comprising:
- monitoring the movements of the earth adjacent the structure;
- from the movements of the earth, predicting the onset of an earthquake event;
- and
- in response to the prediction of an earthquake event, connecting a source of d-c power to an array of electrical conductors located in the soil beneath the structure and below the ground water table so that in response to connecting the d-c power to the electrical conductors in the soil, the ground water moves away from the structure thereby lowering the soil pore water pressure and preventing liquefaction of the soil beneath the structure.
A system for preventing liquefaction of soil beneath a structure during an earthquake event comprising:
- a d-c power source;
- an array of electrical conductors located in the soil beneath the structure and below the ground water table;
- a switch interconnecting the d-c power source and the array of electrical conductors;
- and
- a seismic monitor for monitoring the movement of the earth adjacent the structure, and from the movement, predicting the onset of an earthquake event,
- wherein the seismic monitor activates the switch in response to predicting the onset of an earthquake event so that the d-c power source is connected to the conductors thereby causing the ground water beneath the structure to move away from the structure, lowering the soil pore water pressure, and preventing liquefaction of the soil beneath the structure.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.